HAM HOUSE 181 



important of his (the King's) secrets to his 

 enemies." 



However false Murray may have been, the King 

 evidently had no knowledge of his treachery, for 

 he granted him the Manor of Ham and Petersham, 

 and created him "Peer of Scotland, Baron Hunting- 

 tower and Earl of Dysart," Murray persuading the 

 King to antedate the warrant that he might take 

 precedence at Court of many whom, from one 

 cause and another, he cordially detested. That 

 he was seldom called by his title is perhaps 

 accounted for by Burnett's remark that the warrant 

 did not pass the Great Seal during the King's 

 lifetime. 



William Murray married Catherine Bruce, by 

 whom he had no son, but five daughters. Elizabeth, 

 the eldest, afterwards became the great Duchess, 

 who left the impress of her personality so strongly 

 on Ham House and its Gardens. The date of 

 her marriage with Sir Lionel Tollemache, heir 

 to the Helmingham estates in Suffolk, is unknown, 

 but he succeeded his father in 1640. Elizabeth 

 Murray did not hesitate, on her father's death, to 

 style herself Countess of Dysart, and being more 

 than a friend of Cromwell's, her estates were safe 

 under his rule, especially as she pretended to be- 

 come an anti- Royalist and allowed his soldiers to be 

 quartered in Ham House. Burnett declares that 

 this clever woman, to whom political intrigue was 



