to Dublin with his family, at the invitation of Sir Robert King, whose guest he became. He was appointed one of the preachers in ordinary to Lord-deputy Fleetwood and the council of Ireland, and attached himself to the independent congregation of Dr. Samuel Winter, provost of Trinity College, Dublin, which met in the church of St. Michan's Within. At the request of the congregation he undertook the work of 'teaching' among them, the pastorate being left to Dr. Winter. Murcot subsequently became pastor. The vestry book, under date 29 Aug. 1651, mentions the engagement of Mr. Thomas Serle as preacher 'before Mr. Moorecot was settled in this parish.' But in 1653 he describes himself as 'preacher of the Gospel at St. Owen's' (St. Audoens) He died on 26 Nov. 1654, and was buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, where a monument, not now existing, was erected to his memory. His funeral was attended by Lord-deputy Fleetwood, the council, the lord mayor of Dublin, and others. His youth and erudition provoked extravagant eulogy from his acquaintances.
His publications comprise a sermon preached at Dublin (1656), and a volume entitled 'Several Works' all on religious topics (London, 1657, 4to), with a life attributed to various friends, among them Samuel Eaton the independent and Dr. Samuel Winter. A portrait, engraved by Faithorne, is prefixed to his collected 'works.'
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon.; Granger's Biog.Hist.; Urwiek's Nonconformity in Cheshire; Minutes of the Manchester Classis (Chetham Soc.); Dr. W. Reynell in the Irish Builder for 1 Aug. 1888; Dr. William Urwick's Independency in Dublin in the Olden Times; Colvile's Warwickshire Worthies; Hunter's Oliver Heywood, p. 81; O. Heywood's Diaries, iv. 10; Newcome's Autobiography (Chetham Soc.); Lancashire and Cheshire Record Soc. i. 255; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Plundered Ministers' MSS. in the writer's possession; manuscripts of the late J. E. Bailey (Chetham Library, Manchester); information from the rectors of Ashbury and Eastham and from the Rev. W. Reynell, B.D.]
MURDAC, HENRY (d. 1153), archbishop of York, a member of a wealthy and important family of Yorkshire, was given a place among the clergy of the church of York by Archbishop Thurstan. Having received a letter from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, eloquently exhorting him to adopt the monastic life, he became a monk, and entered the Cistercian monastery of Clairvaux. From this letter it may be inferred that he was a learned man; in its address he is styled 'magister,' exhorted to become a member of the 'school of piety,' to take Jesus as his master, and to leave his books for the solitude of the woods, and the address ends with a postscript by two of the monks of Clairvaux, who appear to have been his pupils (S. Bernard, Ep. 106, ap. Opp. i. cols. 110, 111). After remaining at Clairvaux for some time he was sent by Bernard in 1135 with twelve companions to found a monastery at Vauclair, in the diocese of Laon, and was the first abbot of the new house. While there he was engaged in a sharp dispute with Luke, abbot of the neighbouring Præmonstratensian house at Cuissi (Gallia Christiana, ix. 633). On the death, at Clairvaux in 1143, of Richard, second abbot of Fountains, in Yorkshire, Bernard wrote to the prior and convent telling them that he was about to send Abbot Henry to them, and bidding them take his advice as to the election of abbot, and obey him in all things (Ep. 320, Opp. i. col. 299). At the same time he wrote to Murdac bidding him, if he should be elected abbot of Fountains, by no means to refuse, and promising in that case to watch over the interests of Vauclair (Ep. 321, Opp. i. col. 300). Murdac went to Fountains, was elected abbot, and accepted the office.
It was a time of extraordinary energy at Fountains, as many as five daughter houses, Woburn in Bedfordshire, Lisa in Norway, Kirkstall in Yorkshire, Vaudy in Lincolnshire, and Meaux in Yorkshire, being founded from it during Murdac's abbacy. He made reforms in his own house, and brought it into full accord with the severe life observed at Clairvaux; its possessions were increased under his rule (Dugdale, Monasticon, v. 301, 302). Relying on the help that he was certain to receive from Pope Eugenius III, the friend of Bernard, he took a prominent part in the opposition to William Fitzherbert [q. v.], archbishop of York (John of Hexham, ii. 318). In 1146 some of the knights of the archbishop's party, in revenge for his suspension by the pope, armed themselves and broke into Fountains. They sacked the house, and finding little spoil, set the buildings on fire. Meanwhile Murdac was stretched at the foot of the altar in the oratory. Part of the oratory was burnt, but the invaders did not see him. He escaped, and at once set about rebuilding, in a more comely style, his monastery, which they had reduced to a ruin (Monasticon, v. 302). Murdac attended the council of Paris held by the pope in the spring of 1147, and there Fitzherbert was deprived (Gervase, i. 134; Baronius, Annales, ed. Pagi, xix. 7,8; Norgate, Angevin Kings, i. 366). On 24 July the chapter of York, together with the suffragan bishops, William of Durham
