Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/McKenzie, Murdoch (d.1797)
McKENZIE, MURDOCH, the elder (d. 1797), hydrographer, possibly the grandson of Murdoch Mackenzie (1600-1688), bishop of Orkney, was descended from a younger branch of the Gairloch family (Keith, Historical Catalogue of the Scottish Bishops). He was employed before 1749 in surveying the Orkney and Shetland Islands for the admiralty and the East India Company. In 1749 he laid a paper on 'The State of the Tides in Orkney' before the 'Royal Society (Phil. Trans.), and in 1750 published 'Orcades : or a Geographical and Hydrographical Survey of the Orkney and Lewis Islands' (fol.) with charts. In 1752 he was sent in the Culloden sloop, in company with Captain Rodney, to examine a new and, as it proved, imaginary island, which had been reported as seen in long. 24° 30' west of the Lizard (Hannay, Rodney, p. 29; Naval Chronicle, i. 367). He was afterwards definitely employed as surveyor of the admiralty, and surveyed with compass the north coast of Ireland and the west coast of Scotland, the results of which were published in 1776 as 'Nautical Description of the West Coast of Great Britain from Bristol Channel to Cape Wrath,' and 'Nautical Description of the Coast of Ireland,' both in folio. He also published in 1760 'A Chart of the Atlantic Ocean,' on a large scale, drawn on the circular projection which he invented. In 1771 he was succeeded in his office of admiralty surveyor by his nephew, Murdoch McKenzie the younger [q. v.], and seems to have retired from the active duties of his profession, though in 1774 he brought out 'A Treatise on Marine Surveying,' 4to; a second edition of which, in 1819, was edited by James Horsburgh [q.v.] In May 1774 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. His certificate, which describes him as 'of Hampstead,' and 'well acquainted with mathematical and philosophical learning,' was signed by Sir Joseph Banks, Solander, Thomas Pennant, and others. He withdrew from the society in 1796, probably on account of his advanced age. He died in the following year, and was buried at Minehead in Somerset on 16 Oct. (information from the vicar of Minehead). McKenzie's work, carried out with very inadequate means and with undue haste, to gratify the admiralty's demand for quantity in preference to quality, was of the nature of rough examination rather than of accurate survey ; but his 'Treatise on Marine Surveying ' is still esteemed.
[Dawson's Memoirs of Hydrography, i. 3 ; Brit. Mot. Cat. ; information from the Royal Society ; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]