Patrick Murray of Stirling has been a goldsmith little considered and almost totally overlooked until recently when a pair of Hanoverian pattern tablespoons by his hand were sold by Lyon & Turnbull on the 13 August 2014.
Little is recorded about Murray other than to say he was working in Stirling as early as 1732 although no record of his training or apprenticeship is known. During this time he appears to have been the only working goldsmith in the Burgh despite the wealth of the area.
Patrick Murray was amongst a small handful of true Jacobite craftsmen not only working for Jacobite sympathisers but taking to the cause himself. Prince Charles' rally in Stirling must have inspired Murray as he signed and served in Lord George Murray's Brigade.
His career as a solider was short lived and less successful than that as a goldsmith and he was taken prisoner as a Jacobite in November 1745, possibly under the Surrender Act invoked by Marshal George Wade which offered clemency to those who surrendered and became loyal to the Government.
Whether or not they in fact surrendered under this Act is unknown, but Murray would be imprisoned from November 1745 until November 1746, in Airdrie, Perth, Edinburgh Castle and Carlisle, where on 14th November 1746 he was executed for his part in the rebellion.
While other goldsmiths (perhaps most notably Ebenezer Oliphant) are considered Jacobites, it is only Patrick Murray whose name and work paid the greatest price for his convictions.
