Murray had had his first commission purchased in his mid-teens, as lieutenant in the 19th Regiment of Foot in 1770.[3] Already a year later, he became captain in the 57th Regiment of Foot.[4] He left for Europe in 1772 and having spent the time travelling, he returned to his regiment in Ireland in November 1775.[3] At the beginning of the next year, Murray embarked for The Colonies to serve in the American War of Independence.[4] He was wounded at the ankle during the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, and shared his convalescence with his cousin Patrick Ferguson.[5] Soon after recovering, he was shot through the thigh at the Battle of White Marsh in November.[5]
On 24 July 1794, he married Henriette Laura Pulteney, 1st Baroness Bath, daughter of his cousin Sir William Pulteney, 5th BaronetinBath House, London.[15] Two days before he had by Royal Licence assumed the surname Pulteney as a condition of his wife becoming the heir to her father's fortune.[16] Henrietta was raised to a countess in her own right in 1803[17] and inherited the estates of her father in 1805, worth about £50,000 per year.[18] She predeceased her husband in 1808 and Murray survived her for three years, dying in BuckenhaminNorfolk, from complications after losing an eye when a powder flask accidentally exploded in his face.[19] He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his halfbrother John.[2]
^ abcBurke, John (2001). Peter de Vere Beauclerk-Dewar (ed.). Burke's Landed Gentry of Great Britain. Burke's Peerage and Gentry. p. 1087. ISBN0-9711966-0-5.
^ abcdefgThorne, R. G. (1986). The House of Commons, 1790-1820. Vol. III. London: Secker & Warburg. pp. 645–646. ISBN0-436-52101-6.
^ abMcGuire, Thomas J. (2007). The Philadelphia Campaign: Germantown and the Roads to Valley Forge. Vol. II. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. p. 242. ISBN978-0-8117-0178-5.
^Grant, James (October 2009). Members of Parliament, Scotland, including the Minor Barons, the Commissioners for the Shire. BiblioBazaar Llc. p. 290. ISBN978-1-113-82016-7.
^Sylvanus, Urban (1811). The Gentleman's Magazine. Vol. part I. London: John Nichols and Son. p. 499.
James Murray (ed. E. Robson), Letters from America 1773 to 1780: Being the letters of a Scots officer, Sir James Murray, to his home during the War of American Independence, Manchester, 1951
United Kingdom
Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Murray, James (1751-1811)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 376–377.
