the wound left him permanently disabled, and unable to lie down for the rest of his life, sleeping in an upright posture. He spent over six years on sick leave recovering. Murray returned to the Black Watch in 1768, and was appointed lieutenant and captain in the Scots Guards in 1769. He was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel the following year. Murray was elected Member of Parliament for Perthshire in 1774, a seat he held for the next 21 years. He supported Lord North's administration. He was also Governor of Upnor Castle from 1775 to 1778. In 1776, he bought his mother's estate of Strowan from his nephew, the Duke of Atholl. After the outbreak of the American War of Independence, he offered to raise a new Highland regiment, but was refused. He joined the Brigade of Guards in North America in March 1777, where he was wounded during the Philadelphia campaign. Promoted to the rank of colonel on 16 December 1777, he was appointed the colonel of the Atholl Highlanders, newly raised by the Duke of Atholl, on 16 May 1778. He commanded them in Ireland until the regiment was disbanded in 1783. In 1780, Murray was appointed Governor of Fort William. This was the year of the Gordon riots. Murray denounced his kinsman Lord George Gordon, and, when the rioters Gordon had stirred up prepared to storm the House of Commons, he threatened to put a sword through Gordon, who was sitting next to him, if they broke in. During his later years in Parliament he supported William Pitt the Younger. He became a major general in 1782, and on the disbanding of the Atholl Highlanders, was appointed lieutenant-colonel commandant of the 78th Highlanders. He was appointed their colonel when they were renumbered the 72nd in 1786, and was made a lieutenant general in 1793. Personal life Murray died unmarried on his 60th birthday in 1794. References 1734 births 1794 deaths James 42nd Regiment of Foot officers British Army generals British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War British Army personnel of the Seven Years' War British Army personnel of the French and Indian War British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 British MPs 1784–1790 British MPs 1790–1796 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Scottish constituencies Scots Guards officers 72nd Highlanders officers