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==Colonial America==
==Colonial America==
===Early life===
===Early life and education===
Lindley Murray was born in [[Harper Tavern, Pennsylvania|Harper Tavern]], near [[Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]], on 22 April 1745.<ref name="EB 1911">{{cite wikisource |editor-first= Hugh |editor-last= Chisholm |chapter= Hindley Murray |wslink= 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica |plaintitle= [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]] |edition= Eleventh |year= 1911 |publisher= Cambridge University Press}} {{source attribution}}</ref><ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="Peet">{{cite book|chapter=Lindley Murray |first1=Louis Harmon |last1=Peet |title=Handy Book of American Authors |location= New York| publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell and Company | year= 1907}}</ref>{{efn|He is also said to have been born at [[Harper Tavern, Pennsylvania]], on 7 June 1745.<ref name="Markers" /> Harper Tavern is located on Swatara Creek near [[Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Swatara+Township,+Pennsylvania/Harper%E2%80%99s+Tavern |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=maps.google.com | title=Directions: Swatara Township to Harper Tavern |language=en}}</ref>
Lindley Murray was born in [[Harper Tavern, Pennsylvania|Harper Tavern]], near [[Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]], on 22 April 1745.<ref name="EB 1911">{{cite wikisource |editor-first= Hugh |editor-last= Chisholm |chapter= Hindley Murray |wslink= 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica |plaintitle= [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]] |edition= Eleventh |year= 1911 |publisher= Cambridge University Press}} {{source attribution}}</ref><ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="Peet">{{cite book|chapter=Lindley Murray |first1=Louis Harmon |last1=Peet |title=Handy Book of American Authors |location= New York| publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell and Company | year= 1907}}</ref>{{efn|He is also said to have been born at [[Harper Tavern, Pennsylvania]], on 7 June 1745.<ref name="Markers" /> Harper Tavern is located on Swatara Creek near [[Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Swatara+Township,+Pennsylvania/Harper%E2%80%99s+Tavern |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=maps.google.com | title=Directions: Swatara Township to Harper Tavern |language=en}}</ref>


Line 46: Line 46:
With the outbreak of the [[American Revolutionary War]] (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), Murray went with his wife to [[Islip, New York|Islip]], [[Long Island]], where they lived for four years, fishing, shooting, and sailing. He returned to New York in 1779.<ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="DNB" />{{sfn|Monaghan|1998|p=46}}{{efn|It is also said that he returned to New York City after the [[Declaration of Independence]] (July 2, 1776).<ref name="DNB" />}}
With the outbreak of the [[American Revolutionary War]] (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), Murray went with his wife to [[Islip, New York|Islip]], [[Long Island]], where they lived for four years, fishing, shooting, and sailing. He returned to New York in 1779.<ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="DNB" />{{sfn|Monaghan|1998|p=46}}{{efn|It is also said that he returned to New York City after the [[Declaration of Independence]] (July 2, 1776).<ref name="DNB" />}}


In 1779, Murray decided to work for his father, Robert Murray. He was so successful that by the end of the war he earned enough money to retire in 1783 with a fortune.<ref name="Appletons'" />
In 1779, Murray decided to work for his father, Robert Murray. He was so successful that by the end of the war he earned enough money to retire in 1783 with a fortune.<ref name="Appletons'" /> After he retired, Murray and his wife Hannah moved to a nice home on the [[Hudson River]], about {{convert|3|miles|km}} north of New York City.<ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="DNB" /> He had developed a painful muscular problem, with little success.<ref name="Appletons'" />


==England==
==England==
===Later years===
===Later years===
After he retired, Murray and his wife Hannah moved to a nice home on the [[Hudson River]], about {{convert|3|miles|km}} north of New York City.<ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="DNB" /> He had developed a painful muscular problem, with little success.<ref name="Appletons'" /> In hopes of improving his health, Murray and his wife moved to England for a milder climate in the summer of 1784. He left America and never returned.<ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="DNB" /> For the last sixteen years of his life, Murray's physical condition, confined him to his house,<ref name="DNB" /> probably the result of [[Post-polio syndrome]].
In hopes of improving his health, Murray and his wife moved to England for a milder climate in the summer of 1784. He left America and never returned.<ref name="Appletons'" /><ref name="DNB" /> For the last sixteen years of his life, Murray's physical condition, confined him to his house,<ref name="DNB" /> probably the result of [[Post-polio syndrome]].


