Life

The son of Sir William Mure of Rowallan, his mother was Elizabeth, sister of the poet Alexander Montgomerie

Alexander Montgomerie

Alexander Montgomerie , Scottish Jacobean courtier and poet, or makar, born in Ayrshire. He was one of the principal members of the Castalian Band, a circle of poets in the court of James VI in the 1580s which included the king himself. Montgomerie was for a time in favour as one of the king's...

. He was a member of the Scottish parliament in 1643, and took part in the English campaign of 1644. He was wounded at the battle of Marston Moor

Battle of Marston Moor

The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...

, but a month later was commanding a regiment at Newcastle.

Works

He wrote Dido and Aeneas; a translation (1628) of Boyd of Trochrig

Robert Boyd (University Principal)

Robert Boyd of Trochrig was a Scottish theological writer, Principal of the University of Glasgow from 1615 to 1621 and Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1622 to 1623.-Life:...

's Latin Hecatombe Christiana; The True Crucifixe for True Catholikes (1629); a paraphrase of the Psalms

Psalms

The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...

; the Historie and Descent of the House of Rowallane; A Counter-buff to Lysimachus Nicanor; The Cry of Blood and of a Broken Covenant (1650);besides much miscellaneous verse and many sonnets.

A complete edition of his works was edited by William Tough for the Scottish Text Society (2 vols., 1898). Mure's Lute-Book, a musical document of considerable interest, is preserved in the Laing collection of manuscripts in the library of the university of Edinburgh.