A Scion of Heroes

This fast-moving narrative, taking place in the Regency era, brings to life contemporary issues of empire and international conflict and explores some of the major social issues of the time, such as colonialism and slavery.

It vividly recreates the intimate life of a man on the edge of upper-class society, who became embroiled in the tumult of duels and adulterous liaisons. Drawing heavily on meticulously researched, fully notated and fully referenced primary material, the book ranges from the American Revolutionary War to the life of a naval officer in the fight against the tyranny of Napoleon, sharing the triumphs and hardships of life ashore and on board a man o’ war.

James Murray’s mother, the extraordinary Eliza Smith, flies in the face of the conventional well-bred Regency lady as she claims mother status for six children from at least four different fathers and becomes a wealthy woman through her involvement in slave-based plantation agriculture. James’ father, the illegitimate offspring of the illustrious Elibank Murrays, was a British Army Officer who left a unique diary of his involvement in the American Revolutionary War. The story moves from early colonial settlement in Florida, Quebec and the Bahamas and ends in the Highlands, where James’ new wife becomes involved in a adulterous liaison. James, who was then challenged to two duels, succumbed to ill health and moved back to his childhood home in New Abbey in southwest Scotland.

A Scion of Heroes is an easy-to-read but fully referenced and researched adult biography that will be of interest not only to biography aficionados but also to local history enthusiasts and students of social and military history of the Georgian period of British history.

Former headmaster Stuart McCulloch is a popular and well-known history speaker and lecturer in South West Scotland. He has featured regularly in the University enrichment lecture programme following his postgraduate research studies at the Glasgow’s Crichton Campus. His previous publications have included a local history of the Thornhill area and he also won the Truckel Prize for History, awarded to contributors by the Dumfries and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society. He is a founder member of the New Abbey Local History Group.