{{lead too short|date=December 2024}} {{infobox person | name = | birth_date = November 6, 1789 | birth_place = Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1866|02|14|1789|11|6}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | occupation = | political_party = Democratic-Republican | parents = John Boyles Murray<br/>Martha McClenahan | spouse = {{marriage|Maria Bronson<br/>|1814||reason=}} | children = 8 | relatives = Sir James Murray (grandfather)<br/>Isaac Bronson (father-in-law) }} '''James Boyles Murray''' (November 6, 1789 – February 14, 1866) was an American businessman and leading member of New York society in the early-to-mid-19th century.<ref name="Harris2003">{{cite book|last1=Harris|first1=Luther S.|title=Around Washington Square: An Illustrated History of Greenwich Village|date=2003|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801873416|pages=12–13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K8aMN50YOvkC&pg=PA12|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}</ref>

==Early life== Murray was born to a wealthy immigrant family in Alexandria, Virginia on November 6, 1789.<ref name="Miscellanea1908">{{cite book|last1=Bannerman, F.S.A.|first1=W. Bruce|title=Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica {{!}} Vol. II {{!}} Fourth Series|date=1908|publisher=Hamilton, Adams, and Company|location=London|pages=167–170, 172, 364|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1xIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA169|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref> He was the son of Martha (née McClenahan) Murray and Dr. John Boyles Murray, who moved to Virginia in 1760.<ref name="Derby1953">{{cite book|last1=Derby|first1=George|last2=White|first2=James Terry|title=The National Cyclopædia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time|date=1953|publisher=J. T. White|page=449|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hjQOAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref>

Murray's paternal grandfather was Sir James Murray, Lord Philiphaugh.<ref name="Haeger1981">{{cite book|last1=Haeger|first1=John D.|title=The Investment Frontier: New York Businessmen and the Economic Development of the Old Northwest|date=1981|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=9780873955317|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Eiz3fb1mBS0C&pg=PA238|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}</ref> His Presbyterian lineage was descended from the royal Stewarts through the ubiquitous clan of Murray.<ref name="historyofparliamentonline">{{cite web|title=MURRAY, John (d.1753), of Philiphaugh, Selkirk.|url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/murray-john-1753|website=www.historyofparliamentonline.org|publisher=History of Parliament Online|accessdate=25 April 2018}}</ref> His mother's family, that of Martha McClenahan, had been associated with the history of the Siege of Derry. Rev. McClenahan had been one of the Apprentice Boys supporters, when they marched out to meet King James army.<ref name="murrayhistory">{{cite web|last1=Potter|first1=Hamilton|title=Col. James B. Murray|url=https://www.murrayhistory.com/col.-james-b.-murray.html|website=murrayhistory.com|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref>

In 1800, Murray went to Norfolk, England, and caught a glimpse of the hero Admiral Nelson touring through his home city of Norwich. As a small boy, he had been warned of his Scots ancestry. He toured Philiphaugh, Scotland. He never forgot the supremacy of the seas of the Royal Navy, and vowed to help the President build a strong US Navy.

==Career== Murray was an early entrant in the New York Militia, replacing his gun-shy uncle in the War of 1812. Through his revolutionary connections he rose quickly to become a Colonel.<ref name="murrayhistory"/>

He joined in partnership with the financier Isaac Bronson, one of the founders of sound credit in public finance. He borrowed heavily to finance the construction of the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal was partly funded by the Bronson family bankers.

In politics, Murray was a friend of the Democratic-Republicans of the Albany Regency. Their leading character, De Witt Clinton, had been involved in scandal. Martin Van Buren, his successor, was less scandal-prone. In 1816 Murray joined the staff of vice-president candidate Daniel Tompkins, the Governor. Murray's role was to act as bodyguard and protector of the V-P. Then one day on the Chesapeake half of President Tyler's cabinet was killed by the explosion of a gun on the USS Princeton, leading to the end of Murray's political ambitions.

After the USS ''Princeton'' explosion, Murray pivoted to focus on land speculations and construction projects. He continued to do business with the Bronson sons. Murray became involved in the Rutherford Land Grab of 1834 in the Carolinas, but was not convicted. He was also in a partnership that invested extensively in the 'Ohio Country' as far west as Chicago and Kalamazoo.

