Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/43

 MURRAY

MURRAY

He became a Methodist preacher, and in 1760 returned to England where he adopted Universa- list doctrines. In 1770 he immigrated to America and preached in several New England cities. Upon the outbreak of the Revolutionary war he was chaplain of a brigade of Rhode Island in- fantry, but ill health compelled him to return to Gloucester, Mass., where he established a Univer- salist society. He was a member of the first Uiiiversalist convention that met at Oxford, Mass., in 1758, and adopted the name of Indepen- dent Christian Universalists. He was in charge of a society in Boston, 1793-1815, and was known as the " Father of Universalism ", although his doc- trines differed from those afterwards recognized by that denomination. He was married in 1788 to Judith (Sargent) Stevens, a sister of Winthrop Sargent. She contributed to the Massachusetts Magazine and the Boston Weekly 3Iagazine under the pen name "Constantia" and was editor of the Repository and Gleaner (3 vols., 1798), and of An Autobiography of John Murray (1816). She died in Natchez, Miss., June 6, 1820. Mr. Murray is the author of Letters and Sketches. He died in Boston, Mass., Sept. 3. 1815.

MURRAY, John M'Kane, author, was born in Glenariffe, county Antrim. Ireland, Dec. 12, 1847. He immigrated to New York with his parents, and was educated at St. John's college, Fordham, and was graduated in medicine from the University of the City of New York. He practised medicine in Brooklyn, N.Y., until 1880, also devoting him- self to literary work. He became a victim to phthisis, and spent the last five years of his life in seeking health. He spoke and read six languages, and contributed regularly to Roman Cafliolic periodicals. He answered the attacks made on the Roman Catholic church and its institutions, and was influential in securing the removal of many objectionable references to that church from text books. He revised Kerney's " General History," and was revising Lingard's " History of England " when he died. He received a medal and a letter from Pope Pius IX. for his Popidar History of the Catholic Church in America (1876). He is also the author of: The Prose and Poetry of Ireland (1877); The Catholic Heroes and Hero- ines of America (1878); Little Lives of the Great Saints (1879), The Catholic Pioneers of America (1881), and Lessons in English Literature (1883). He died in Chicago, 111., July 30, 1885.

MURRAY, Lindley, grammarian, was born in Swatara, Pa., April 23, 1745; son of Robert Murray. His parents were Quakers, and he was educated in the Friends school in Philadelphia. His father settled in New York city in 1753, and he was trained for a mercantile career. He ran away from home in 1759 to escape the severity of his father and began a course of study at BurlingtoUj

N.J. He returned to his home in New York shortly afterward, was supplied with a tutor by his father, and with John Jay was a pupil in law under Benjamin Kissam, 1761-65. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1765, being licensed to practise in all the courts in the province, and shortly afterward went to England, where he remained until 1771. He practised law, 1771-75, and in 1775 retired to Islip, Long Island, and spent four years in out-door employment and pleasure. He returned to New York city in 1779 and under the direction of his father made a fortune in com- mercial speculation. He retired from active life at the close of the Revolution and resided first on the Hudson and afterward at Bethlehem, Pa., but ill health forced him to live in England and he settled at Holdgate near York, in 1784. He was confined to his room for sixteen years by a muscular affection. He devoted himself to study and literary work, collected a library of historical, philological and theological works, and wrote "Murray's English Grammar" and "Murray's English Reader", introduced into all the English and American schools. He made a study of botany during the last years of his life, and his garden in its variety and rarity excelled the Royal gardens at Kews. The date of liis marriage was June 22, 1767. Besides his English and French readers and spelling books he is the author of: The Poiver of Religion on the Mind (1787); English Grammar (1795); Selections from Bishop Home's Commentaries on the Psalms (1812); Biographical Sketch of Henry Tuke (1815); Compendium of Religious Faith and Practice: designed for Young Persons of the Society of Friends (1815), and On the Duty and Benefit of a Daily Perusal of the Scriptures (1817). See Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lindley Murray in a Series of Letters written by himself, with a Preface and Continuation by Elizabeth Frank (1826). He died at Holdgate, near York, England, Feb. 16, 1826.

MURRAY, Nicholas, clergyman, was born in Ballynaskea, county Westmeath, Ireland, Dec. 25, 1802; son of Nicholas and Judith (Magum) Murray. He attended school in Ireland until 1814, when he was apprenticed for three years as a merchant's clerk, and being cruelly treated ran away, and in July, 1818, arrived in New York city. His mother it is said had him cursed from the altar of the Roman Catholic church for his disobedience. He entered the employ of Harper and Brothers, printers, and resided with the family. He was converted to the Methodist and later to the Presbyterian faith and deciding to en- ter the ministry he attended the academy at Am- herst, Mass., 1821-22, was graduated at Williams college, A.B., 1826. A.M., 1829, and studied at Princeton theological seminary, 1826-28. He