He was born in
Perthshire on 8 September 1710 the second son of
Sir Thomas Moncreiffe, 2nd Baronet (d.1738) and his wife, Margaret Smythe. Trained as a lawyer he qualified as an
advocate in 1736. In 1743 he became a Deputy King's Remembrancer to the Exchequer and Secretary of Scottish Affairs to the Prince of Wales. In 1766 he became Solicitor of Taxes for Scotland. In 1769 he demolished the former mansion of Goodtrees (originally given a more Germanic spelling of Gut-Tres) and built a new mansion which he called
Moredun in memory of a hill on his
Perthshire estate. Moredun House was acquired in 1923 to convert into a convalescent home for ex-servicemen but was instead demolished and a new facility created known as the Murray Homes. In 1781 he succeeded
John Maule as a
Baron of the Exchequer alongside other notables such as
Cosmo Gordon. On his death he was succeeded in this role by
Archibald Cockburn. He died at Moredun on 17 April 1790 and was buried in the Chapel Royal at
Holyrood Abbey. He did not marry and had no children. ==References==