Robert Moray

Sir Robert Moray (* 1608 or 1609; † July 4, 1673 ) was Scottish polymath, Freemasons and a founding member and president of the Royal Society.

Life

According to Burke's History of the Landed Gentry, he was the son of Sir Mungo Murray. After attending the University of St Andrews, he continued his education in France, where he. Join the army of Louis XIII entered and reached the rank of colonel. There he was a friend of Cardinal Richelieu, a counselor of Louis XIII.

On his return to Scotland, he was General of Artillery in the Covenanter army, which invaded in 1641 in England, where he was responsible for the Scottish army at Newcastle upon Tyne. He was born on May 20, 1641 by Freemasons in a Deputationsloge of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary 's Chapel ) No.. 1 is initiated. Although he was initiated in a Scottish lodge - the event took place in the south of the Scottish border - the report is considered to be the earliest record of a person who was initiated in the speculative Freemasonry on English soil. He used the regular five-pointed star as a Masonic symbol on his correspondence.

On January 10, 1643 he was knighted by Charles I in Oxford.

In Germany, he fought in the army of Jules Mazarin and was jailed in Bavaria. As appointed colonel of the Scottish regiment he was both negotiator for France. Once his release in Bavaria was secured, he returned to England.

To 1646 he was with Charles I and the Scottish army at Newcastle, where he arranged the flight of the King in disguise. But Charles I made ​​in the last minute backed out because he feared to be discovered in a ridiculous situation.

At the time of the Commonwealth of England Moray lived abroad; 1656 he was in Bruges, later in Maastricht to 1659th

Sir Robert Moray led to the founding meeting of the Royal Society the chair and a week later he announced at the second meeting that King Charles II had their meeting officially approved. On the granting of the Royal Charter, he was just as instrumental as in the formulation of its statutes.

He married Sophia Lindsay, daughter of Sir David Lindsay, 12th Earl of Crawford. After her death he lived in retirement, except to attend meetings philosophical and devoted himself to his chemical experiments.

Moray had a number notabler friends such as Samuel Pepys, Thomas Vaughan (1621-1666), Andrew Marvell, John Evelyn and Gilbert Burnet ( 1643-1715 ).