Morton, Murray

John Murray was a British royal governor of New York and the last royal governor of Virginia.

Scottish nobility, Dunmore became Governor of New York in 1769 and Governor of Murray, John [4th Earl of Dunmore](1730-1809) Governor of Virginia: A member of the Virginia in 1770. He firmly supported the territorial boundaries of his colonies against neighbors' claims, but sought only a mild peace settlement after a 1774 frontier war with local Native Americans. Dunmore dissolved the Virginia Assembly in 1773, after it appointed a committee of correspondence to coordinate action with other colonies against Britain, and in 1774, when it supported Boston in the matter of the Port Act. When Dunmore transferred some of Virginia's gunpowder to a warship, a storm of criticism broke. Tensions escalated when he forbade the assembling of a convention. Dunmore presided over an assembly to consider the conciliatory proposals of the northern colonies, but rioting forced him to move the seat of government to a warship. This action led the House of Burgesses to declare his abdication, and to organize a convention in violation of Dunmore's decree. Dunmore tried to re-establish his authority by the use of force, but was unsuccessful. He even offered freedom to the slaves of Virginia planters who would leave their masters and join the British, an offer which was accepted by many. Southern planters and slave-owners were outraged by this and, after a final failed attempt to return to power in July 1776, Dunmore returned to England.