family. He probably did this because, having no private income, he wished to secure patronage to help him advance politically. Another entrant was William Pitt, who was a constant rival to Murray until Pitt's death in 1778. There is very little information about Murray's time at Oxford; it is known that he studied ancient and modern history, became fluent in French and gained a good understanding of Roman Law. He also became fluent in Latin, translating Cicero's works into English and then back into Latin. He gained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1727, and travelled to London to train as a barrister. Family life Murray married Elizabeth Finch. They had no children and took care of their niece, Lady Elizabeth Murray (born 1760), after her mother died. When Mansfield's nephew Captain Sir John Lindsay returned to Britain in 1765 following the Seven Years' War and his assignment in the West Indies, he brought his natural daughter whom he called Elizabeth. Of half African descent, she had been born into slavery in 1761, the daughter of Maria Bell, an enslaved woman. Lindsay asked Murray to take on her care and education, and Elizabeth was baptized Dido Elizabeth Belle in 1766 in London. At the English bar Murray's first contact when he moved to London was William Hamilton, a Scottish-born barrister who was said to be the first Scot to practise at the English Bar, and one of the few people who was qualified to act as a barrister in both England and Scotland. Hamilton had been one of Murray's sponsors when he joined Lincoln's Inn in 1724, and when Murray came to London, Hamilton helped find him a set of barristers' chambers at No. 1 Old Square. At this time, there was no formal legal education, and the only requirement for a person to be called to the Bar was for him to have eaten five dinners a term at Lincoln's Inn, and to have read the first sentence of a paper prepared for him by the steward. Thus, most of Murray's practical training came from reading the papers in Hamilton's chambers and listening to Lord Raymond speak in court, along with tutoring by Thomas Denison on how to write special pleadings. Murray also studied various texts, including the French Ordinance de la Marine (a predecessor to the Napoleonic Commercial Code), the works of Bracton and Littleton and "crabbed and