Murray, LINDLEY

Murray, LINDLEY, grammarian, was born at Swetara, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1745, the eldest of twelve children, and was educated at a school in Philadelphia belonging to the Society of Friends. On his father's removal to New York he was placed in a counting-house, but his thirst for study was so ardent that he escaped to a school in New Jersey. He then studied law, and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one, and commenced a good practice. During the revolutionary war he engaged in mercantile pursuits with such success as to accumulate a handsome fortune. In 1784, his health failing, he came to England and purchased an estate at Holdgate, near York, where he devoted himself to literary pursuits. In 1787 he published his Power of Religion on the Mind, which passed through nineteen editions, and was translated into French. His Grammar of the English Language was issued in 1795, and was followed by English Exercises, the Key, the English Reader, Introduction and Sequel (both translated into French), a Spelling Book, A First Book for Children, A Compendium of Faith and Practice, and The Duty and Benefit of a Daily Perusal of the Scriptures. The lesson-books all passed through numerous large editions, and there can be no stronger indication of how entirely the systematic study of the English language had been, until recent years, neglected by scholars than the fact that Murray's Grammar was for half a century the standard text-book throughout Britain and America. Murray wrote an autobiography to the year 1809, which was published after his death, February 16, 1826.