Adam Murray, true Ulster-Scots home-grown Siege of Derry hero

While the names of the 13 Apprentice Boys suggest Ulster-Scots backgrounds, most of the key figures in the 1689 Siege of Derry were of English origin with the conspicuous exception of Adam Murray. Thus, for Ulster-Scots, Murray is the hero of the Siege.

From Ling, about nine miles from Londonderry, Murray is famous for his dramatic entry into Londonderry when Lundy was preparing the beleaguered citizens for surrender. The cry of ‘No surrender’ is often attributed to Murray. He refused the governorship of Londonderry after Lundy’s flight, but did accept command of the forces in the field. He was involved in all the garrison’s battles outside of the walls, especially the two Battles of Pennyburn.

In December 1688 or the early part of 1689 Murray raised a troop of 30 horseman from among his neighbours. In the days immediately before the siege these men formed part of the force dispatched by Lundy to Clady on the banks of the River Finn, to repel the Jacobite advance on Londonderry. How precisely this was to be achieved is difficult to imagine if each man was allocated only three rounds of ammunition. Nevertheless, Murray’s men acquitted themselves well at Cladyford. They held out against overwhelming odds until forced to withdraw through lack of ammunition.

Murray returned to Londonderry at about the same time as James II was approaching the city on April 18 and was ordered in a dispatch from by Lundy to take his cavalry to Cloughglass.

On being informed by the messenger that surrender terms were being negotiated, Murray defied his orders and headed for the city at breakneck speed. After a brief skirmish with Jacobite dragoons, he entered the city via the Shipquay gate and gate-crashed the meeting of the council of war, accusing Lundy and others of treachery. He then addressed the soldiers and the populace, urging defiance.

By his action Murray caused those seeking terms to leave the city and played a major role in provoking Lundy’s decision to quit. Murray was offered the governorship but declined saying that he preferred to be a soldier in the field. The governorship was offered jointly to Henry Baker and the Rev George Walker.

These events mark the real beginning of the siege. If Lundy had have stayed there would not have been a siege. Yet ironically without Lundy’s endeavours in the early months of 1689 the city would not have been able to withstand a siege.

Murray was appointed colonel of horse and the commander of the Williamite cavalry during the siege.

On April 21 hostilities began. Jacobite artillery pounded the city, causing damage to several buildings, including the Town House in the Diamond. Only one man was killed. At noon Adam Murray led a force of 300 cavalry and a significant detachment of infantry in a daring raid on the Jacobite camp at Pennyburn.

The Marquis de Maumont, the French commander-in-chief of the Jacobite forces at Londonderry, was killed in this engagement. Both John Mackenzie in his Narrative of the Siege of Londonderry and Mitchelburne in his play credit Murray with killing Maumont but Thomas Ash in his diary and George Walker in both his True Account of the Siege of Londonderry and his Vindication of the Account of the Siege are silent on this point.

Irrespective of whether Murray killed Maumont, Murray had mounted an impressively well-planned and brilliantly executed operation, suggesting perhaps that he may have had serious military experience. Gideon Murray, Adam’s father, had certainly been a cavalry officer.

Perhaps Adam Murray was Londonderry’s equivalent to Enniskillen’s Thomas Lloyd, a Roscommon man whose subordinates nicknamed him ‘Little Cromwell’. Both were natural and innovative soldiers. Like Napoleon’s best and most able marshals, both Murray and Lloyd held attack to be not just the best form of defence but the only form of defence. The first Battle of Pennyburn must have boosted the morale of the besieged garrison and greatly enhanced Murray’s reputation.

Two days later Murray mounted a second daring raid on the Jacobite camp at Pennyburn, ostensibly in response to a Jacobite bombardment of the city. In this engagement Major-General Pusignan, another senior French officer, was wounded. He died within a few days. A third senior French officer, the Sieur de Pointis, was also wounded. So too was the Duke of Berwick, James II’s illegitimate son by Arabella Churchill and the nephew of the future Duke of Marlborough.

Richard Hamilton, the leading Irish Jacobite, recognising that Murray was one of the prime movers in the city’s defiance, seized Gideon Murray, Adam’s elderly father, and threatened to hang the old man if he could not induce his son to surrender the city. Gideon, who was nearly 80, went into the town as ordered, but once inside Gideon urged his son to fight on and never submit. The old man then returned to the Jacobite camp, expecting to be hanged. However, Richard Hamilton behaved chivalrously. He ordered that the old man be escorted safely back to his farm at Ling, where he remained for the duration of the siege..

While Murray’s cavalry was able to play a significant role in the defence of the city in the early days of the siege, the horses had to be eventually slaughtered for want of fodder or as food for the besieged.

Murray was the most able, intelligent and resourceful soldier within the walls but he was almost certainly frustrated as the siege went on. This may account for his serious animosity towards Governor Walker. He accused Walker of selling or embezzling the stores, of abusing officers who were sent to the stores to draw supplies, of attempting to surrender the town and offering to betray it for money.

When the city was relieved Major General Kirke confiscated Murray’s favourite horse, one of the very few animals to have survived the siege. It is not difficult to imagine this petty vindictiveness being the product of the ill-feeling between Murray and Walker, Kirke taking Walker’s side.