|
MURE, (SIR) WILLIAM, of
Rowallan, a poet, was born about the year 1594. He was the eldest son of Sir
William Mure of Rowallan, by a sister of Montgomery, the author of the "The
Cherry and the Slae." The family was one of the most ancient of the
order of gentry in that part of the country, and through Elizabeth Mure, the
first wife of Robert II., had mingled its blood with the royal line: it
recently terminated in the mother of the late countess of Loudoun and
marchioness of Hastings. Of the poet’s education no memorial has been
preserved, but it was undoubtedly the best that his country could afford in
that age, as, with a scholar-like enthusiasm, he had attempted a version of
the story of Dido and AEneas before his twentieth year. There is also a
specimen of Sir William’s verses in pure English, dated so early as 1611,
when he could not be more than seventeen. In 1615, while still under age,
and before he had succeeded to his paternal estate, he married Anna,
daughter of Dundas of Newliston, by whom he had five sons and six daughters.
The eldest son William, succeeded his father; Alexander was killed in the
Irish Rebellion, 1641; Robert, a major in the army, married the lady Newhall
in Fife; John was designed of Fenwickhill; and Patrick, probably the
youngest, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia in 1662. One of the
daughters, Elizabeth, was married to Uchter Knox of Ranfurly. Sir William
Mure married, secondly, dame Jane Hamilton, lady Duntreath; and of this
marriage there were two sons and two daughters; James, Hugh, Jane, And
Marion.
The earliest of Sir William’s
compositions to be found in print is an address to the king at Hamilton, on
his progress through the country in 1617, which is embodied in the
collection entitled, "The Muse’s Welcome." Such productions of his earlier
years as have been preserved are chiefly amatory poems in English, very much
in the manner of the contemporary poets of the neighbouring kingdom, and
rivalling them in force and delicacy of sentiment. Sir William seems to have
afterwards addicted himself to serious poetry. In 1628, he published a
translation, in English Sapphics, of Boyd of Trochrig’s beautiful Latin
poem, "Hecatombe Christiana;" and in the succeeding year produced his "Trve
Crucifixe for Trve Catholickes," Edinburgh, 12mo.; intended as an exposure
of the prime object of Romish idolatry. By far the larger portion of his
writings remain in manuscript.
Like his contemporary,
Drummond of Hawthornden, Mure seems to have delighted in a quiet country
life. A taste for building and rural embellishment is discoverable in the
family of Rowallan at a period when decorations of this nature were but
little regarded in Scotland: and in these refinements Sir William fell
nothing behind, if he did not greatly surpass the slowly advancing spirit of
his time; besides planting and other ameliorations, he made various
additions to the family mansion, and "reformed the whole house exceedingly."
At the commencement of the
religious troubles, Sir William Mure, though in several of his poems he
appears as paying his court to royalty, took an interest in the popular
cause; and, in the first army raised against the king, commanded a company
in the Ayrshire regiment. He was a member of the parliament, or rather
convention of 1643, by which the Solemn League and Covenant was ratified
with England; and, in the beginning of the ensuing year, accompanied the
troops which, in terms of that famous treaty, were despatched to the aid of
the parliamentary cause. After a variety of services during the spring of
1644, he was present, and wounded, in the decisive battle of Long
Marstonmoor, July 2nd. In the succeeding month, he was engaged at the
storming of Newcastle, where, for some time, in consequence of the superior
officer’s being disabled, he had the command of the regiment. Whether this
was the last campaign of the poet, or whether he remained with the army till
its return, after the rendition of the king, in 1647, is not known. No
farther material notice of him occurs, except that, on the revision of
Roos’s Psalms by the General Assembly in 1650, a version by Mure of Rowallan
is spoken of as employed by the committee for the improvement of the other.
Sir William died in 1657. Various specimens of his compositions may be found
in a small volume entitled, "Ancient Ballads and Songs, chiefly from
tradition, manuscripts, and scarce works, with biographical and illustrative
notices, including original poetry, by Thomas Lyle: London," 1827; to which
we have been indebted for the materials of this article. |
