He succeeded to the
Viscountcy of Stormont on his father
David's death in 1731. His mother was Marjory Scott, and among his brothers were the
Earl of Mansfield and the
Jacobite James Murray. The 6th Viscount also tended towards Jacobitism in his politics, writing the unpublished poem
An Elegy sacred to the Memory of John, Earl of Strathmore, who was killed in 1715, memorialising this Jacobite's death at the
Battle of Sheriffmuir. Following the
Jacobite rising of 1715 he was arrested on suspicion of Jacobitism and briefly imprisoned by the British government alongside his father. In 1723 he married Anne Stewart (1703–1735), only daughter and heiress of John Stewart of Innernytie, and they had two sons (including his heir, also named
David Murray, 2nd Earl of Mansfield) and James, who died unmarried and two daughters Anne and Marjory. In 30 April 1793,
King George III granted Anne and Marjory the place and precedency of the daughter of an Earl, hence making them Lady Anne and Lady Marjory respectively. == Family tree ==