Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/71

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MURRAY 63 al preacher in Wesley's connection in Cork, Ireland, whither his parents had removed. About 1760 he returned to England, and a few years later adopted the doctrines of Universal- ism promulgated by James Kelly, for which he was excommunicated at Whitefield's taber- nacle in London. In 1770 he emigrated to the United States. New York and New Jersey were the first scenes of his labors, and subse- quently he preached in Newport, R. I., Bos- ton, Portsmouth, N. H., and other places in New England, in some of which his peculiar doctrines subjected him to opposition, and oc- casionally to open violence. In 1774 he re- sided in Gloucester, Mass., and upon suspicion that he was an emissary of the British govern- ment in disguise, he was ordered to depart ; but through the exertions of his friends he was en- abled to remain and preach. In the spring of 1775 he was chaplain of the three regiments of the Rhode Island line encamped before Bos- ton, with several of whose officers, including Greene and Varnum, he was on terms of inti- macy. The rest of the chaplains united in petitioning Washington to remove Murray from his office, but without effect. His connection with the army was soon after terminated by illness, and he returned to Gloucester, where he was established over a society of Universal- ists. In 1783 he became plaintiff in a success- ful action brought to recover property belong- ing to persons of his denomination, which had been appropriated to the expenses of the ori- ginal parish of Gloucester, on the ground that the Universalists were not a society legally au- thorized. He participated in the proceedings of the first Universalist convention at Oxford, Mass., in 1785, and for a number of years he was a delegate to the general convention of the Universalists. In 1788 he made a brief visit to England, and in 1793 was installed over a society in Boston, where he passed the re- mainder of his life. In 1809 he was paralyzed. He is considered the father of Universalism in America, although his doctrines differed essen- tially from those now recognized by Universal- ists. He published three volumes of letters and sketches of sermons, and wrote an autobiogra- phy (8th ed., Boston, 1860). MURRAY, John, a Scottish physician, born in Edinburgh in 1778, died there, June 22, 1820. He began his career as an apothecary in his native city, and subsequently became eminent as a lecturer on natural philosophy, chemistry, materia medica, and pharmacy. In geology he was a zealous Neptunian, and in reply to Play- fair's "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth" (1802), published his "Com- parative View of the Huttonian and Neptunian Theories." The most important of his other works are "System of Chemistry," "Ele- ments of Chemistry," and " System of Materia Medica and Pharmacy." MURRAY, John, an English publisher, born in London, Nov. 27, 1778, died June 27, 1843. He was of Scottish descent, and his father, 582 VOL. xii. 5 whose name was MacMurray, established him- self in 1768 as a bookseller in Fleet street, London. After a good education acquired at a number of schools, at one of which he lost the sight of an eye by an accident, he was left in his 15th year by his father's death to conduct the business, in which he was assist- ed by Mr. Highley the shopman, whom he subsequently took into partnership. In 1803 he terminated this connection, and, entering a wider sphere of business, was thenceforth known as one of the most enterprising and liberal publishers of London. By coming for- ward to the assistance of a number of young men who had become involved in some pe- cuniary loss in conducting a periodical called the "Miniature," he secured several influential friends, among others Mr. Canning. With the latter he matured in 1807 a project for the establishment of the "Quarterly Review" as a means of counteracting the influence of the whig "Edinburgh Review;" and securing the cooperation of George Ellis, the Hebers, Bar- row, Gifford, and others, he commenced in 1809 the publication of the new periodical, which under the editorial supervision of .Gif- ford soon attained a circulation of 12,000 copies. In 1810 Mr. Murray made the ac- quaintance of Lord Byron, to whom he paid 600 for the first two cantos of " Childe Ha- rold," and whose entire works he subsequently published. Of his generosity and consideration toward the poet many instances are given; and Byron's correspondence with him, published in Moore's " Life of Byron," affords an evidence of the friendly relations existing between them. In 1812 he removed to Albemarle street, where the business is still carried on by his son and successor, John Murray, and where a long line of literary celebrities, including Scott, Byron, Campbell, W. Spencer, Bishop Heber, the elder Disraeli, Hallam, Mme. de Stael, Crabbe, South- ey, Washington Irving, and Lockhart, were wont to assemble. Of the numerous impor- tant works issued from the press of this house, it may suffice to mention the voyages and trav- els of Mungo Park, Belzoni, Parry, Franklin, Denham, Clapperton, and Layard; the series of the " Family Library ;" the histories of Hal- lam, Lord Mahon, Grote, Ranke, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, and Mrs. Markham ; the " Sketch Book," "Tales of a Traveller," "Life of Columbus," and other works of Washington Irving; the "Domestic Cookery," of which 300,000 copies were published ; the despatches of the duke of Wellington ; the dictionaries of William Smith; an elaborate series of hand- books of travel; and the works of Crabbe, Heber, Lockhart, Milman, Head, Gleig, Kugler, Lord Campbell, Leake, Borrow, Davy, Raw- linson, Mrs. Somerville, Lyell, Murchison, &c. In 1826 he was persuaded into establishing a daily journal called the " Representative," which proved a failure ; but in general his good judgment and tact as a business man rendered his enterprises successful, and the publications