The late William Mtjreat, Esq. of Monkland. 363 



Buttery. He was also engaged in colliery operations at Banknock, 

 near Denny, and sent his son William, when a very yoimg man, to 

 superintend them. Mr. William Murray, the subject of this notice, 

 was admitted a partner of the Monkland Steel Company in 1824i, and 

 soon afterwards, on the retirement of his father. Mr. James Murray 

 joined his brother and Mr. Buttery in carrying on the business. The 

 collieries were at the same time transferred to Mr. William Murray. 



During Mr. Murray's residence at Banknock he was well known and 

 much esteemed in the neighbourhood. He was a frequent visitor at 

 Cumbernauld House, and took a prominent part in pi'omoting the 

 return of Admiral Fleming for the county of Stirling at the first 

 election under the Reform Act. 



Mr. Murray was married in 1824 to Miss M'Leod, an Enghsh lady 

 who had been residing at Uaderwood House, near Banknock. He had 

 the misfortune to lose his wife in 1837 — his family then consisting of 

 three sons and three daughters, all of whom survive him, except one 

 daughter. 



In 1826 the Monkland Company added the manufacture of pig-iron 

 to their other departments, and the business generally having been 

 extended so as to require all Mr. Murray's attention, he disposed of his 

 collieries in the year 1835 to the father of the present Mr. Wilson of 

 Banknock. In 1840 the company entered largely into the manufactm-e 

 of malleable iron. Mr. Murray thus took an important part in the 

 extraordinarily rapid development, during the last thii-ty years, of the 

 coal and iron trade in Scotland. 



Of late years Mr. Murray became so far relieved of the details of his 

 own business that he could give a great deal of attention to matters of 

 public interest. In 1850 he was elected into the Town Council, and 

 all along took his full share of the duties of that body; but during 

 the two last years of his life he especially distinguished himself as 

 chairman of the committee of the Loch Katrine Water Works, devot- 

 ing much of his time to the promotion of that most important under- 

 taking ; and not only meeting with the engineers and superintending 

 the operations, but making all the necessary arrangements with the 

 various landlords through whose property the works were cai'ried. 



In matters of science — a taste for which he acquired in the chemistry 

 and natural philosophy classes in Anderson's University — Mr. Murray 

 was chiefly interested in geology and mechanics ; and on both occasions 

 when the British Association met at Glasgow, he not only energetically 

 promoted the general arrangements, but presented to that body a 

 section and series of specimens illustrating the strata connected with 

 the beds of coal and iron in this rich mineral district. 



