History of Swatara, (Schuylkill County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Lindley Murray, grammarian, was born in Swatara, Pa., April 22, 1745; son of Robert Murray. His parents were Quakers, and he was educated in the Friends school in Philadelphia. His father settled in New York city in 1753, and he was trained for a mercantile career. He ran away from home in 1759 to escape the severity of his father and began a course of study at Burlington, N.J. He returned to his home in New York shortly afterward, was supplied with a tutor by his father, and with John Jay was a pupil in law under Benjamin Kissam, 1761-65. He was admitted to the bar in 1765, being licensed to practise in all the courts in the province, and shortly afterward went to England, where he remained until 1771. He practised law, 1771-75, and in 1775 retired to Islip, Long Island, and spent four years in out-door employment and pleasure. He returned to New York city in 1779 and under the direction of his father made a fortune in commercial speculation. He retired from active life at the close of the Revolution and resided first on the Hudson and afterward at Bethlehem, Pa., but ill health forced him to live in England and he settled at Holdgate near York, in 1784. He was confined to his room for sixteen years by a muscular affection. He devoted himself to study and literary work, collected a library of historical, philological and theological works, and wrote "Murray's English Grammar" and "Murray's English Reader", introduced into all the English and American schools. He made a study of botany during the last years of his life, and his garden in its variety and rarity excelled the Royal gardens at Kews. The date of his marriage was June 22, 1767. Besides his English and French readers and spelling books he is the author of: The Power of Religion on the Mind (1787); English Grammar (1795); Selections from Bishop Horne's Commentaries on the Psalms (1812); Biographical Sketch of Henry Tuke (1815); Compendium of Religious Faith and Practice: designed for Young Persons of the Society of Friends (1815), and On the Duty and Benefit of a Daily Perusal of the Scriptures (1817). See Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lindley Murray in a Series of Letters written by himself, with a Preface and Continuation by Elizabeth Frank (1826). He died at Holdgate, near York, England, Feb. 16, 1826.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Swatara, (Schuylkill County) Pennsylvania

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