Robert Moray Sir Robert Moray ( alternative spellings : Murrey , Murray ) ( 1608 or 1609 – 4 July 1673 ) was a Scottish soldier , statesman , diplomat , judge , spy , freemason and natural philosopher . He was well known to Charles I and Charles II , and the French cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin . He attended the meeting of the 1660 committee of 12 on 28 November 1660 that led to the formation of the Royal Society , and was influential in gaining its Royal Charter and formulating its statutes and regulations . Early life . Moray was the elder of two sons of a Perthshire laird , Sir Mungo Moray of Craigie . His grandfather was Robert Moray of Abercairney ( near Crieff ) , and his mother was a daughter of George Halket of Pitfirran , Dunfermline . An uncle , David Moray , had been a personal servant of Henry Frederick , Prince of Wales . Biographers have claimed that Moray attended the University of St Andrews and continued his university education in France , however , Moray himself wrote to his friend Alexander Bruce ( who probably had attended St Andrews ) , jocularly proposing a debate between the 2 men , in which Moray said he would force Bruce to " " rub up your St Andrews language " " , and " " one may give you your hands full that was scarcely ever farrer East then Cowper " " ( Cupar lies several miles to the west of St Andrews ) . Moray ' s name does not appear in the matriculation records of the university . Moray appears to have taken an interest in applied science early in life . In 1623 he visited the artificial island constructed in the Firth of Forth at Culross by Sir George Bruce ( Alexander ' s grandfather ) , from which coal was mined . In a letter written later in his life , Moray cites 1627 as the year when he began study " " to understand and regulate my passions " " . In 1633 , he joined the " Garde Écossaise " , a regiment which fought under Colonel John Hepburn in the army of Louis XIII . He became a favourite of Cardinal Richelieu , who used him as an agent ( spy ) . Richelieu promoted Moray to Lieutenant Colonel and sent him to join the Covenanters army in Edinburgh in 1638 . Experienced in military engineering , he was appointed quartermaster - general in the Scottish Army that invaded England in 1640 in the Second Bishops ' War and took Newcastle upon Tyne . Several Freemasons who were members of the Lodge of Edinburgh initiated him into Freemasonry there on 20 May 1641 . Although he was initiated into a Scottish lodge , the event took place south of the border : this is earliest extant record of a man being initiated into speculative Freemasonry on English soil . Thereafter , he regularly used the five pointed star , his masonic mark , on his correspondence . In France . After Richelieu died on 4 December 1642 , Moray took news of his death to Charles I in Oxford . He was knighted by Charles I on 10 January 1643 , who sent him back to France . Richelieu had been succeeded by Mazarin as Prime Minister of France , but Moray found himself out of favour in the French court . Following the death of Louis XIII in May 1643 , and succession of the infant Louis XIV , Mazarin was became the " de facto " ruler of France . Moray rejoined the French Army , becoming nominal Colonel of the " Garde Écossaise " in 1645 , although the regiment actually fell under control of Archibald Douglas 12th Earl of Angus as Moray could not fulfill his recruiting quota . During his time in French service , Moray was sent to campaign in Germany , but was captured by the Duke of Bavaria on 24 November 1643 and was imprisoned in Bavaria . Mazarin refused to ransom him . At length , Mazarin realised that Moray has useful contacts amongst the Scottish Freemasons , and arranged for his release from Bavaria on 28 April 1645 , paying a ransom of £16 , 500 . Charles lost the Battle of Naseby on 13 June 1645 , and Mazarin sent Moray to England . Charles I had lost the battle of Marston Moor and surrendered himself to the Scots at Newark . Moray joined Charles I and the Scottish army in Newcastle in 1646 , where , serving as his secretary ( and secret agent of the Duke of Hamilton ) , he tried to persuade the King to escape , disguised as a woman . Charles backed out at the last minute , fearing to be discovered in a ridiculous situation . The Scots handed Charles I to their Presbyterian allies in England in 1647 , after ensuring their arrears were paid . What they did not foresee was that their allies would lose control pf both the Parliament and the king to Oliver Cromwell ' s Independents soon after . After a second Royalist uprising in 1648 , while Charles was confined at Carisbrooke Castle , Charles was tried for high treason at Westminster , and executed on 30 January 1649 . After 1649 . Moray helped to persuade the Prince of Wales , the future Charles II , to visit Scotland for his coronation as King of Scots at Scone on 1 January 1651 . Charles then invaded England from Scotland , but was defeated at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651 , and forced to escape to France . In Scotland , Moray became Lord Justice Clerk , a Privy Councillor , and a Lord of Session in 1651 . He married Sophia Lindsay , daughter of David Lindsay , 1st Lord Balcarres , but she died in childbirth on 2 January 1653 and the child was stillborn . Moray joined a Scottish uprising in 1653 which was suppressed by Cromwell , and Moray returned to the continent in 1654 . Moray spent time in Bruges in 1656 , then in Maastricht until 1659 , when he joined Charles in Paris . Following the restoration of Charles II , Moray was one founders of the Royal Society at its first formal meeting on Wednesday 28 November 1660 , at the premises of Gresham College on Bishopsgate , at which Christopher Wren , Gresham Professor of Astronomy , delivered a lecture . The twelve in attendance were an interesting mix of four Royalists ( William Brouncker , 2nd Viscount Brouncker , Alexander Bruce , 2nd Earl of Kincardine , Sir Paul Neile , William Balle ) and six Parliamentarians ( John Wilkins , Robert Boyle , Jonathan Goddard , William Petty , Lawrence Rook , Christopher Wren ) and two others with less fixed ( or more flexible ) views , Abraham Hill and Moray . Moray was influential in gaining the new society its Royal Charter and formulating its statutes and regulations . Moray became a Privy Councillor again in February 1661 , and was later a Lord of the Exchequer . His younger brother , Sir William Moray , was Master of Works to Charles II . The King granted him an apartment at the Palace of Whitehall , where he engaged in chemical experiments . He became a recluse in later life , and , by the time of his death , he was virtually a pauper . He was buried in Westminster Abbey at the order of the King . Moray had a range of notable friends : James Gregory , Samuel Pepys , Thomas Vaughan , Andrew Marvell , John Evelyn and Gilbert Burnet .