He was born in the manse at Dysart, Fife in 1764 the second son of Patrick Muirhead, the parish minister, in a family of at least nine children.

[3] In 1816 he was translated to Cramond Kirk on the north edge of Edinburgh[4] replacing Rev Archibald Bonar.

As the oldest minister then present he was permitted to be the second to sign the Act of separation and Deed of Demission, immediately after the first signature of Thomas Chalmers.

[citation needed] Muirhead commissioned David Cousin immediately to design a new Cramond Free Church.

[5] Their children included Rev Patrick Thomas Muirhead (1819-1888) minister of the Free Church in Kippen.