In later life, Murray made extensive business trips to France and England, being particularly pleased with Paris where his daughter married the American Impressionist painter, William Dana. Murray went on tour to Scotland and visited the high society circles of London. His public appearances attracted fees. Murray deplored the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the duration of which he spent in New York City.<ref name="murrayhistory"/>

==Personal life== In 1814, Murray married Maria Bronson (1793–1851), the eldest surviving daughter of Isaac Bronson (1760–1838), founder of New York Assurance Company and Bridgeport Bank at Park Place in New York City, and sister of Oliver Bronson.<ref name="VanRensselaer1897">{{cite book|last1=Van Rensselaer|first1=Mrs. John King|title=New Yorkers of the XIX Century|date=1897|publisher=F. Tennyson Neely|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkersofxixc00vanr|accessdate=17 October 2017}}</ref> In 1828, Bronson was the richest man in New York. Murray was at the height of New York society and purchased a house at the fashionable Manhattan address of Washington Square Park.<ref name="Folpe2002">{{cite book|last1=Folpe|first1=Emily Kies|title=It Happened on Washington Square|date=2002|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801870880|page=70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=thWVcHVixF4C&pg=PA70|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref> Together, they were the parents of eight children, including:<ref name="Miscellanea1908"/>

* Maria Murray (1815–1884), who married at Greenfield Hill, Connecticut, in 1846.<ref name="Miscellanea1908"/> * Bronson Murray (1816–1911), who married Ann Eliza Peyton (b. 1821) in 1848.<ref name="Peytons2004">{{cite book|title=The Peytons of Virginia II|date=2004|publisher=Gateway Press|page=440|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3QpXAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref> * John Boyles Murray (1818–1889), who married Sarah Elizabeth Craft (1823–1869) in 1843.<ref name="Crafts1893"/> After her death, he married Felicia May Leiss, the daughter of Dr. Frederic Leiss.<ref name="Crafts1893">{{cite book|last1=Crafts|first1=William Francis|title=The Crafts Family: A Genealogical and Biographical History of the Descendants of Griffin and Alice Craft, of Roxbury, Mass. 1630-1890|date=1893|publisher=Gazette Printing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/craftsfamilyage00crafgoog/page/n427 371]|url=https://archive.org/details/craftsfamilyage00crafgoog|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref> * Caroline Murray (1820–1889), who died unmarried.<ref name="Miscellanea1908"/> * Agnes Augusta Murray (1827–1878) * Washington Murray (1828–1867), a Yale and Harvard Law School graduate who married Eliza Bradlee Winchester Dana (b. 1835), sister of William Dana in 1856.<ref name="Miscellanea1908"/><ref name="Hotchkiss1912">{{cite book|last1=Hotchkiss|first1=Fanny Winchester|title=Winchester Notes|date=1912|publisher=The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company|location=New Haven, Connecticut|pages=[https://archive.org/details/winchesternotes00hotcgoog/page/n119 97], 101–102, 104–16, 353|url=https://archive.org/details/winchesternotes00hotcgoog|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en}}</ref> * Anna Bronson Murray (1831–1915), who married William Parsons Winchester Dana (1833–1927) in 1855.<ref name="Miscellanea1908"/>

Murray died in 1866 at 4 Washington Place, New York City.<ref name="murrayhistory"/><ref name="Greider2011">{{cite book|last1=Greider|first1=Katharine|title=The Archaeology of Home: An Epic Set on a Thousand Square Feet of the Lower East Side|date=2011|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=9781586489908|page=263|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aX4OE0TEJNoC&pg=PT263|accessdate=17 October 2017|language=en}}</ref> His family was later related to William Cutting (of Bayard Cutting Arboretum in Great River, NY). Some of Murray's correspondence is held by the New-York Historical Society.<ref name="NYHS1951">{{cite book|last1=New-York Historical Society|title=Annual Report|date=1951|page=62|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pedPAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=25 April 2018|language=en|author1-link=New-York Historical Society}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-nr97009823/ James Boyle Murray] at WorldCat * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110714133201/http://murrayfamilysite.com/ColJamesBMurray.aspx Murray, Col. James B., ''Autobiography'' published 1866]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, James Boyles}} Category:1789 births Category:1866 deaths Category:American militiamen in the War of 1812 Category:American militia officers