MURRAY, JOHN, 1741-1815; b. Alton, England. At the age of 11 his parents removed to Cork, Ireland. He became a Methodist under the preaching of Wesley and White field. Having read a book byJames Redly, a Universalist, he was led to adopt his views. For this he was excommunicated at Whitefield's tabernacle, London. Persecution for opinion, pecuniary embarrassment, and grief for the loss of his wife, made him very unhappy, and lie resolved to seek retirement and relief in America. He preached his first sermon in America Sept. 30, 1770, in a small church, in an obscure place in New Jersey, called " Good Luck." Believing fully in the doctrine of universal salvation, he gave himself to earnest labor, first in New Jersey and New York, afterwards in New port, Providence, Bottom Portsmouth, Norwich, and other places in New England. In 1774 he fixed his residence in Gloucester, Mass., where be was represented as a papist, and a secret emissary of lord North in the interest of the English ministry. He was abused, and by a vote ordered to leave the town, but the interference of powerful friends saved him, and he was allowed to remain. In 1775 he was appointed chaplain of•a Rhode Island brigade encamped near Boston. The other chaplains petitioned for his removal, but Washington disregarded the petition, and even showed him marked attention. Ill health required him to leave the army, and lie returned to Gloucester, where he was nettled over a society of Universalists. Converts to his views multiplied. He was instru
mental in the organization of a convention of his sect, which met at Oxford, Mass, Sept. 1785, and took the name of Independent Christian Universalists. In 1787 he visited his native land, and preached in many places with great acceptance and power. Return ing- before the close of the year, he attended g convention of Universalists held in Phila delphia in 1790. In 1793 he was installed pastor of a society of Universalists in Boston, w here be remained the rest of his life. He was buried in the Granary burying-ground, Boston, whence his remains were removed June 8, 1837, to Mount Auburn, where an apploptiate monument is erected to his memory. He is regarded as the father of Uni versalism in America. He published Letters, and Sketches of Sermons, with an auto biography, 3 vols. He is described as possessing a "poetical imagination, a retentive memory, warm affections, and a love for all mankind." In his public discourses he suoke Ivith " meat grace of oratory, a good choice of words, and a great variety of expression." Except on the one point of universal salvation his views were in harmony with those commonly called evangelical, especially in regard to the proper divinity of Jesus Christ.