David Murray, 2nd Earl of Mansfield
Encyclopedia
David Murray, 2nd Earl of Mansfield KT
Order of the Thistle
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order...

, PC (9 October 1727 – 1 September 1796), known from 1748 to 1793 as The Viscount Stormont, was a British politician. He succeeded to both the Mansfield and Stormont
Viscount of Stormont
Viscount Stormont is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1621 by James VI for his friend and helper Sir David Murray who had saved him from the attack of Earl Gowrie in 1600. Murray had already been created Lord Scone, also in the Peerage of Scotland in 1605...

 lines of the Murray family, inheriting two titles and two fortunes.

Life

Mansfield was the son of David Murray, 6th Viscount of Stormont
David Murray, 6th Viscount of Stormont
David Murray, 6th Viscount of Stormont was a Scottish peer, succeeding to the Viscountcy of Stormont on his father David's death in 1731 and holding it until his own death. His mother was Marjory Scott, and among his brothers were the Earl of Mansfield and the Jacobite James Murray...

, and his wife Anne Stewart. Lord Chief Justice William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, SL, PC was a British barrister, politician and judge noted for his reform of English law. Born to Scottish nobility, he was educated in Perth, Scotland before moving to London at the age of 13 to take up a place at Westminster School...

 was his uncle. He was ambassador to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and then to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in the early years of the American War of Independence, and played a role in sending news of American actions back to England. Mansfield had been elected a Scottish Representative Peer
Representative peer
In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords...

 in 1754 and served as the last Secretary of State for the Northern Department
Secretary of State for the Northern Department
The Secretary of State for the Northern Department was a position in the Cabinet of the government of Great Britain up to 1782. Before the Act of Union, 1707, the Secretary of State's responsibilities were in relation to the English government, not the British. Even after the Union, there was...

 from 1779 to 1782 and as Lord President of the Council
Lord President of the Council
The Lord President of the Council is the fourth of the Great Officers of State of the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord High Treasurer and above the Lord Privy Seal. The Lord President usually attends each meeting of the Privy Council, presenting business for the monarch's approval...

 in 1783 and again from 1794 to 1796 and was also Lord Justice General between 1778 and 1795. He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1763 and made a Knight of the Thistle
Order of the Thistle
The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle is an order of chivalry associated with Scotland. The current version of the Order was founded in 1687 by King James VII of Scotland who asserted that he was reviving an earlier Order...

 in 1768.

Lord Mansfield married firstly Henrietta Frederica, daughter of Henry Graf Bunau, in 1759, whilst he was British ambassador to Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

. They had one child, Lady Elizabeth Murray. After Henrietta's death in 1766 he married secondly the Hon. Louisa, daughter of Charles Schaw Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart, in 1776. Louisa was his junior by over thirty years, and they had 5 children - Caroline, David, George, Charles, and Henry.

In 1793 he succeeded his uncle Lord Mansfield as second Earl of Mansfield of the 1792 creation while his wife succeeded as second Countess of Mansfield of the 1776 creation according to special remainders in the letters patent
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

. Lord Mansfield died in September 1796, aged 68, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest son David
David Murray, 3rd Earl of Mansfield
David William Murray, 3rd Earl of Mansfield, KT . Married Frederica Markham on 16 September 1797, was buried in St Andrew's Churchyard, Kingsbury, London....

. His second son the Hon. George Murray became a Lieutenant-General in the Army while his fourth son the Hon. Sir Henry Murray rose to the rank of General. The Countess of Mansfield survived her husband by 47 years, marrying the Hon. Robert Fulke Greville
Robert Fulke Greville
Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Fulke Greville FRS MP was a British Member of Parliament and courtier.The son of Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick and Elizabeth Hamilton, and brother to Charles Francis Greville, he was educated at Edinburgh University...

 in 1797, and died in July 1843, aged 85.

External links

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