MURRAY, JAMES

born Jan. 21, 1721, Ballencrieff, East Lothian [now in Lothian region], Scot. died June 18, 1794, near Battle, Sussex, Eng. British soldier who was military and civilian governor of Quebec in 176068. Murray joined the army in 1740 and served in the West Indies and Europe. Sent to North America in 1757 as a lieutenant colonel during the Seven Years' War, in 1758 he commanded a brigade during the successful British siege of Louisbourg, in what is now Nova Scotia, under Lord Amherst. He was one of General James Wolfe's three brigadiers in the British expedition against Quebec in 1759. After the British captured the city, Murray was made its military governor. When the French capitulated in 1760, he became military governor of Quebec district; he became the first civil governor of Quebec after its formal cession to Great Britain in 1763. As governor, Murray opposed repressive measures against French-Canadians, and his conciliatory policy led to charges against him of partiality. Although exonerated, he left his post in 1768 and was appointed governor of Minorca in 1774. He surrendered to French and Spanish troops there in 1782, for which he was court-martialed in England; after being acquitted, he was made a general.