Murray was a recorded minister of the York monthly meeting for eleven years, when his voice failed and he asked permission to resign. For the last 16 years of his life he never left the house.<ref name="DNB" /> Murray died on 16 February 1826, near York, England.<ref name="Appletons'">{{Cite book |title=Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography | volume= IV |editor1=Wilson, James Grant | editor2=John Fiske|publisher=D. Appleton & Company | location=New York |year=1888 | page=470}}</ref><ref name="Peet" /><ref name="FH Lindley">{{citation|title=Lindley Murray, Murray of Swatara, Pennsylvania|work=North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line] | location=Provo, Utah |via=ancestry.com | year= 2016 |pages=530–532}}</ref>{{efn|He is also said to have died on 16 January 1826.<ref name="DNB" />}} Hannah died on 25 September 1834.<ref name="DNB" />
Murray was a recorded minister of the York monthly meeting for eleven years, when his voice failed and he asked permission to resign. For the last 16 years of his life he never left the house.<ref name="DNB" /> Murray died on 16 February 1826, near York, England.<ref name="Appletons'">{{Cite book |title=Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography | volume= IV |editor1=Wilson, James Grant | editor2=John Fiske|publisher=D. Appleton & Company | location=New York |year=1888 | page=470}}</ref><ref name="Peet" /><ref name="FH Lindley">{{citation|title=Lindley Murray, Murray of Swatara, Pennsylvania|work=North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line] | location=Provo, Utah |via=ancestry.com | year= 2016 |pages=530–532}}</ref>{{efn|He is also said to have died on 16 January 1826.<ref name="DNB" />}} Hannah died on 25 September 1834.<ref name="DNB" />

Revision as of 02:53, 25 April 2024

This article is about the grammarian and textbook author. For the tennis player, see Robert Lindley Murray.

Lindley Murray
Born(1745-04-22)22 April 1745[a]
Harper Tavern, near Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania[a]
Died16 February 1826(1826-02-16) (aged 80)
Holgate, York, England
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Lawyer, merchant, grammarian, and author
Known forEnglish Grammar
Spouse
Hannah Dobson
​
(m. 1767)​

Lindley Murray (22 April 1745 – 16 February 1826) was an American Quaker lawyer, writer and grammarian, best known for his English-language grammar books used in schools in England and the United States.

Murray practised law in New York. In 1783, he retired, and one year later, he left America for England. Settling at Holgate, near York, he devoted the rest of his life to literary pursuits. His first book was Power of Religion on the Mind (1787). In 1795, he issued his Grammar of the English Language. This was followed, among other analogous works, by English Exercises, and the English Reader. These books passed through several editions, and the Grammar was the standard textbook for fifty years throughout England and America.[1]

Colonial America

Early life and education

Lindley Murray was born in Harper Tavern, near Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, on 22 April 1745.[1][2][3][a] His father, Robert Murray, a Quaker, was one of the leading New York merchants.[6] His mother, Mary Lindley Murray was a Quaker. Mary's father, Thomas Lindley, was a Quaker who immigrated from Ireland to Pennsylvania in 1718.[7] Lindley was the eldest of the Murrays twelve children, five of whom made it to adulthood.[8] They included Lindley, John, Susannah, and Beulah, who were alive at the time of their mother's death. Susannah was married to Col. Gilbert Colden Willett, a British officer, and Beulah was married to Martin Hoffman.[9] John married Catharine Bowne.[10]

As he was growing up, Murray saw and met with people from around the world and heard the latest news of those who visited his parents. He received an education founded on values of the Age of Enlightenment.[11] When six years old, he was sent to a Quaker school in Philadelphia,[2][6] but soon left to accompany his parents to North Carolina, where they lived until 1753. They then moved to New York, where Murray attended school, but proved difficult. Contrary to his inclinations, at fourteen he was sent to work in his father's accounting firm; Murray was mainly interested in science and literature. He moved to Burlington, New Jersey, entered a boarding school, and started to study French. He was brought back to New York by his parents and allowed a private tutor. His father still wanted him to go into business, but in a letter, Lindley argued so convincingly for a literary career that his father's lawyer suggested letting the youth study law.[1][6]

Marital and pre-war life

Murray was married on 22 June 1767, in New York City, to Hannah Dobson,[6][12] the daughter of Thomas Dobson.[13] They had no children.[6] Murray was a Quaker throughout his life.[2]

