Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/354

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Mur]
DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
[Mur

Speaker in the Assembly daring the absence, on account of illness, of Dr. (afterwards Sir J. F.) Palmer in March 1855. When responsible government was conceded, he was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Victoria for the Murray, and appointed the first Speaker of the House in Oct. 1856. To this post he was re-elected in 1859, 1861, 1864, 1866, and 1868, and held it continuously till the dissolution of Parliament on Jan. 24th, 1871, when he resigned, having in the meantime been knighted in 1860. In 1866 Sir Francis Murphy left the Murray and was returned for the Grenville electorate till 1871, when he was defeated, and was out of Parliament till the next year, when he entered the Upper House as member for the Eastern Province. He resigned his seat in council in 1876, and resided for some time in England. He died on March 30th, 1890.

Murphy, Right Rev. Francis, D.D., first Roman Catholic Bishop of Adelaide, was born at Navan, co. Meath, Ireland, in 1796, and educated at the Diocesan Seminary in that town, and at St. Patrick's, Maynooth. At the latter College he was for some time Prefect of Studies, and was ordained in 1826. The scene of his early pastoral labours was at Bradford, in Yorkshire, and at Liverpool, but in 1838 he went on mission duty to New South Wales, succeeding the late Bishop Ullathorne as Vicar-General of the diocese of Sydney. When the suffragan sees of Adelaide, Perth and Hobart were constituted, in 1842, Father Murphy was appointed the first Bishop of the capital of South Australia, and was consecrated in Sydney in Sept. 1844, this being the first occasion on which the ceremony was performed in Australia. He assumed his episcopal functions at Adelaide in Nov. 1884, and consecrated St. Mary's, Morphett Vale—the first Roman Catholic church erected in South Australia—successfully superintending the early development of the various ecclesiastical institutions which have since multiplied so enormously. He died in Adelaide on April 26th, 1858.

Murphy, William Emmet, was born in the city of Dublin in May 1843, where his father was a publican, and was educated at the Christian Brothers' College. Originally intended for the priesthood, he was apprenticed to his uncle at Liverpool, to the trade of cabinet-maker. In 1860 he volunteered as one of "O'Reilly's Brigade" for the defence of Pius IX., and landed at Civita Vecchia, but with the other Irish volunteers was soon shipped back to Ireland. Returning to Liverpool, Mr. Murphy finished his apprenticeship and displayed his energy in helping to found the Liverpool Cabinetmakers' and Upholsterers' Apprentices' Society. He emigrated to Melbourne in 1865, and married in 1869. Mr. Murphy has been attached to the Trades Hall since his arrival in the colony; though, after following his trade for some years, he entered the Military Department, and for sixteen years was sergeant-major of Engineers. Subsequently Mr. Murphy established himself as a suburban auctioneer. He twice contested North Melbourne (in 1886 and 1889), on the latter occasion only losing the seat by 60 votes. Together with Mr. Hancock and Mr. Trenwith, Mr. Murphy played the most prominent part, so far as Victoria was concerned, in the late industrial conflict, which will always be known as "The Great Australian Strike."

Murray, Hon. David, M.L.C., was elected to the Legislative Council of South Australia in 1882, and was appointed Chief Secretary in the Downer Ministry, in succession to Mr. J. B. Spence, in July 1886. He retired with his colleagues in June 1887. Mr. Murray was elected a member of the council of Adelaide University in Nov. 1887.

Murray, George Gilbert Aimé, M.A., son of Sir Terence Aubrey Murray (q.v.), by Agnes, third daughter of John Edwards, of Fairlawn House, Hammersmith, was born in 1866 at Sydney, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School, from which he was elected to a scholarship at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1884. At the University he was Hertford (Latin) Scholar, and Ireland Scholar, and first class in classical moderations in 1885. The next year he won the Craven University Scholarship, the Chancellor's prize for Latin verse, and the Gaisford Greek verse prize. In 1887 he won the Gaisford Greek prose prize, was first class in the Final Schools in Trinity term 1888, and was Derby Scholar in 1889. The Derby Scholarship, founded in memory of the late Earl of Derby, who was Chancellor of the University, is £157 a year, and

338