MURRAY, JAMES [SSNE 113]

Surname

MURRAY, MOURRAI, MORAY, MURRA, MOORE

First name

JAMES

Title/rank

COLONEL

Nationality

SCOT

Social status

OFFICER

Text source

Colonel James Murray arrived in Denmark in 1644 with a testimonial from King Charles I. The Stuart king noted that Murray had once been a traitor (i.e. a Scottish Covenanter), but had subsequently served him faithfully in his campaigns against the English Parliament. He had been captured and recently freed from the Tower of London. For some reason, Charles wished that King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway should grant Murray "above the usual protection" that Charles would normally expect Christian to grant to one of his subjects. Christian sent Murray to Norway where he took over the Bergenhus regiment from fellow Scotsman, Colonel John Taylor [SSNE 86]. The Bergenhus took part on the assault on Gothenburg after which Murray himself took over as governor of Marstrand, the garrison town facing Gothenburg at the mouth of the river Gota, in May 1645. He is noted in Norwegian sources as a drunkard and unreliable, but he was still given colonelcy over field artillery and at Akershus. He had even been accused of making contact with the enemy, but he cleared himself of those charges. On 3 September that year he became Colonel of the Bergenhus regiment of conscripted soldiers and travelled to Christiania to get further orders, although he was paid off by the end of the month. The command of the regiment thereafter devolved to Colonel Lawrence Blair who took over in December until July 1646, and then Sir Thomas Gray. Murray appears to have remained in the service of Christian IV until 1646

Danish Rigsarkiv, TKUA England. Charles I to Christian IV, 1644; G. Lind, Danish Data Archive 1573; O. Ovenstad, Militaerbiografier Den Norske Haers Officerer (Oslo 1949), vol. II, p.192; J.O. Wahl, Det Gamle Bergenhusiske Regiments Historie, (Christiania, 1901), p.16-17.

Service record

DENMARK-NORWAY, MARSTRAND

Arrived 1645-05-26, as COMMANDANT

Capacity COMMANDANT, purpose MILITARY

DENMARK-NORWAY, BERGENHUS INF REGT, NORWAY

Arrived 1645-09-03, as COLONEL AND CHIEF

Departed 1645-09-14, as COLONEL AND CHIEF

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY