Earl of Dunmore

Earl of Dunmore is a title in the Peerage of Scotland.

History

It was created in 1686 for Lord Charles Murray, second son of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl. He was made Lord Murray of Blair, Moulin and Tillimet (or Tullimet) and Viscount of Fincastle at the same time, also in the Peerage of Scotland. He was succeeded by his son, the second Earl. He was a General in the Army and sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer from 1713 to 1715 and from 1727 to 1752. His younger brother, William Murray, later to become the third Earl, was involved in the Jacobite rising of 1745 and was tried for high treason in 1746. Murray pleaded guilty but received a pardon from King George II and succeeded to the peerages when his brother died unmarried six years later.

The third Earl was succeeded by his son, the fourth Earl. He was also a Scottish Representative Peer in the House of Lords from 1761 to 1774 and from 1776 to 1790 and served as Governor of New York, of Virginia and of the Bahamas. His eldest son, the fifth Earl, briefly represented Liskeard in the House of Commons. In 1831 he was created Baron Dunmore, of Dunmore in the Forest of Athole in the County of Perth, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which gave him and his descendants a permanent seat in the House of Lords.