William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield 1705-1793

William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (formerly called John Arbuthnot by Charles Jervas. c. 1715) by J. Vanloo,

Despite its inscription, as Gibson points out our portrait proves to represent Mansfield. It is too young a man. too late to represent. Arbuthnot and is a version of the earlier portrait by Vanloo, with the same face but in a wig engraved by Basire as painted in 1732. A fine Kit-cat size version still in Lord Clarendon's collection belonged to his ancestor. the sitter's friend. Henry Cornbury and Baron Hyde. 1710-1753, who was also painted by Vanloo. It is listed in his catalogue of 1750: Lord Hyde's Dressing Room ... MR.SOLICITOR-GENERAL MURRAY.

Born at the Abbey of Scone, William Murray was fourth son of the 5th Viscount Stormont, and was educated at Perth Grammar school, Westminster (where he was King's scholar), and Christ Church, Oxford. Younger son of an impoverished Scottish peer, he was destined for the Church, but was assisted by a friend Thomas Foley (later Baron Foley) to read law.

An early talent for declamation was studiously rehearsed, sometimes in front of his friend Alexander Pope. Lifelong enmity with Pitt (Earl of Chatham) began when Murray beat Pitt for a Latin poem prize at Oxford.

Called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1730, KC and solicitor-general 1742, attorney-general 1754 and Lord Chief Justice 1756 - turning down the Duchy of Lancaster and a pension of £6000 offered to him to stay in the Commons, where he was an outstanding leader.

Macaulay described him as 'the father of modern toryism'. In American affairs he was wholly for coercion and when he failed to inspire a coalition to cope with the situation, he retired from politics.

Famous cases included his refusal to allow prosecutions against Roman Catholic priests for saying mass, which carried the penalty of life imprisonment. Mansfield freed the West Indian slave, James Somersett, in 1771 on grounds that slavery was 'so odious' that nothing could 'be suffered to support it'. He was the first to allow a Quaker to affirm in place of taking an oath. A sincere Christian, he would nevertheless have tried a case on Good Friday if counsel had not pointed out that he would be following a precedent set by Pontius Pilate. Although a victim of the Gordon riots - his house was wrecked - he tried Lord George Gordon with strict impartiality. In the struggles between the RCP and its licentiates, 1767-1771. Mansfield accepted the distinction between fellows and licentiates, but warned the College to review its statutes and not to make admission so narrow that even a Boerhaave resident in London would be excluded.

At his request he was buried in the North Cross, Westminster Abbey, near the scene of his early education.