In 1770, Murray and his wife went to England, where his father had preceded him. They returned to New York the following year[6] or after having been in the country four years, until late 1771.[13] Once he returned to Colonial America, he was among the Quaker founders and was a director of the Union Library Society, with about 1,000 volumes.[13]

Law career

Beginning in 1761, Murray studied law under Samuel Kissam, his father's attorney and John Jay's teacher. Murray passed the bar in 1765 and established his law practice in the Province of New York in 1767.[2][11] He joined the Debating Club to exchange viewpoints, as did Jay and other sons of prominent families.[11] His legal practice became large and lucrative, in spite of his conscientious care to 'discourage litigation, and to recommend a peaceable settlement of differences.' After living in a cottage on Long Island for four years, Murray returned to New York in 1779 and resumed his successful legal work. He retired in 1783.[6]

American Revolution

Leading up to the American Revolutionary War there were struggles between the colonists and the British. The colonists that wanted to break away from British rule were patriots, those who remained loyal to The Crown were Loyalists. The patriots wanted to stop the British from selling their goods in America. A nonimportation clause of Article 10 of the Continental Association called for a complete ban on British goods effective February 1, 1775. The Committee of Sixty in New York saw nonimportation as a primary mission of the organization, specifically preventing ships of British goods being unloaded on their docks.[14] According to Monaghan, Murray joined the committee with to protect his family's import and shipping related businesses. It is not likely that he was a patriot.[15] Although, about 22 committee members eventually became loyalists.[16]

Murray's father, Robert, was involved in attempts to unload goods starting February 1, with a ship that pulled into his dock. In the middle of the month, a ship that he owned with his goods on it from Britain was prevented from docking. Robert had a business in Elizabeth, New Jersey and one of his ships came alongside Beulah one of Robert's ships, which was named after his daughter. Family members and the crew on the ships unloaded 1.5 or 2 tons of cargo to the ship from Elizabeth off of Staten Island. The clandestine event was discovered and Robert was in trouble and the Committee of Sixty were faulted for not preventing the ship from being unloaded.[17] Robert was nearly removed from the city and the hostility that the Murrays received likely played a part in Murray leaving the city.[18]

With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), Murray went with his wife to Islip, Long Island, where they lived for four years, fishing, shooting, and sailing. He returned to New York in 1779.[2][6][19][b]

In 1779, Murray decided to work for his father, Robert Murray. He was so successful that by the end of the war he earned enough money to retire in 1783 with a fortune.[2] After he retired, Murray and his wife Hannah moved to a nice home on the Hudson River, about 3 miles (4.8 km) north of New York City.[2][6] He had developed a painful muscular problem, with little success.[2]

England

Later years

In hopes of improving his health, Murray and his wife moved to England for a milder climate in the summer of 1784. He left America and never returned.[2][6] For the last sixteen years of his life, Murray's physical condition, confined him to his house,[6] probably the result of Post-polio syndrome.

Murray was a recorded minister of the York monthly meeting for eleven years, when his voice failed and he asked permission to resign. For the last 16 years of his life he never left the house.[6] Murray died on 16 February 1826, near York, England.[2][3][20][c] Hannah died on 25 September 1834.[6]

Literary pursuits

The remainder of his life was spent in literary pursuits at Holgate House, near York, England.[6] His library became noted for its theological, philological and historical treasures. He studied botany, and his garden was said to exceed in variety the Royal Gardens at Kew. He composed his grammars there, in the summer house.[2][6]

Murray's first published work, The Power of Religion on the Mind, York, 1787, 20th edition 1842, was twice translated into French. To the 8th edition (1795) was added 'Extracts from the Writings of divers Eminent Men representing the Evils of Stage Plays, &c.', published separately 1789 and 1799.[6]

His attention was then drawn to the want of suitable lesson books for a Friends' school for girls in York, and in 1795 he published his English Grammar. The manuscript petition from the teachers requesting him to prepare it has been preserved. The work became rapidly popular; it went through nearly fifty editions, was edited, abridged, simplified, and enlarged in England and America, and for a long time was used in schools to the exclusion of all other grammar books.[6] Influenced by the Scottish Enlightenment, Murray wrote a book than won Abraham Lincoln's approval and is said to have inspired anti-slavery sentiment. See History of English grammars.[7]

