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SPOILER WARNING
This page contains MAJOR SPOILERS about Ian Murray from the Outlander book series, which may not yet have aired in the TV series. Read at your own peril!
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This article is about Ian Murray, husband of Jenny Murray. You may be looking for their son, Ian Fraser Murray.


Ian Murray (the elder) is a former soldier and the husband of Jenny Murray. He grew up in Scotland with his father, John Murray, and was very close to Jamie Fraser, the future laird of Lallybroch.

Personal History[]

Early Life[]

Ian Murray was born in 1720 to John Murray and his wife. He grew up near Lallybroch in Scotland with his best friend Jamie Fraser. Together the two of them would often get into trouble and both had strong memories of the punishments. In his teens Ian joined the army where after years of fighting he was seriously injured in a battle at Daumier were he was serving with Jamie and Fergus mac Leodhas[1] and he had to have the lower part of his right leg (below the knee) removed after an infection of a grape shot.[2]

Marriage to Jenny[]

Ian married Janet "Jenny" Fraser, sister to Jamie Fraser, in 1740 shortly after her brother was imprisoned and her father died. Ian had returned from war having lost part of his leg; Jenny came up to him while he was working and kissed him; and told him that they would get married. Ian was impressed, as he didn't think he would marry considering he was no longer a "whole man". Ian and Jenny had a close relationship due to their growing up together (she is only a year older than Ian) and they had a great understanding of each other. Since her father had died, Jamie should have become the Laird of Broch Tuarach, but since he was in prison, Ian managed the estate for him. Not long into their marriage, the two welcomed their first child, James Alexander Gordon Fraser Murray, named after his uncle and lovingly known as Jamie or Young Jamie.

Outlander Series[]

"Virgins"[]

In October 1740, Jamie joins the mercenary group that Ian is serving with in France. Ian is shocked to see Jamie's wounds from the flogging and to learn what happened to him. Jamie tells Ian that he is responsible for his father's death.

The mercenaries' first job after Jamie joins them is to deliver a wagon of rugs to a Jewish moneylender in Bordeaux. They are ambushed en route but manage to fight off the attackers. Some of the attackers get away with one of the rugs, one is killed and another is tortured for information. He reveals that he was part of a Jewish group of bandits who rob other Jews.

Ian tells Jamie that he will help him kill Jack Randall, but Jamie says he wants Ian to do something else for him. He wants him to go home and look after Jenny and Lallybroch. But Ian tells Jamie that Jenny has enough tenants to look after her and Jamie needs him here.

After delivering the rugs, the mercenary captain takes Jamie and Ian to meet their next client, a Jewish physician named Dr. Hasdi. Dr. Hasdi wants Jamie and Ian to safeguard and protect his granddaughter Rebekah as she travels to Paris with a very old and precious Torah scroll and a large sum of money that make up her dowry. Rebekah is to marry the son of the chief rabbi of the Paris synagogue.

Jamie and Ian go to a tavern with attached brothel afterwards and Jamie is attracted to a young prostitute. They witness one of the mercenaries, Mathieu, take a prostitute by force in the tavern yard in front of many people, and are both left feeling disturbed and aroused by what they've seen, and guilty for not intervening.

Two days later they set out for Paris. Jamie and Ian are on horseback accompanying the coach carrying Rebekah and Monsieur Peretz who is custodian of the Torah scroll. On the second day of the journey the coach is attacked by bandits. As Jamie and Ian try to fight them off the coach overturns and Monsieur Peretz is killed. The two attackers escape and no sign of the coach driver can be found. Jamie and Ian take Rebekah and her maidservant on horseback and decide to ride to Saint-Aubaye to seek help in righting the coach and dealing with Monsieur Peretz's body.

Jamie feels unwell at Saint-Aubaye and is given some medicine by Rebekah which makes him hallucinate. While Jamie is in this non-lucid state, things get hot and steamy between Ian and Rebekah. The next morning Jamie and Ian discover that Rebekah and her maid have absconded with the Torah scroll. On questioning the ostler they learn the women left three hours past moonrise headed toward Bonnes. Jamie and Ian split to follow the trail of the women when they get to a crossroads.

Ian is met by Josef from their mercenary company who tells him that the rest of the mercenary party was attacked again by the same band of Jewish bandits they'd already encountered. The mercenaries managed to fight them off and protect Rebekah's dowry money they were guarding but four of them were badly wounded. Ian doesn't tell Josef that he and Jamie have lost Rebekah and the Torah scroll.

