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  of Cogitosus, who mentions Muirchu as his father; the word is cognate with machtnaigim, 'I ponder.' Maccu Machtheni would thus mean 'of the sons of Cogitosus.' Colgan and Lanigan were disposed to identify him with Adamnan, who is known as Ua Tinne, but the resemblance of the names is only apparent. His monastery (civitas), according to the 'Lebar Brecc,' was in Hy Faelan, in the north of the county of Kildare, but the 'Calendar of Cashel' says Gill Murchon (Murchu's Church) was in Hy Garchon in the county of Wicklow.

Muirchu is only known as the author of the life of St. Patrick in the 'Book of Armagh,' a manuscript transcribed in 807, and now preserved in Trinity College, Dublin. This is the earliest existing life of the saint, and forms the foundation of all the later lives, which either borrow from it or enlarge on it. It was composed in obedience to the command and at the dictation of Aedh of Sletty in the south of the Queen's County, an anchorite and bishop, who appears to have been specially interested in the see of St. Patrick, and was intimately associated with Adamnan in endeavouring to introduce the Roman Easter and other foreign customs in the North. Muirchu, who was with Adamnan at the synod summoned to support the new customs over which Flann Febla, coarb of Armagh, presided, supported the innovation. He tells us that 'many had taken in hand' the life of St. Patrick, but had failed owing to the conflicting nature of the accounts then current and the many doubts of the facts expressed on all sides. He uses the 'Confession of St. Patrick' as his authority for the earlier part, and then proceeds to the traditional matter. The parts do not harmonise, but his work is of great importance, as identifying the author of the 'Confession' with the popular saint. The copy of this life in the 'Book of Armagh' was imperfect for more than two centuries owing to the loss of the first leaf, but a few years ago the Bollandist fathers found in the Royal Library of Brussels a Legendarium of the eleventh century which contained a perfect copy of the life, not taken from the Armagh codex, and in some respects more accurate. This was placed in the hands of the Rev. Edmund Hogan, S. J., by whom it was carefully edited and published in the 'Analecta Bollandiana' in 1882. Muirchu's day is 8 June.

 MUIRHEAD, JAMES, D.D. (1742–1808), song-writer, son of Muirhead of Logan (representing an ancient family), was born in 1742 in the parish of Buittle, Kirkcudbrightshire. After elementary training at Dumfries grammar school, he studied for the church at Edinburgh University, and was ordained minister of the parish of Urr, Kirkcudbrightshire, 28, June 1770. As a proprietor and freeholder of the county, he was one of the aristocratic victims of Burns's unsparing satire in 'Ballads on Mr. Heron's Election, 1795,' and he retaliated in a brochure, in which he quoted and liberally translated into verse Martial's 'In Vacerram' (, liber, xi. ep. 66). He somewhat cleverly made out Vacerras to have been a gauger of very loose principles, and 'no publication in answer to the scurrilities of Burns ever did him so much harm in public opinion, or made Burns himself feel so sore' (manuscript of Alexander Young, quoted in Burns, vol. iv. Library edit.) Burns further denounced Muirhead in his election song of 1796, 'Wha will buy my Troggin?' A scholarly man, Muirhead was specially known as a mathematician and a naturalist. In 1796 he received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh University. He died at Spottes Hall, Dumfriesshire, 16 May 1808 (Scots Mag. lxx. 479). He married, 21 Aug. 1777, Jean Loudon (d. 1826), by whom he had two sons, William, an advocate, and Charles, and a daughter, wife of Captain Skirving, of the East India Company's service.

Muirhead's one published song is the shrewd and vivid pastoral, 'Bess the Gawkie' (i.e. fool or dupe). It first appeared in Herd's 'Scottish Songs,' 1776. Burns considered it equalled by few Scottish pastorals, pronouncing it 'a beautiful song, and in the genuine Scots taste' (, Reliques of Burns). Muirhead furnished particulars of the parish of Urr to Sinclair's 'Statistical Account of Scotland,' 1791-9.

 MUIRHEAD, JAMES (1831–1889), jurist, son of Claud Muirhead of Gogan Park, Midlothian, proprietor of the 'Edinburgh Advertiser,' born in 1831, was admitted on 31 Oct. 1854 a member of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar on 6 June 1857, being admitted a member of the Faculty of Advocates the same year. In 1862 he was elected to the chair of civil law in the university of Edinburgh, which he held until his death. He held the post of advocate