DUNMORE, JOHN MURRAY, EARL OF (1732-1809), English governor of Virginia, succeeded to the peerage in 1756. He sat in the House of Lords from 1761 until he became governor of the colony of New York in 177o. In 1771 he was also appoint ed governor of Virginia. He made himself unpopular by dissolving the assembly in 1772, 1773 and 1774 because of its expression of revolutionary sentiments. Early in 1775 he removed the powder from the magazine at Williamsburg, Va., and thus occa sioned the first armed uprising of Virginia. This led him to re move the seat of government to a man-of-war lying off Yorktown. Further disagreements led the burgesses to contend that he had abdicated. Dunmore returned to England in 1776, and in 1787 was made governor of the Bahamas, a post which he held until 1796. Later critics have felt that the Indian War (see POINT