as the next
heir to all the vast possessions and ancestral dignities of his House.
His faithful adherence to the Chevalier St. George, and the part which
he adopted in the Rebellion of 1715, produced a revolution in the
affairs of his family, which, one may suppose, could not be effected
without some delicacy, and considerable distress.

In 1716 the Marquis of Tullibardine was attainted by an act passed in
the first year of George the First; and by a bill, which was passed in
the House of Commons relating to the forfeited estates, all these
estates were vested in his Majesty from and after the twenty-fourth of
January 1715.[6] Upon this bill being passed, the Duke of Atholl, who
had been residing for many years with the splendour and state of a
prince at his Castle at Blair Atholl, journeyed to London, and, being
graciously received by George the First, he laid his case before that
monarch, representing the unhappy circumstances of his son, and pointing
out what effect and influence this might have, in the event of his own
death, on the succession of his family, if his estate and honour were
not vested in law upon his second son, Lord James Murray, who had
performed very signal service to his Majesty in the late rebellion. This
petition was received, and a bill was brought into parliament for
vesting the honours of John Duke of Atholl in James Murray, Esq.,
commonly called Lord James Murray; and, as a reward of his steady
loyalty, a law was passed, enacting that the act of attainder against
William Marquis of Tullibardine should not be construed to extend to
Lord James Murray or his issue. In consequence of this bill, on the
death of the Duke of Atholl, in 1724, Lord James Murray succeeded to all
those honours and estates, which had thus been preserved through the
prudence of his father, and the clemency or policy of the King.

In this divided House was Lord George Murray reared. It soon appeared
that he possessed the decision and lofty courage of his ancestry; and
that his early predilections, in which probably his father secretly
coincided, were all in favour of the Stuarts, and that no considerations
of self-interest could draw him from that adherence.

The events of 1715 occurring when Lord George Murray was only ten years
of age, his first active exertions in the cause of the Stuarts did not
take place until a later period. In the interim, the youth, who
afterwards distinguished himself so greatly, served his fi