MURRAY, LINDLEY. 



MURRAY, SIR ROBERT. 



400 



Society of Friends, and he was tbe eldest of twelve children. He 

 received tbe rudiments of education at Philadelphia, in the academy 

 of the Society of Friends. In 1753, big father, wbo was an enterprising 

 merchant, removed with his family to New York, where Lindley wag 

 sent to a good school. At an early age he wag placed in hia father's 

 counting-house, in order to be trained up to the mercantile profession, 

 but having taken a decided dislike to it, he prevailed on hia father to 

 allow him to have a private tutor to instruct him in classical learning, 

 and afterwards to place him under an eminent lawyer, in order to 

 receive instruction in the law, to which profession he had resolved to 

 devote himself. John Jay, afterwards governor of the state of New 

 York, was hia fallow-student About the age of twenty-one he was 

 called to the bar, and having obtained a good practice he soon after- 

 wards married. He was sedulous in his application to his business as 

 a lawyer, and very successful till the disputes commenced between 

 Great Britain and America. The law then ceased to be lucrative, and 

 he entered into the mercantile profession, with such success that about 

 the time of the establishment of American independence he had 

 acquired sufficient property to allow him to gratify his wish of retiring 

 from business. 



Lindley Murray purchased a beautiful seat on the banks of the 

 river about three miles from New York, but before ha removed to it 

 be had a severe attack of illness, which left him in a very debilitated 

 state. In 1784 he embarked for England, with his wife, in hope that 

 a climate where the summer* are more temperate and less relaxing 

 than they are in the United States, might contribute to the restoration 

 of bis strength. He purchased a house and garden at Holdgate, a 

 small village about a mile from the city of York, where he resided 

 during the remainder of his life. For a abort time his muscular 

 strength increased, but afterwards diminished till he could no longer 

 take exercise except in a carriage, or in a vehicle in which he was 

 drawn about his garden, but for many years before his death he was 

 entirely confined to hU room. In the sedentary state to which he was 

 reduced he occupied himeelf by reading and the composition of works 

 chiefly intended for the instruction of youth* 



Lindley Hurray's first work, ' The Power of Religion on the Hind,' 

 was published anonymously in 1787. It is a selection of passages 

 from various authors, and was very favourably received. The first 

 edition of his ' English Grammar' was brought out in 1795. A second 

 edition was soon required, and the book was revised aud enlarged by 

 the author, and then reprinted. ' Exercises,' to correspond with the 

 ' Grammar,' and a 'Key to the ExercUes, were published in 1797, in 

 which year he also published [an Abridgment of the Grammar for 

 the use of minor schools and those beginning the study of grammar. 

 The four volumes were adapted to each other, and were soon intro- 

 duced into many schools. The sale of them has been extremely large, 

 and unfortunately still continues. Hurray's 'Grammar 'and 'Exercises' 

 however arc entitled to little praise beyond the care with which the 

 materials have been arranged ; they do not even approximate to a high 

 standard in point of clearness of exposition, aud are besides bused on 

 a wrong principle, that of teaching the pupil bow to write good English 

 by placing before him specimens of bad English : a principle unhappily 

 perpetuated in several of the most recent common school grammars. 

 I >efinitions are given by Hurray, which are frequently very ob-cure, 

 and rules are laid down without explanation of the principles on 

 winch they are founded, and if the pupil commits the definitions and 

 roles to memory, believes in them, and can apply them, his gram- 

 matical education, as far as these works are concerned, is considered 

 to be complete. But grammars of this class ill supply the wants of 

 the present age, even for the purposes of common school instruction, 

 and ought to be superseded by others of n better kind, in which the 

 principles of the language should be explained, as well as illustrated 

 by specimens selected from the best writers. Murray's ' Grammar ' is 

 altogether deficient in the etymological part, and tbe student can derive 

 from it no knowledge of the true forms of words aud their historical 

 deduction from the early state of our language. Hia next publication 

 was a series of extracts called ' The English Header,' to which he soon 

 afterwards added an ' Introduction,' and a ' Sequel ; ' the three volumes 

 containing respectively selections suited to pupils of different degrees 

 of maturity. The success which attended these publications induced 

 bib to publish the ' Lecteur Francois ' in 1802, and in 1807 an ' Intro- 

 duction au Lecteur Fraucoi*.' In 1804 he published a ' Spelling-Book.' 

 Fur the copyright of all these works be received a liberal price, nnd 

 as he had no children, and his property was as much as he and his 

 wife required, the entire sum was devoted to charitable purposes. All 

 these editions were in 12mo. In 1808 he published an enlarged edition 

 of the 'Grammar' aud 'Exercises,' in 2 vols. 8 vo, designed for the 

 use of persons who might deem it worthy a place in their libraries. 

 He also published a ' Selection from Home's Commentary on the 

 Psalms,' 12mo, and a little work, published in 1817, 'On the Duty 

 and Benefit of a Daily Perusal of the Holy Scriptures.' 



Lindley Murray, though subject for so many years to bodily infirmity 

 as well as to some severe attacks of disease, continued to live till hia 

 eighty-first yeir. He died February 16, 1826, with the reputation of 

 being an exceedingly kind and good man. His wife survived him. 



(Memoin of the Lift and Writing! of Lindlfij Murray, in a fieriei 

 of L*ltrt written by himtdf ; v>it\ a Preface and GmtmwMion of the 

 Memoir,, by Elizabeth Frank, York, 8vo, )82fl.) 



