ATHOLL, JOHN MURRAY, 2ND MARQUESS AND 1ST DUKE OF, ...

born Feb. 24, 1660, Knowsley, Lancashire, Eng. died Nov. 14, 1724, Huntingtower, Perth, Scot. a leading Scottish supporter of William and Mary and of the Hanoverian succession. Son of the 1st Marquess of Atholl, he favoured the accession of William and Mary in 1689 but was unable, during his father's absence, to prevent the majority of his clan under the command of his brother, Lord James Murray, from joining Dundee's Rising. After he was made Duke of Atholl in 1703, an attempt was made in 170304 by Simon, Lord Lovat, to implicate him in a plot against Queen Anne; but the intrigue was exposed, and Atholl sent an explanation to the queen. Between 1705 and 1707 he vehemently opposed the union of England and Scotland, but on the score of illness, real or feigned, he took no part in the Jacobite invasion of 1708 and was kept under close watch in his castle at Blair (Perthshire). When the Tories came to power in 1710, Atholl returned to office and was high commissioner for Scotland from 1712 to 1714. He was dismissed on the accession of George I (1714), but during the rebellion of 1715, while three of his sons joined the Jacobites, he supported and assisted the government. He captured, on June 4, 1717, Rob Roy (Robert MacGregor), who succeeded, however, in escaping.