William Mure (December 1718 – 25 March 1776), known as others of his family as William Mure of Caldwell, was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He became a baron of the Scots exchequer, and was a friend of Prime Minister Lord Bute and David Hume.[1][2]
He was eldest son and successor to William Mure of Caldwell in Ayr and Renfrewshire, by his wife Anne, daughter of Sir James Stewart of Coltness, Lord Advocate, and widow of James Maxwell of Blawarthill. He was born late in 1718. His father dying in April 1722, he was brought up at home by his mother, under the tutorship of William Leechman; later Mure helped Leechman to his position of Principal of Glasgow University.[2]
Mure studied law at Edinburgh and Leyden, and travelled during 1741 in France and Holland. Returning to Scotland in November 1742, he was elected Member of Parliament for Renfrewshire, a seat which he held without opposition during three parliaments till 1761, when he was appointed a baron of the Scots exchequer. He spoke rarely, and attended irregularly, his principal interest lying in agricultural improvements.[1][2]
He is best known as the friend of Lord Bute and David Hume. He helped Bute with the management of the Bute estates, became a closr friend and adviser, and as Bute rose in politics was eventually one of the most influential men in Scotland, with input into its local affairs and the distribution of Scottish patronage. He corresponded much with Hume from 1742, and Hume visited Mure's house at Abbey Hill, near Holyrood. Apropos of his History Hume wrote Mure in 1756: ‘If you do not say that I have done both parties justice, and if Mrs. Mure be not sorry for poor King Charles, I shall burn all my papers and return to philosophy.’[2]
Mure was known in Scottish literary society, and published privately tracts on political economy. In 1764 and 1765 he was Lord Rector of Glasgow University, and was again put in nomination for that post in 1776, but was defeated. He died at Caldwell on 25 March 1776 of gout in the stomach. He married Anne, daughter of James Graham, Lord Easdale, a judge of the court of session, by whom he had two sons and four daughters. Letters addressed to him and other papers are published with a portrait in the ‘Caldwell Papers,’ vols. ii. and iii.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.