Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/345

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Murphy
339
Murphy

buried in Boroondara cemetery. In 1840 he married the daughter of Lieutenant Reid, R.N., a settler in his neighbourhood. He left six daughters and three sons, one of whom was a member of the legislative assembly of Queensland.

[Melbourne Argus, 31 March 1891; Mennell's Dict. Austral. Biog.; Victorian Parliamentary Debates, passim.]

C. A. H.

MURPHY, FRANCIS STACK (1810?–1860), serjeant-at-law, born in Cork about 1810, was son of Jeremiah Murphy, a rich merchant, whose brother John was catholic bishop of Cork from 1815 to 1847. He was educated at Clongoweswood College, co. Kildare, and was one of the pupils of Francis Sylvester Mahony [q. v.], 'Father Prout.' Proceeding to Trinity College, Dublin, he graduated B.A. in 1829 and M.A. in 1832. He studied law in London, and in 1833 was called to the English bar. In 1834 he became connected with 'Fraser's Magazine' as an occasional contributor, assisting 'Father Prout' in his famous 'Reliques.' He was an excellent classical scholar, and was responsible for some of Mahony's Greek and Latin verses (see Bates, Maclise Portrait Gallery, 1883, pp. 464, 466-7). Mahony introduces him in his 'Prout Papers' as 'Frank Cresswell of Furnival's Inn.' In 1837 Murphy became M.P. for co. Cork, and retained the seat for sixteen years. On 25 Feb. 1842 he was made serjeant-at-law, and resigned his place in parliament in September 1853, when appointed one of the commissioners of bankruptcy in Dublin. He died on 17 June 1860. His portrait figures in Maclise's well-known group of 'The Fraserians.' He was a clever lawyer, and was noted for his wit; many of his repartees are recorded in Duffy's 'League of North and South' (1886, pp. 211, 227) and in Serjeant Robinson's 'Bench and Bar' (1891). Only one work bears his name on the title-page, 'Reports of Cases argued and determined in the Court of Exchequer, 1836-1837,' which was written in conjunction with Edwin T. Hurlstone, 8vo, London, 1838.

A first cousin, Jeremiah Daniel Murphy (1806–1824), born at Cork in 1806, developed as a boy rare linguistic faculties, mastering Greek, Latin, French, Portuguese, Spanish. German, and Irish. He contributed to 'Blackwood's Magazine' some excellent Latin verse: 'Adventus Regis' (December 1821), and an English poem, 'The Rising of the North' (November 1822). He died of disease of heart on 5 Jan. 1824, and his precocity was commemorated in English and Latin verse in 'Blackwood's' next month (cf. Bates, Maclise Gallery, pp. 41, 489).

[Annual Register, 1860; Gent. Mag. 1860 authorities cited in text.]

D. J. O'D.

MURPHY, JAMES CAVANAH (1760–1814), architect and antiquary, was born in 1760 of obscure parents at Blackrock, near Cork, and was originally a bricklayer. He showed early talent for drawing, and made his way to Dublin to study. His name appears in a list of the pupils of the drawing school of the Dublin Society about 1775, as working in miniature, chalk, and crayons (Herbert, Irish Varieties, p. 56). Afterwards he practised in Dublin, and in 1786 was one of seven architects who were consulted as to the additions to the House of Commons. To him and another was entrusted the execution of James Gandon's design for the work (Mulvany, Life of Gandon, pp. 116, 144). In December 1788 William Burton Conyngham commissioned him to make drawings for him of the great Dominican church and monastery of Batalha, and he accordingly proceeded to Portugal. He was back in Dublin in 1790, and was in England at the end of the year. In 1802 he went to Cadiz, where he remained for seven years studying Moorish architecture and occasionally performing some diplomatic duties. Settling in England in 1809, he spent his time in preparing his notes on Arabian architecture for the press, but died on 12 Sept. 1814 in Edward Street, Cavendish Square (now Lower Seymour Street), when only aportion of his book had been published. T. Hartwell Home [q. v.] superintended the completion of the publication. T. C. Croker (Researches in the South of Ireland, p. 204) mentions that he left a large collection of notes and drawings. In the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects is a large folio volume of his drawings of arabesque ornaments. He was unmarried, and his estate (5,000l.) was administered in November 1814 by his sister, Hannah, wife of Bernard McNamara.

His published works are : 1. 'Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Views of the Church of Batalha. ... To which is prefixed an Introductory Discourse on the Principles of Gothic Architecture,' twenty-seven plates, London, 1795, 1836. A history and description of the church by Manoel de Sousa Coutinho (translated by Murphy) occupies pp. 27-57. One drawing, Murphy's design for the completion of the monument of King Emmanuel, is in the print room of the British Museum, and a volume of studies and copies of Murphy's letters in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. A German translation of the 'Discourse on Gothic Architecture,' by J. D. E. W. Engelhard, was published in Darmstadt in 1828. 2. 'Travels in Portu-