John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730 – February 25, 1809), was Governor of the Virginia Colony, from September 25, 1771 until his departure to New York on New Years Eve, 1776. During his term as Virginia's colonial governor, he directed a series of campaigns against the Indians known as Lord Dunmore's War. From 1774 on, Dunmore was continually clashing with the Colonial Assembly. He left Williamsburg on June 8, 1775, retreating to his hunting lodge, Porto Bello, and had to take refuge on the British warship Fowey in the York River when the American Revolutionary War began. When he realized he could not regain control in Virginia, he returned to Britain in July 1776.