Sir David Murray of Gorthy (1567-1629) - Poet
He was born in 1567 in Abercairney, Perthshire, Scotland. Little is known about his early life
and he is first mentioned in a record of 1600, when he was appointed Comptroller of the Royal Household and a Gentleman of the
Bedchamber to Prince Henry, the son of James VI. For his services to the Crown he was awarded a state pension, and during the reign
of Charles I he acquired the lands of Gorthy in Perthshire, where he died without an heir in 1629. Among his best work are two sonnets to Prince Henry and a metrical version of Psalm 104, 'Bless the Lord o my soul'. His long poem in irregular verse, The Tragicall Death of
Sophonisba, was praised by his contemporaries, although it will find few admirers today. Murray's poems were published by the Bannatyne Club in 1823.
Works: The Tragicall Death of Sophonisba (1611); Psalm CIV (1615); The Complaint of the Shepherd Harpatus (1620).
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