Jamie and Ian track Rebekah to a small manor house owned by the Vicomte Beaumont. When they knock on the door it is opened by one of the bandits who attacked the coach. He turns out to be the Vicomte, Pierre d'Anton. Jamie and Ian are ushered in at knife-point and Ian sees that the rug which was stolen from their wagon is on the floor. Pierre tells them that he and Rebekah have been betrothed for four years. Pierre explains to them that Rebekah's mother married a Christian and was declared dead by her father. When Rebekah was 14 she fell in love with 16 year old Pierre d'Anton and they were betrothed. But Rebecca's father died and she went to live with her grandfather, Dr Hasdi, and embraced her Jewish heritage. Pierre vowed that he would covert to Judaism so he could still marry Rebekah, but her grandfather did not believe that Pierre would be prepared to give up his title and property which would happen if he became a Jew. He feared that Pierre would revert to being Christian and Rebekah with him once they were married. Pierre says that he and Rebekah arranged for Pierre to abduct her on the journey to Paris and that Rebekah had told him that the rug was part of her dowry and she had had some men deliver it.

Pierre locks Jamie and Ian in the wine cellar where they help themselves to the wine and figure out that Rebekah is the person providing information to the Jewish bandits about which wagons they should attack, and that the rug is her share of the profits. They decide that Pierre is ignorant of this.

That night Rebekah and Pierre are married in his garden in accordance with proper Jewish custom and the Law. They get Jamie and Ian to witness the wedding so they can tell Dr. Hasdi. When the marriage ceremony is over Jamie asks Ian to detain Pierre while he talks with Rebekah. Jamie tells Rebekah that if she doesn't give him the Torah scroll to return to her grandfather, he will tell Pierre about her involvement with the gang of bandits. Rebekah reluctantly agrees and Jamie and Ian return the Torah scroll to Dr. Hasdi.

After leaving his house they go back to the tavern which they had previously visited and Jamie seeks out the brown-haired girl he was attracted to. He sees Mathieu with her and is overcome with rage. He shouts at Mathieu to let go of the girl, but Mathieu ignores him. Jamie takes out a pistol and fires at Mathieu and all hell breaks loose. Mathieu turns on Jamie, and Ian when he goes to Jamie's aid, and Jamie is overtaken with great rage and throttles Mathieu.

As his rage dissipates he turns to the girl only to find that she is dead with a bullet hole in her breast, most likely from the gun that he fired. Ian takes Jamie to the cathedral of St Andre to confess his sins, but Jamie refuses so Ian takes him into a side chapel and together they pray for the girl, for Jamie's father and for all their loved ones left behind in Scotland. They leave the cathedral and face the future together.

Outlander[]

Ian, along with Jenny, is introduced when Jamie returns to Lallybroch with his new wife, Claire. Jamie hasn't seen Ian or Jenny since before they were married, and the reunion is quite tense at first, between Jamie's mistaken assumptions and the stubbornness of both Frasers. Claire's initial impression of Ian is that he has a mild and unassuming manner, though with an undeniable authority when such is called for.

Eventually, the four grow close while Jamie and Claire live at Lallybroch. Ian and Jenny incorporate Jamie into the running of the estate once he returns, and he and Claire live with them for some time. Just months later, however, Jamie is kidnapped and sent to prison, which leaves Ian and Jenny to run the estate.

Dragonfly in Amber[]

Ian is the first to greet Jamie and Claire when they return to Lallybroch from Paris, informing them that Jenny's due to have another baby in February. She and Ian welcome a second daughter, Katherine "Kitty" Mary Murray, in early 1744. In the autumn, when the potato crop is ready for harvesting, Ian takes it in hand to consult a special volume concerned with planting, which he has used ever since planting the potato crop. The harvest is a success, leaving Ian pleased with this new bounty.

After months of peaceful life at Lallybroch, Jamie receives a letter from Prince Charles announcing that he, the prince, has taken the liberty of signing Jamie's name on a document declaring rebellion against the crown. Thus, when Jamie has to raise a company of men for Prince Charles' army, Jenny begs Jamie to take Ian with him. She worries for Ian's sense of self-worth as a man, which has been more fragile since the loss of his leg. Jamie reluctantly agrees, and starts by ordering Ian to join his company. Ian, completely baffled, scoffs at the idea, and in the course of shouting at each other, Jamie challenges Ian to an arm wrestling match to prove who is stronger. After a brief, earnest go at it, though, the men break out into laughter and call it a tie. In the end, Jamie asks Ian to go with him, but Ian refuses, pledging to take care of Jenny and the estate in his absence.

Voyager[]

After the Rising, Ian was often arrested by the English, who wanted to seize the Broch Tuarach estate on the grounds that it belonged to a Jacobite traitor. Because Jamie had had the forethought to have a deed of sasine written and signed before rebellion had been declared, the estate actually belonged to Jenny and Ian's son, Young Jamie. Still, the crown would try their luck by taking Ian away to be tried in court, and at least once was imprisoned in the Tolbooth in Edinburgh. The English were always unsuccessful, though, and the family retained ownership of Lallybroch.

