Dunkeld Cathederal houses the Dukes of Atholl family, in relation to your question the following item may be of help to you.
The great family of Murray or Moray (occasionally in old deeds Murref) is supposed to have descended from Freskine (or Friskin), a Fleming, who settled in Scotland in the reign of David I (1122-1153), and acquired from that monarch the lands of Strathbroch in Linlithgowshire, and of Duffis in Moray.
Friskin's grandson, William de Moravia, married the daughter and heiress of David de Olifard, and was the ancestor of the Morays of Bothwell and Abercairny, represented by the latter till the death of the late Major William Moray Stirling in 1850, when the male line became extinct, and the property passed to his sister, the late Mrs. Home Drummond of Blair Drummond.
His descendant, the 7th in possession, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, succeeded to the estates of his family in 1446. He was sheriff of Perthshire, and in 1458 one of the lords named for the administration of justice, who were of the king's daily council. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, great chamberlain of Scotland, by whom he had numerous issue. According to tradition, they had seventeen sons, from whom a great many families of the name of Murray are descended. In a curious document entitled "The Declaration of George Halley, in Ochterarder, concerning the Laird of Tullibardine's seventeen sons - 1710", it is stated that they "lived all to be men, and that they waited all one day upon their father at Stirling, to attend the king, with each of them one servant, and their father two. This happening shortly after an Act was made by King James Fifth, discharging any person to travel with great numbers of attendants besides their own family, and having challenged the laird of Tullibardine for breaking the said Act, he answered he brought only his own sons, with their necessary attendants; with which the king was so well pleased that he gave them small lands in heritage".
The eldest of Tullibardine's seventeen sons, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, had, with other issue, William, his successor, and Sir Andrew Murray, ancestor of the Viscounts Stormont. His great-grandson, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, was a zealous promoter of the Reformation in Scotland. George Halley, in the curious document already quoted, says that "Sir William Murray of Tullibardine having broke Argyll's face with the hilt of his sword, in King James the Sixth's presence, was obliged to leave the kingdom. Afterwards, the king's mails and slaughter cows were not paid, neither could any subject to the realm be able to compel those who were bound to pay them; upon which the king cried out - 'O, If I had Will Murray again, he would soon get my mails and slaughter cows'; to which one standing by replied - 'That if his Majesty would not take Sir William Murray's life, he might return shortly'. The king answered, 'He would be loath to take his life, for he had not another subject like him!'. Upon which promise Sir William Murray returned and got a commission for the king to go to the north, and lift up the mails and the cows, which he speedily did, to the great satisfaction of the king, so that immediately after he was made lord comptroller". This office be obtained in 1565.
His eldest son, Sir John Murray, the twelfth feudal baron of Tullibardine, was brought up with King James, who in 1592 constituted him his master of the household. On 10th July 1606 he was created Earl of Tullibardine. His lordship married Catherine, fourth daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, and died in 1609.
His eldest son, William, second Earl of Tullibardine, married Lady Borothea Stewart, eldest daughter and heir of line of the fifth Earl of Athole of the Stewart family, who died in 1595 without make issue. He eventually, in 1625, petitioned King Charles the First for the earldom of Athole. The king received the petition graciously, and gave his royal word that it should be done. The earl accordingly surrendered the title of Earl of Tullibardine into the king's hands, 1st April 1626, to be conferred on his brother Sir Patrick Murray as a separate dignity, but before the patents could be issued, his lordship died the same year. His son John, however, obtained in February 1629 the title of Earl of Athole, and thus became the first earl of the Murray branch, and the earldom of Tullibardine was at the same time granted to Sir Patrick. This Earl of Athole was a zealous royalist, and joined the association formed by the Earl of Montrose for the king at Cumbernauld, in January 1641. He died in June 1642. His eldest son John, second Earl of Athole of the Murray family, also faithfully adhered to Charles the First, and was excepted by Cromwell out of his act of grace and indemnity, 12th April 1654, when he was only about nineteen years of age. At the Restoration, he was sworn a privy counciller, obtained a charter of the hereditary office of sheriff of Fife, and in 1663 was appointed justice-general of Scotland. In 1670 he was constituted captain of the king's guards, in 1672 keeper of the privy seal, and 14th January 1673, an extraordinary lord of session. In 1670 he succeeded to the earldom of Tullibardine on the death of James, fourth earl of the new creation, and was created Marquis of Athole in 1676. He increased the power of his family by his marriage with Lady Amelia Sophia of Derby, beheaded for his loyalty 15th October 1651. Through her mother, Charlotte de la Tremouille, daughter of Claude de la Tremouille, Duke of Thouars and Prince of Palmont, she was related in blood to the Emperor of Germany, the kings of France and Spain, and most of the principal families of Europe; and by her the family of Athole acquired the seignory of the Isle of Man, and also large property in that island.
I used to live in Dunkeld in the Old Rectory immediately outside the Cathederal gates and have fond memories of the area in the 1950's/60's.
