MURE, William (1718-76), of Caldwell, Renfrew.

A serious young Presbyterian, who cut short his grand tour to pursue further studies in France, Mure came home in spring 1742. Returned in the following December for his county, he voted with the Opposition on the Hanoverians, 6 Dec. 1743Caldwell Pprs. ii(1), p. 58. and 18 Jan. 1744, but was absent from the division on them in 1746. Re-elected in 1747, he was at first regarded as an opponent by Pelham, who on 8 May 1752 had a scheme ‘for choosing a good man for the shire of Renfrew in the room of one Mure, who has never given us a vote in the two Parliaments in which he has represented that county’.To Newcastle, 8 May 1752, Add. 32727, f. 130. On 6 Aug. Argyll reported to Pelham that Mure had been rechosen, adding: ‘He has never yet given us a vote but I have had hopes given me that he may’.Newcastle (Clumber) mss. He had come over by October 1753, when Pelham sent him a letter asking him to attend at the opening of Parliament, to which he replied:

My attendance there is entirely at your command and my voice determined in your service ... but ... I might perhaps be as usefully employed were I to continue here in the country to look after some disputed elections in the neighbouring counties. Caldwell Pprs. ii(1), pp. 108-9.

Returned as a government supporter in 1754, he retired from Parliament in 1761 on becoming a baron of the Exchequer of Scotland.

He died 25 Mar. 1776.