In 1816, an edition corrected by the author was issued in 2 volumes. 8vo. An 'Abridgment' of this version by Murray, issued two years later, went through more than 120 editions of 10,000 each. In 1835, it was printed at the New England Institution for the Blind in embossed characters.[6] Two years later, it was translated into Marathi and published in Bombay. English Exercises followed (1797), with A Key (27th edit. London, 1847), and both works were in large demand. Murray's English Reader, Sequel, and Introduction, issued respectively in 1799, 1800, and 1801 (31st edit. 1836), were equally successful, as well as the Lecteur Francais, 1802, and Introduction to the Lecteur Francais, 1807. An English Spelling Book, 1804, reached forty-four editions, and was translated into Spanish (Cadiz, 1841). Of a First Book for Children the 150th thousand, with portrait and woodcuts, was issued in 1859.[6]

In addition to the praises that his works elicited, he was criticised for the failure to provide etymology and mistakes.[2]

The sales of the Grammar, Exercises, Key, and Lecteur Francais brought Murray in each case £700, and he devoted the whole sum to philanthropic objects. The copyright of his religious works he presented to his publishers. By his will, a sum of money for the purchase and distribution of religious literature was vested in trustees in America. When the Retreat for the Insane was founded at York by William Tuke in 1792, Murray did his utmost to second Tuke's efforts to introduce a humane system of treatment.[6]

Works

Legacy

  • There are two historical markers for Murray in Harper Town, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. One of them is on PA 934, .2 mile north of US 22, Harper Tavern. The other is at the corner of Bellegrove Road (PA 934) & Jonestown Road, across from Harper Tavern, East Hanover Township.[4] Both markers have the same wording:

Famous grammarian, author of the English Grammar, was born 7 June 1745, in a house near this point. Robert Murray, his father, owned a mill here from 1745 to 1746.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c He is also said to have been born at Harper Tavern, Pennsylvania, on 7 June 1745.[4] Harper Tavern is located on Swatara Creek near Swatara Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania.[5] There are other sources, though, that state that he was born 22 April 1745.[1][2][3]
  2. ^ It is also said that he returned to New York City after the Declaration of Independence (July 2, 1776).[6]
  3. ^ He is also said to have died on 16 January 1826.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hindley Murray" . Encyclopædia Britannica (Eleventh ed.). Cambridge University Press – via Wikisource. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wilson, James Grant; John Fiske, eds. (1888). Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography. Vol. IV. New York: D. Appleton & Company. p. 470.
  3. ^ a b c Peet, Louis Harmon (1907). "Lindley Murray". Handy Book of American Authors. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Company.
  4. ^ a b c "PHMC Marker Search: Lindley Murray". share.phmc.pa.gov. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Directions: Swatara Township to Harper Tavern". maps.google.com. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Stephen, Leslie; Sidney Lee, eds. (1917). The Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. XIII. London: The University Press, Ely House. pp. 1294–1295. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  7. ^ a b Monaghan 1998, p. 35.
  8. ^ Monaghan 1998, p. 37.
  9. ^ Ellet, Elizabeth Fries (1848). "Mary Murray". The Women of the American Revolution (3 volumes). Vol. 3. Baker & Scribner (publisher). Charles W. Benedict (printer). pp. 374–375. LCCN 05001316. OCLC 3161571 – via archive.org. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  10. ^ "Robert Murray, Murray of Swatara, Pennsylvania", North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line], Provo, Utah, pp. 530–531, 2016 – via ancestry.com
  11. ^ a b c Monaghan 1998, p. 39.
  12. ^ "Lindley Murray married Hannah Dobson in New York City, Marriage ID 2220325236". The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record (quarterly). New York, New York: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. 1942. p. 270.
  13. ^ a b c Monaghan 1998, p. 40.
  14. ^ Monaghan 1998, pp. 40–42.
  15. ^ Monaghan 1998, pp. 41–42.
  16. ^ Monaghan 1998, p. 41.
  17. ^ Monaghan 1998, pp. 40–44.
  18. ^ Monaghan 1998, p. 42.
  19. ^ Monaghan 1998, p. 46.
  20. ^ "Lindley Murray, Murray of Swatara, Pennsylvania", North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line], Provo, Utah, pp. 530–532, 2016 – via ancestry.com

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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