Editors--Complete edition of "Byron's Works"--Letters from Countess
Guiccioli and Sir R. Peel--Thorwaldsen's statue of Lord Byron--Refused
at Westminster Abbey, but erected in Trinity College Library, Cambridge




MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY




CHAPTER I

JOHN MACMURRAY OR MURRAY


The publishing house of Murray dates from the year 1768, in which year
John MacMurray, a lieutenant of Marines, having retired from the service
on half-pay, purchased the bookselling business of William Sandby, at
the sign of the "Ship," No. 32, Fleet Street, opposite St. Dunstan's
Church.

John MacMurray was descended from the Murrays of Athol. His uncle,
Colonel Murray, was "out" in the rising of 1715, under the Earl of Mar,
served under the Marquis of Tullibardine, the son of his chief, the Duke
of Athol, and led a regiment in the abortive fight of Sheriffmuir. After
the rebellion Colonel Murray retired to France, where he served under
the exiled Duke of Ormonde, who had attached himself to the Stuart
Court.