MURRAY, SIR JAMES AUGUSTUS HENRY (1837 1915), British lexicographer, was born at Denholm, near Hawick, on Feb. 7, 1837. After a local elementary education he proceeded to Edinburgh, and thence to the University of London, where he graduated in 1873. Sir James Murray, who received honorary degrees from several universities, both British and foreign, was engaged in teaching for 3o years, from 1855 to 1885, chiefly at Hawick and Mill Hill. During this time his reputation as a philolo gist was increasing; in 1878 he wrote his famous article on English Language for the Encyclopcedia Britannica, and he was president of the Philological Society of London from 1878 to 188o, and again from 1882 to 1884. It was in connection with this society that he undertook the chief work of his life, the editing of the New English Dictionary, based on materials collected by the society (see DICTIONARY). These materials, which had accumu lated since 1857, when the society first projected the publication of a dictionary on philological principles, amounted to an enor mous quantity, of which an idea may be formed from the fact that Dr, Furnivall sent in "some ton and three-quarters of materials which had accumulated under his roof." The contracts
between the society, the delegates of the Clarendon Press, and the editor, were signed on March I, 1879, and Murray began the examination and arrangement of the raw material, and the still more troublesome work of re-animating and maintaining the enthusiasm of "readers." In 1885 he removed from Mill Hill to Oxford, where his Scriptorium came to rank among the institu tions of the university city. The first volume of the dictionary was printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1884. Murray him self was personally responsible only for about one-half of the dic tionary, covering A—D, H—K, 0, P, T. But he created the organiza tion which made the undertaking possible, and inspired both his col leagues and successors. In 1885 Murray received the honorary degree of M.A. from Balliol college; he was an original fellow of the British Academy, and in 1908 he was knighted. He died at Oxford on July 26, 1915.
See a memoir by Henry Bradley in Proceedings of the Brit. Acad. (vol. viii., 1917-18).