MURRAY, PATRICK, FIFTH LORD ELIBA.NK, eldest son of 

 Alexander, fourth lord, was born m February 1703, aud on the 22nd 

 of June 1723, he passed advocate. He did not prosecute the legal 

 profession however. The saiue year he entered the army ; and in 

 1740, which was about five years after he had succeeded by his 

 father's death to the family honours, we find his lordship a lieuteuant- 

 colouel in the expedition to Carthagena, of which expedition he wrote 

 an account, which remains in manuscript, it seems, iu the library of 

 the Board of Trade. From that time he frequently committed his 

 thoughts to paper, and was known among the literati of Edinburgh, 

 hia contemporaries, for the aouteness of his understanding and the 

 varied nature of his information. In 1758 he published ' Thoughts 

 on Money, Circulation, and Paper Currency ; ' aud soon afterwards an 

 ' Inquiry into the Origin and Consequence of the Public Debts.' In 

 1765 he published 'Queries relating to the proposed. Plan for altering 

 Entails in Scotland;' and in 1773, a ' Letter to Lord Hailes on his 

 Remarks on the History of Scotland.' Tin same year, when Dr. 

 Johnson visited Scotland, he addressed a letter to him, and had after- 

 wards various interviews with him. In 1774 he published some 

 ' Considerations on the present State of the Peerage of Scotland.' Iu 

 political life he was an opposition lord ; and is now known to have 

 maintained a correspondence with the exiled house of Stuart. His 

 younger brother Alexander Murray was likewise so enthusiastic a 

 Jacobite as to propose leading an insurrection in favour of the 

 Pretender. That brother, it may also be mentioned, was in 1750 

 confined, by order of the House of Commons, for violent interference 

 with a Westminster election; and as be refused to express con- 

 trition on his knees according to the order of the house, he was 

 detained in confinement upwards of a twelvemonth, when a proroga- 

 tion of parliament occasioned his release. Tho fourth aud youngest 

 brother of Lord Elibank likewise attracted considerable notice, 

 distinguishing himself greatly as an officer in high command during 

 the Canadian war. Lord Elibank died without issue, 3rd August 

 1778, in tbe seventy-sixth year of his age. 



MURRAY, SIR ROBERT, son of Sir Robert Murray of Craigie, 

 entered in early life into the French service, where, by the favour of 

 Cardinal Richelieu, he soon obtained the rank of colonel. He returned 

 to Scotland when the difficulties of King Charles L were beginning 

 to assume their most alarming aspect;' and at Newcastle he had a 

 design for the king's escape, which seems to have been frustrated only 

 by Charles's want of resolution. " The design," says Buruet, " pro- 

 ceeded so far that the king put himself iu diaguiso and went down 

 the back stairs with Sir Robert Murray ; but his majesty, apprehend- 

 ing it was scarce possible to pass through all the guards without 

 being discovered, and judging it highly indecent to be catched iu such 

 a condition, changed hia resolution and went back, as Sir Robert 

 informed the writer." (' Mem. of Duke of Hamilton,' 307.) 



On the fall of the royal cause he appears to have gone a^ain to 

 France ; and on the 22nd of May, 1650, two letters from that kingdom 

 were read to the parliament of Scotland, one from the young king, 

 the other from the queen-regent, ill answer to a letter from thu par- 

 liament in favour of Sir Robert Murray, in both which they promised, 

 " from their respect and love to the Scots nation, that they would Bee 

 their desire performed, so far as possibly the oonvenieuco of their 

 affairs would permit, and that he should be paid off his arrears." 

 (4 ' Balf. Ann.,' J 7.) 



He must have returned to Scotland soon after this; for on the 

 21st of May, 1651, while Charles was in command of the army there, 

 Murray was appointed justice-clerk, an office which appears to have 

 remained vacant since the deprivation of Sir John Hamilton, iu the 

 month of February 1649. A few days after this appointment Sir 

 Robert was sworn a privy-councillor ; and on the 6th of June 1651, 

 he was nominated a lord of session ; but the court being suspended 

 by Cromwell's proceeding*, he never sat on the bench. At the Resto- 

 ration his appointments as a lord of session and justice-clerk were 

 renewed. He was then also made one of the lords-auditors of 

 exchequer. In speaking of the second of these appointments, Mr. 

 Laing falls into an error : he says, " Sir Robert Murray, whom the 

 Royal Society should revere as its father, was appointed justice-clerk, 

 and the people were pleased and gratified when a judicial office so 

 important and dangerous was conferred on the moat upright and 

 accomplished character which the nation produced." (Laing, ' Hist, 

 of Scotland,' iv. 51.) At that time however tbe office of justice- 

 clerk was not the important situation which it now is; nor was it for 

 a dozen years after that the justice-clerk became vice-president of the 

 justiciary court. He was however an assessor to tho judicial 1 or 

 justice- general; he was the tiret who had the style of lord justice- 

 clerk; and it is highly probable that his character aud reputation 

 pavod the way for the advancement of his successors. It does not 

 appear that Hurray ever sat on the bench at all. He was made a 

 judge of three courts at one time, not perhaps that he might be a j udge 

 in any, but that the emoluments might attach him as a partisan. He was 

 not bred to the luw, and does not appear ever to have been in circum - 

 stances to acquire a knowledge of it. In tho above passage however 

 Laiog refers to au event in Sir Robert's life of great interest and import- 

 ance : he was the father of the Royal Society. That body had existed 

 as n debating club previous to the time of the Commonwealth, when 

 its members were dispersed. At the Restoration, the Sociuty assembled 



