Dance The Duke of Atholl's Reel 1786

When Robert Burns visited Blair Castle, then called Atholl House, during his Highland tour of 1787, he met there three of the most celebrated ladies of that glittering age: “the amiable, truly noble Duchess”, “the beautiful Mrs Graham”, and “the lovely, sweet Miss Cathcart”. They were the daughters of Charles, 9th Baron Cathcart of Cathcart House, Clarkston, Renfrewshire, who was British ambassador to Russia from 1768 to 1771.

The first was Jane, Duchess of Atholl (1754–1790). The second was Mary, the “beautiful Mrs Graham”, painted by Thomas Gainsborough, wife of Thomas Graham of Balgown, later Lord Lynedoch. Mrs Graham died tragically in the south of France in 1792 and her coffin which was being transported back to Scotland was desecrated by the French, an incident which was avenged by General Graham at Barrosa in the Peninsular War against the French. The third sister married the 2nd Earl of Mansfield, a cousin of the Duke of Atholl.

John Murray, 4th Duke of Atholl (1755–1830) succeeded his father in 1774 and was created Earl Strange in the British peerage in 1786.

The Murray family sprang from Freskin who received from David I (1084–1153) the lands of Strabrock in West Lothian and Duffus in Morayshire. Over the centuries the de Moravias, finally known as the Murrays, grew in land and power. Since they were highly successful as breeders of large families there are descendent branches of the Murray family all the way from the Outer Hebrides, down across the Highlands to the Lowlands, and as far south as Berwickshire on the Border.

At one time Atholl belonged to Robert, High Steward of Scotland, later Robert II (1316–1390). He granted the land to Walter Stewart, the second son of his second marriage, but Atholl reverted to the crown in 1438 when Walter was executed for his complicity in the murder of his own nephew, James I. In 1457 James II conferred the land and the earldom upon Sir John Stewart of Balveny (1440–1512), his half-brother through the remarriage of Queen Joanna with Sir James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn. The 4th Stewart Earl of Atholl, who succeeded in 1542, was John, a prominent and powerful political figure in the time of Mary. His son John, the 5th Earl, succeeded upon the death of his father in 1579, but when he died in 1595, the title again reverted to the crown as he had no sons to succeed him. This was the end of the Stewarts of Atholl and the beginning of the Murrays of Atholl, combined as Stewart-Murray. The 5th Earl had a daughter, Lady Dorothea Stewart, who married William Murray, 2nd Earl of Tullibardine.

The Perthshire Tullibardine Murrays began with the marriage of Sir William de Moravia to Ada, the daughter of Malise, the Seneschal of Strathearn. Their son, Sir William Murray, had seventeen sons, certainly sufficient to create a vast dynasty of Murray families. Sir John, 12th of Tullibardine, was made Lord Murray in 1604 by James VI and Earl of Tullibardine in 1606. William, the 2nd Earl, claimed the vacant Earldom of Atholl by right of Lady Dorothea’s lawful inheritance, but he died before the patent could be granted. It was his son, John, who was confirmed as the first Murray Earl of Atholl in 1629 by Charles I. Lord Atholl died in 1642 after he had called out the Atholl-men for the king against the Covenanters and was imprisoned in Stirling Castle in 1640 by Archibald Campbell, then 8th Earl of Argyll. (See “Alyth Burn”) John, 2nd Earl of Atholl (1631–1703), married Lady Amelia Stanley, daughter of James, 7th Earl of Derby, and was created 1st Marquess of Atholl in 1676 by Charles II whose restoration he had supported. It was through the Stanley family that the Murrays of Atholl acquired the Isle of Man. The 2nd Marquess, John (1660–1742), was a Royalist supporter and was made Privy Councillor to Queen Anne, Lord Privy Seal and HIgh Commissioner. He was created Duke of Atholl in 1703. During the rebellion of 1715, when three of his sons joined the Jacobite cause, the duke remained loyal to George I. On 4 June, 1717, he captured the outlaw, Rob Roy MacGregor, who later escaped.

The rebellion of 1745 widened the division among the Atholl Murrays. Not only were most of the Atholl-men, both Stewart and Murray, Jacobites, but the ducal family itself suffered through the cause. The 1st Duke’s eldest son having predeceased him, the next in line was William, Marquess of Tullibardine, who was attainted after 1715 and was living in exile, so the title passed to his second brother, James, a Hanoverian like his father before him. The two remaining brothers, Lord Charles and Lord George, joined Lord William, one of the “Eight Men of Moidart”, in actively supporting Prince Charles Edward. Lord George became commander of the Jacobite army and was its general at its victory in Prestonpans and its defeat at Culloden. The Marquess of Tullibardine died in the Tower of London in 1746 and Lord George died in exile in the Netherlands.

James, 2nd Duke of Atholl (1690–1764), Lord Privy Seal, Keeper of the Great Seal and Lord Justice General, had two daughters, Lady Jean (See “The Countess of Crawford’s Reel”), and Lady Charlotte, who as heiress married her first cousin, John Murray, son of Lord George. John (1729–1774) became 3rd Duke of Atholl. It was Duke John and Duchess Charlotte who sold the Isle of Man to the government in 1765. Their son, John, succeeded as 4th Duke of Atholl.

In 1778 the young duke was granted letters of service to raise 1,000 Atholl-men for service to King George III. Commanded by his uncle, Colonel James Murray, a son of Lord George, the Atholl Highlanders served in Ireland and were disbanded in 1783. Since that time they have become a bodyguard for succeeding Dukes of Atholl complete with a pipe band for ceremonial occasions.

The Earls and Dukes of Atholl owned many houses and castles, among them Dunkeld House and Huntingtower, but Blair Castle is the ducal seat of the Murrays of Atholl. A stronghold of history, the original part of the castle, Cumming’s Tower, was built about 1296 by David Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl, as a defence against John Comyn of Badenoch. A large part of the main building was erected in 1530 by John, the 3rd Stewart Earl. It was he who arranged the great stag hunt near Blair Atholl for James V. Mary was also a royal guest and a similar hunt was arranged for her. (See “The Braes of Atholl”) In 1644 the castle was occupied by the Marquess of Montrose. In 1652 it was captured by Cromwell’s army and used as a garrison for eight years. In 1689 it was taken by James Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee. In 1745 Prince Charles Edward and his army spent two nights there, in the absence of the duke, and the next year Lord George Murray and the Jacobites besieged the castle which was for a time a garrison for the Hanoverian forces under Sir Andrew Agnew. Blair Castle was renovated by the 3rd Duke in the classical Georgian style and was re-done in the Scottish neo-baronial extravagance so popular with the Victorians by the architect David Bryce who supplied crow-stepped gables, turrets, towers and battlements with a rather too-lavish hand. Queen Victoria visited Blair Atholl with her family during her second visit to Scotland in 1844 and it was there that her love for the Highlands began.

Niel Gow, an Atholl-man from Inver, near Dunkeld, was long associated with the Dukes of Atholl. He dedicated his Collection of Strathspey Reels of 1784 to the Duchess of Atholl.