William Murray, the first Earl of Mansfield, was a formidable politician who is remembered for his service as lord chief justice.
Background
William Murray was born on 2 March 1705, the fourth son of David, fifth Viscount Stormont, and his wife, Margery. The family were Jacobites with a high ideal for royal authority; but throughout his life William strove to distance himself from their political views, and in that he was successful.
Education
Murray was educated at Westminster College and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he obtained a degree in June 1723.
He was called to the bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1743, and embarked on a legal and political career that was to last a lifetime.
Career
In 1742 he became M.P. for Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire. In November of that year, Spencer Compton, the first Earl of Wilmington, invited him to become solicitor general and King’s Counsel. Wilmington died in 1743, but Murray continued in office under Henry Pelham, the new prime minister. On 6 December 1743 he spoke in the House of Commons against the disbandment of the Hanoverian mercenaries and in favor of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Bill (suspending the right to trial). In 1747 he became leader of the House of Commons.
After the death of Pelham in 1754 Murray became attorney general in the government of the Duke of Newcastle, Pelhams elder brother. In 1756 he became lord chief justice and was created Baron Mansfield of Mansfield, in the county of Nottinghamshire. He also served in the government of William Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, and was made a member of the Privy Council. He was briefly chancellor of the exchequer, between April and June 1757 (from the time when H. B. Legge resigned as chancellor, until Legge returned to that post).
For most of the rest of his life Mansfield was involved in politics, although his prime interest was to act as lord chief justice. He was briefly chancellor of the exchequer again from 11 Sep¬tember to 6 October 1767, before Lord North took over that post, North combining the post with that of prime minister between 1770 and 1782. Mansfield became speaker of the House of Lords in 1770.
Mansfield was involved in the trial of John Horne (later Horne-Tooke) for sedition, and played a role also in many other important trials.
While Mansfield was giving a speech in the House of Lords, William Pitt, the Elder (Lord Chatham), was suddenly taken seriously ill, and Mansfield is said to have shown “ostentatious indifference” to Pitt’s condition. Mansfield himself fell ill on 4 June 1778 and resigned as lord chief justice. He died on 20 March 1793.
Politics
The Jacobite sympathies of his family haunted his political career: In February 1753, rumors spread around the cabinet that he had once raised a toast to the Jacobite claims to the British throne, which had led to the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745.
Connections
He married Lady Elizabeth Finch, seventh daughter of the second Earl of Nottingham.