John Murray, Bigamist

CRIME

John Murray, Clockmaker and Bigamist

John Murray was a clock and watchmaker in Longtown, the son of the clockmaker William Murray. In October 1844 he married a girl called Mary Corrie at Gretna. Their son Joseph was baptised at Arthuret in the beginning of December of that year: later the same month he was summoned before the magistrates charged with deserting his wife and family. He claimed that he had no wife. In 1848 he married another girl at Gretna, a Martha Sanderson or Baxter. She had heard that he was married but he denied it. At the Cumberland assizes in August 1848, John Murray was found guilty of bigamy and gaoled for a year. While he was in Carlisle gaol, his young son died in a tragic accident. On getting out of prison he went to work in Lockerbie: trying to court a young woman, Margaret Bell, who had heard that he was a married man, he forged a document which he claimed had been written by his brother in law, Robert Forster, parish clerk of Arthuret, which said that he (Murray) was a single man.He was found guilty of forgery at Dumfries in May 1851 ? his sister and brother in law, Margaret and Robert Forster, gave evidence against him. He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment at Perth Gaol, but managed to escape from custody at Glasgow railway station before being recaptured in Northumberland in 1852. In the 1851 census John Murray was in the County Prison in Dumfries, still claiming to be unmarried, but in 1861 he was living in Dumfries with yet another wife, Sarah, and five year old son John.December 20th 1844 Carlisle PatriotJohn Murray of Longtown was charged by the Board of Guardians with deserting his wife and family. The defendant in reply said he had no wife, but it appeared from the evidence that this was a very gross attempt to evade the affiliation clauses of the Poor Law Amendment Act.A girl had borne a child to the defendant and had in due course summoned him before the District Petty Sessions at Brampton, to get an order for its maintenance, but before the summons was due, the fellow coaxed the girl to Gretna, so as to prevent her from proceeding.She produced the lines from the officiator at Gretna, but was not prepared with any other evidence of her marriage. The case was therefore adjourned until next Saturday, to give time to produce the necessary witnesses.June 10th 1848 Carlisle PatriotCharge of BigamyJohn Murray, a watchmaker of Longtown, was brought before W Hodgson Esq and the Rev W Rees at the Magistrates Office, Courts, on Wednesday last, charged with committing the crime of bigamy, he having married Martha Sanderson, a young woman residing in Longtown, while his wife was alive.Mr John Douglas, who kept the ?Queen?s Head? at Springfield in 1844, and who was in the habit of marrying persons according to the customs in Scotland, deposed that Murray and a young woman named Mary Corrie, accompanied by another couple, came to his house on the evening of the 6th October of that year and were married by mutual consent in the presence of four witnesses; they did not remain all that night at his house, but returned to it together about a month afterwards and slept there one night. Murray was perfectly sober, as were also all the persons who were with him. Witness produced the register of marriages which shewed the proper entry and the signatures of the respective witnesses, and his wife Jane Douglas corroborated his evidence.Martha Sanderson said that she had become intimately acquainted with Murray at Longtown about 12 months ago, and that he continued to court her until the 31st of January last when after many entreaties both on that day and on previous occasions, he succeeded in inducing her to go along with him to Allison?s Bank Toll Bar where they were married.During their courtship, she had often heard reported that he was married to Mary Corrie, but when she accused him with it (as she frequently did) he denied it with an oath? April 7th 1849 Carlisle PatriotAt Longtown before W Carrick Esq. coroner, on Monday last, on the body of a child aged 5 years, the son of John Murray, now undergoing his sentence in Carlisle Gaol for bigamy. The child?s clothes took fire in the absence of his mother, and before any assistance reached him, he was much burnt on his arms, face and belly.Dr Rome was called in and attended him for a week when, owing to some misunderstanding he discontinued his visits and a Mrs Wardrop, who professes to cure all the ailments that human flesh is heir to, took the case under her charge. The prescription she used for the dressings was laurel leaf chopped and mixed with sand and oil, the whole heated in a pan and strained through a cloth.Dr Rome added that this was in his opinion a dangerous application, laurel leaf containing as it did prussic acid, one of the most deadly poisons.He however could not say that this had hastened the child?s death, and therefore the jury returned a verdict of accidental death, after a few words recommending to Mrs Wardrop to avoid the use of medicines whose properties she was not acquainted with.May 10th 1851 Carlisle PatriotDumfries - John Murray, watchmaker in Lockerbie, was charged with forgery and uttering as genuine a forged document to the effect that he was a single man, with the view of inducing Margaret Bell, servant in the King?s Arms Inn, Lockerbie, to contract marriage with him, he being a married man. He pleaded not guilty?May 17th 1851 Carlisle PatriotEscaped from JusticeRewardWhereas John Murray, Watchmaker, late of Longtown in Cumberland and more recently of Lockerby in Dumfriesshire, was on 2nd May 1851 convicted before the Sheriff of Dumfriesshire and a jury of the crime of forgery, and had sentence to be imprisoned in the General Prison of Perth for twelve calendar months. On the 8th of May in the afternoon between 4 and 6 o?clock Murray was at the Perth Railway Station, situated in Queen Street, Glasgow, and contrived to effect his escape when the turnkey, who had him in custody, was in the Railway Office procuring tickets for self and prisoner from Glasgow to Perth.A Reward of Ten SovereignsWill be paid to anyone who will within one month from this date cause the said John Murray to be Apprehended, or give such information to the Procurator Fiscal, or Superintendent of Police at Dumfries, as shall lead to his apprehension within the period aforesaid.Informers names will be kept private.Description of John MurrayA native of Cumberland, 27 years of age, 5 feet 7 inches in height, under 10 stone, brown hair, pale complexion, hazel eyes, apparently in good health and a watchmaker by trade. He has a plausible manner and address and writes well enough, and sometimes with a back slope of the letters. No peculiarities about face or person. He wore a brown greatcoat, check trousers and two vests.Dumfries May 9th 1951.February 20th 1852 Carlisle JournalOn Monday last two men who had escaped from custody were recaptured and placed in Dumfries gaol. The one was named Murray, who had been sentenced to a year?s imprisonment at Perth, for forging a certificate purporting to be from the Rev Mr Graham of Arthuret, that he was a single man, in order to marry a young woman at Lockerby, he having one if not two wives then alive. He was left in charge of his cousin at the railway station while the policeman went for the tickets, and succeeded in giving his keepers the slip. He escaped to America but returned to this country in November and has since been working at Rothbury in Northumberland, where he was captured by Mr Jones, superintendent of the Dumfries police, on Friday last.t