not able to afford to pay the fees to continue his education. At seventeen he became a teacher at Hawick Grammar School (now Hawick High School) and three years later he was headmaster of the Subscription Academy there. In 1856, he was one of the founders of the Hawick Archaeological Society.

In 1861, Murray met a music teacher, Maggie Scott, whom he married the following year. Two years later, they had a daughter Anna, who soon died of tuberculosis, then