• Title
  [Portrait of] Thomas Muir Esqr., Younger of Huntershill, 1793 / engraving by J. Kay
• Creator
  John Kay, 1742-1826
• Call number
  P2/507
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  Edinr. [i.e. Edinburgh] : Published as the Act directs by J. Robertson, 1793.
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Prints
• Reference code
  900948
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 print - engraving - plate mark 17.2 x 11.7 cm, on sheet 18.0 x 12.1 cm
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  Thomas Muir (1765-1799), one of the Scottish Martyrs, was an advocate of parliamentary and constitutional reforms. He was arrested in January 1793 after reading an address from the United Irishmen of Dublin and on evidence that he distributed an allegedly seditious pamphlet by Thomas Paine. He was released on bail and travelled to Paris, but when he failed to return to Edinburgh for trial he was declared an outlaw. On a clandestine visit to family and friends in Scotland he was arrested and brought to trial in August 1793. Found guilty of sedition and sentenced to 14 years transportation, Muir together with fellow reformers, Thomas Palmer, William Skirving and Maurice Margarot, sailed in the transport Surprize arriving in Sydney in October 1794. Together with Joseph Gerrald, who was transported later, they became known as the Scottish Martyrs.
  
  As a political prisoner Muir was not as constrained as most convicts. Early in 1796 he escaped the colony on the American ship “Otter”. Muir eventually arrived in Paris in December 1797. For a short time he enjoyed some influence and attracted public attention but soon drifted into obscurity. He died at Chantilly, near Paris, in 1799.
  
  Reference:
  Australian Dictionary of Biography Online. http://adbonline.anu.edu.au/ (accessed 20 July 2010)
• Scope and Content
  A full length portrait of Thomas Muir holding a handful of pamphlets
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright: Artist died before 1955
• Description source
  
  Title and date taken from engraving.
• General note
  
  Digital order no:a3945001
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  Printed at lower left 'J. Kay'
• Subject
  Muir, Thomas, 1765-1799--Portraits
  Political prisoners--New South Wales.
  
• Topic
  convicts
  engravings
  portraits
  
• Open Rosetta viewer
  IE3289628

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