Lallybroch suffered after the Rising, as most of the Scottish Highlands did during that time, but its tentants faired better than most. Ian and Jenny had a few more children during these years: around 1747-1748, Jenny gave birth to a set of twins, Michael and Janet Ellen Murray, and in 1749 Jenny gave birth prematurely to another daughter, Caitlin Maisri, who died within a day. Seeing the baby's birth recorded in the family Bible as December 3, Jamie recalls the redcoats' raid on the house on December 2, wondering if this attack was to blame for Jenny's premature labor. Two years after the birth of their sixth child, Ian was once again being held by the British crown, when Jenny gave birth to their youngest child, Ian James FitzGibbons Fraser Murray.

Ian and Jenny continued raising their six children; although they often had trouble with young Ian, who had a lust for adventure that could not be contained by a peaceful life on a farm. In 1766, Ian and Jenny were shocked at the return of Claire; they had assumed that she'd died during the Rising, though Jamie had never explicitly told them what happened to her.

Drums of Autumn[]

A few years after Jamie and Claire left to rescue Young Ian, Ian and Jenny are shocked at the arrival of their niece, Brianna, whose existence they hadn't known about. The family is delighted to have her with them, though, and the day after Brianna's arrival, Ian starts to wear his kilt again, to Jenny's amazement. He shows Brianna around Lallybroch, and even suggests that Lallybroch might rightfully be hers. She immediately dismisses the notion, insisting that it belongs to the Murrays, and she only came to find her parents.

The Fiery Cross, A Breath of Snow and Ashes[]

The Murrays kept in regular contact with the Frasers in spite of the difficulty of sending letters.

An Echo in the Bone[]

Unbeknownst to either Jamie or Claire, Ian contracted consumption while being held in the Tolbooth in Edinburgh after Culloden, although it did not become debilitating until close to thirty years later. When Jamie and Claire finally return to Lallybroch in January 1778, they find that Ian, although gentle and cheerful as always, has entered the final phase of the disease. Jenny asks Claire to heal Ian, but the sickness has progressed too far, and Claire's helpless "no" causes a rift between the two women. A short time later, Ian dies, surrounded by his family and holding Jamie's hand, on March 10, 1778.

Personality[]

Claire describes Ian as having an undeniable authority despite his unassuming manner.[2]

Physical Appearance[]

Described as tall and thin to the point of skinniness with thick brown hair and deep-set brown eyes. Ian is missing his right leg below the knee and walks with a wooden peg leg.[2]

Relationships[]

Name[]

  • Ian is the modern Scottish variant of the name John,[3] the English form of Iohannes, the Latin form of the Greek name Ιωαννης (Ioannes), itself derived from the Hebrew name יוֹחָנָן (Yochanan) meaning "YAHWEH is gracious".[4]
  • Alastair the Anglicized form of Alasdair,[5] a Scottish form of Alexander[6] Latinized form of the Greek name Αλεξανδρος (Alexandros), which meant "defending men" from Greek αλεξω (alexo) "to defend, help" and ανηρ (aner) "man" (genitive ανδρος).[7]
  • Robert is from the Germanic name Hrodebert meaning "bright fame", derived from the Germanic elements hrod "fame" and beraht "bright".[8]
  • MacLeod is a variant of McLeod,[9] from Gaelic Mac Leòid meaning "son of Leod", a given name derived from Old Norse ljótr "ugly".[10]
  • Murray is derived from the region in Scotland called Moray meaning "seaboard settlement".[11]

Trivia[]

TV Series[]

Scottish actor Steven Cree portrays Ian Murray in the Outlander television series.

Appearances[]

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

Season Four

Gallery[]

Season One[]

Season Two[]

Season Three[]

Season Four[]

References[]

  1. Outlander, chapter 26. Jamie and Ian's friend was named Fergus nic Leodhas in Outlander; however, in The Outlandish Companion, this is noted as an error, which should be corrected as Fergus mac Leodhas.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Outlander, chapter 26.
  3. Behind the Name – Accessed 17 March 2014
  4. Behind the Name – Accessed 17 March 2014
  5. Behind the Name: Alastair - accessed 12 June 2016
  6. Behind the Name: Alasdair - accessed 12 June 2016
  7. Behind the Name: Alexander - accessed 12 June 2016
  8. Behind the Name: Robert - accessed 12 June 2016
  9. Behind the Name – Surnames: MacLeod - accessed 12 June 2016
  10. Behind the Name – Surnames: McLeod - accessed 12 June 2016
  11. Behind the Name – Surnames: Murray – Accessed 17 March 2014
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