the revocation, however, arriving too late. Le Normant, probably after the king's death, when his wife's banishment would no longer be insisted upon, obtained the treasurership of the Marc d'Or, a Paris office which levied first-fruits on fresh appointments. Marie Louise again became a widow in 1783, and was accorded a pension of twelve thousand francs. During the Reign of Terror she was imprisoned as a 'suspect,' under the name of O'Murphy, at Sainte-Pelagie and at the English Benedictine convent in Paris. On her release she married Louis Philippe Dumont, a Calvados deputy in the convention, nearly thirty years her junior. He obtained a divorce in January 1799. Marie Louise died at Paris 11 Dec. 1814. Her son, General Beaufranchet, has been taken by some writers (Revue Blew, 13 Sept. 1890; Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xi. 302, 429) for her child by Louis XV, but that child was probably brought up under an assumed name, and Beaufranchet was most likely the issue of her first marriage. He was a royal page in 1771, lieutenant of infantry in 1774, was probably present as chief of Berruyer's staff at Louis XVI's execution, and served as brigadier-general in Vendee. Suspended as a cidevant in July 1793, he addressed remonstrances to the minister of war, excusing himself for having been born in a class justly disliked, and mentioning his mother, then at Havre with her grandchildren, but making no reference to his father. Through the influence of Desaix, his cousin, he was in 1798 allowed a retiring pension; he sat in the Corps Legislatif in 1803, and died at Paris 2 July 1812.
[Journal du Marquis d'Argenson, Paris, 1859-1867; Goncourt's and Vatel's Lives of Madame de Pompadour; Livre Rouge, Paris. 1790; Soulavie's Anecdotes de la Cour de France (untrustworthy); Casanova's Memoirs, chap. xiv.; Alger's Englishmen in French Revolution, London. 1889; Revue Historique, 1887, xxxv. 294; Revue Retrospective, October 1892, which throws doubt on the commonly received version of her introduction to Louis XV.]
MURPHY, MICHAEL (1767?–1798), Irish rebel, the son of a peasant, was born at Kilnew, co. Wexford, about 1767. Having acquired some learning at a hedge-school at Oulart, he was ordained a priest at Whitsuntide 1785, and sent to complete his education at the Irish College at Bordeaux. On his return to Ireland he was appointed officiating priest of the parish of Ballycanew in the diocese of Ferns. He is described by an unexceptionable witness (Taylor, Hist. of the Rebellion, p. 17) as a man of exemplary life, and much esteemed by persons of all persuasions. In 1798 he was still a young man, strongly built, and of a dark complexion. When the government early in that year began to take extraordinary measures for the preservation of the peace of the county, Murphy displayed great zeal in inducing his parishioners to surrender their arms and to take the oath of allegiance. On the outbreak of the rebellion he was reluctantly compelled to take up arms for his own safety (Hay, Hist. of the Insurrection, p. 88). He joined the rebels at Oulart under Father John Murphy [q. v.], whose fortunes he shared till his death at the battle of Arklow on 9 June 1798. He greatly distinguished himself by his intrepid conduct on that occasion. He was shot while leading the attack on the barricade, and his death greatly discomfited his followers, whose ardour he had inflamed by the belief that he was invulnerable. His head was struck off and his body burnt by the order of Lord Mountnorris.
[The Rev. George Taylor's Hist. of the Rebellion in the County of Wexford; Sir R. Musgrave's Memoirs of the different Rebellions in Ireland; Miles Byrne's Memoirs; E. Hay's Hist. of the Insurrection in the county of Wexford, A.D. 1798; Froude's English in Ireland; Lecky's England in the Eighteenth Century.]
MURPHY, PATRICK (1782–1847), weather prophet, was born in 1782. His name was very prominent in 1838 as the author of 'The Weather Almanack (on Scientific Principles, showing the State of the Weather for every Day of the Year 1838). By P. Murphy, Esq., M.N.S.,' i.e. member of no society. Under the date of 20 Jan. he said, 'Fair, prob. lowest deg. of winter temp.' By a happy chance this proved to be a remarkably cold day, the thermometer at sunrise standing at four degrees below zero. This circumstance raised his celebrity to a great height as a weather prophet, and the shop of his publishers, Messrs. Whittaker & Co., was besieged with customers, while the winter of 1837-8 became known as Murphy's winter. The 1838 almanac ran to forty-five editions, and the prophet made 3,000l., which he almost immediately lost in an unsuccessful speculation in corn. There was nothing very remarkable about the prediction, as the coldest day generally falls about 20 Jan. In the predictions throughout the year the forecasts were partly right on 168 days and decidedly wrong on 197 days. A popular song of the day, a parody on 'Lesbia has a beaming eye,' commenced 'Murphy has a weather eye.' The almanack was afterwards occasionally published, but its sale very much fell off after the 'nine days' wonder' was past, and ultimately it had a very limited
