Charles
Murray Actor/Manager (1754-1821)
Charles Murray by John Chapman, published by Henry Delahoy Symonds.
Stipple engraving, published November 1797. 127 mm x 80 mm paper size. Image in the Harvard Theatre
Collection and National Portrait Gallery, London. [
This image is in the public domain because the copyright has expired.]
In
October 1796, Farley's Bristol Journal described Charles Murray as: 'just
and exemplary in all his dealings: his demeanour in private life is truly
commendable, and his conduct behind the scenes secure him the affection
of every individual - Of all the men who have so long been held in public
admiration, Charles Murray is the most humble, being destitute of every
particle of pride, vanity, and affectation.'
Obituary
Charles Murray, ESQ.
November 8. At Edinburgh, Mr. Murray, for many years an actor on the
Covent Garden boards. He was the son of Sir John Murray, bart, of Brougbton,
secretary to the Pretender, in the rebellion of 1745, who, after the
final ruin of the cause, retired to Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire, where,
in the year 1754, the late Mr. Murray was born.
Under the immediate
guardianship of his father, he received a classical education, and
was at a proper season sent into France, to perfect himself in the
language of that country. Being designed for the medical profession,
be was, on his return from the Continent, placed with a practitioner
of eminence, and entered into the sea service, as a surgeon, in which
capacity be made several voyages.
Being tired of his calling, be entered
into an engagement with Mr. Tate Wilkinson, and made his first appearance
on the stage at York, in 1775, in the character of Carlos, in the Fop's
Fortune. Thence he went to Norwich, and afterwards to Bath. He subsequently
entered into an engagement at Covent Garden Theatre, where be appeared
in 1797.
Mr. Murray has left four children. His daughter (Mrs. Henry Siddons)
is the present proprietor of the Edinburgh Theatre, where her brother,
Mr. Wm Murray, is the acting manager.
From The Gentleman's Magazine, November 1821
The list of Scottish men and women who have attained distinction in the theatrical world of England could be lengthened.
One of the first Scottish actors to attain great fame in London was Charles Murray (1754-1821), whose father, Sir John Murray, was secretary to Bonnie Prince Charlie. Viola, Nell, and Fay Compton are descendants of Charles Murray.
Other famous actresses of England owe much to their Scottish ancestry. Ellen Terry's mother was Scotch. Sophie Stewart is as Scottish as Harris Tweed. Sybil Thorndike's grandmother was a talented Scotswoman. The famous Grace Huntley (1860-1896) belonged to Southwick, Scotland, and lies in a lonely little kirkyard close to the author's but the triumvirate mentioned are a convincing proof of the fact that if Scotland has not given as many actors to the London stage as England, she has demonstrated that she can produce the very cream of the profession.
[From The Scot in England, Chapter V - Scottish Support for English Art
by John Herries McCulloch (1935)]
Charles Murray wrote two dramatic
pieces, The
New Maid of the Oaks and The Experiment.
Both plays were published at Norwich. Later
in his life, Charles Murray was married for a third time. He
died in Edinburgh on 08 November 1821.
Text based on material published
in the "Murray
of Stanhope" web pages.
Top
Charles Murray (1754-1821) (centre), with Sarah Bartley (1783-1850)
and Charles Kemble, (1775-1854) in Voltaire's "Tragedy of Zara".
Engraved by Charles Heath (1785-1848) after a painting by Samuel Woodforde
(1763 - 1817). Size 2 3/4 x 4 1/4 inches. Published 1807
by Longmans. This image is in the public domain because the copyright
has expired.
For a synopsis of the Tragedy of Zara, please follow this LINK
The following is taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
A success on the amateur stage led Murray to York, where Tate Wilkinson engaged him to play Carlos in Colley Cibber's The Fop's Fortune, or, Love Makes a Man on 21 April 1773. He was billed ‘for family reasons’ as ‘Mr. Raymur. By 1775 he was playing leading roles such as Lothario in Nicholas Rowe's The Fair Penitent, Young Bevil in Richard Steele's The Conscious Lovers, Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, and Young Marlow in Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer at York and in Wilkinson's circuit of northern theatres. While playing at Wakefield on 15 September 1776, he was insulted as a player by ‘a gentleman in liquor’ (Wilkinson, 1.233). At the theatre an apology was demanded for his response, which Murray refused, resenting, as a gentleman, the insult to his profession. A boycott obliged the manager to dismiss him. ‘In losing Murray in consequence of the riot’, Wilkinson wrote, ‘I lost an excellent actor’.
After briefly returning to sea, Murray found employment at Norwich, where the theatre committee instructed the manager: ‘If Mr. Murray wants an Engagement for Mrs. Murray, Mr. Griffith is desired not to exceed one Pound Sixteen Shillings per week for both’. This was a reference to Murray's first wife, whose name is unknown; she was twenty-one when she died in January 1780. Murray soon formed another alliance. Anne Payne (née Acres) was a member of the Norwich company. Her husband, Jonathan Payne, did not die until 1784, but the playbills were calling her Mrs Murray by 1782. Their children, Maria, Harriet (b. 1783) and William Henry Murray (b. 1790) went on the stage. Murray's eldest son, Charles (b. 1780), was probably the child of his first marriage.
After eight seasons in Norwich the Murrays moved to Bath, where he opened on 8 October 1785 as Overreach in Philip Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts, and continued in leading parts such as Pierre in Otway's Venice Preserv'd, Macbeth, and Iago. He remained at Bath for eleven seasons, and became known as ‘a great actor—void of conceit & ostentation’. For his farewell in Bristol he played Polixenes to the Perdita of his daughter Harriet in Florizel and Perdita.
Murray's chance to act in London arrived when he played Shylock at Covent Garden on 30 September 1796. It was customary to test provincial ‘stars’ in leading business for a night or two. Rarely, one succeeded; most limped home. Murray stayed, but principally in supporting roles. The Monthly Mirror found him weak in the Tubal scene because ‘his powers sunk under the weight of passion’; he was best in the trial ‘because it required no great exertion of voice; … Indeed the whole of this scene merits the denomination of GREAT ACTING’. In his early seasons at Covent Garden, Murray's occasional leading parts, such as Iago, met with less approbation than his sympathetic old men. He made his farewell at Covent Garden as Brabantio in Othello on 17 July 1817.
Murray soon moved to Edinburgh to be near his children Harriet and William, who had succeeded to the management of the city's theatre when Henry Siddons died in 1815. He died there on 8 November 1821. Murray was a provincial actor who fell short of attaining the first rank in London, partly because the attempt was delayed too long, but also through deficiency of passion. The youthful fire he exhibited at Wakefield was no longer to be seen in London, either on or off the stage: ‘as a private gentleman, he is said to be very respectable, and his conversation elegant and entertaining’ (Gilliland).
TOP