Joseph Murray

Background

Joseph Murray was born around 1694, in Laois County (formerly known as Queen's County), Ireland, the son of Thomas Murray.

Career

Murray emigrated to New York early in life, appearing at the New York bar in 1718. He interrupted his legal practice in New York to attend the Middle Temple, where he was admitted in 1725.

Returning to New York, where he was voted the freedom of the city in 1728, he quickly gained recognition as an erudite lawyer. He appeared in the Mayor's Court in most of the principal cases in his generation, and his arguments reveal a thorough grounding in the civil as well as the common law. His form books are models of eighteenth-century pleading.

He appeared for the proprietors of the Oblong or Equivalent Lands; again, with James Alexander, for the plaintiffs in 1752 in the suit of the Earl of Stair and other proprietors of East New Jersey against Bond and others; and for the city of New York in its boundary dispute with the town of Harlem, and in its protracted litigation with Brooklyn over ferry rights.

He was a New York commissioner in the boundary dispute with Massachusetts in 1754 and in the same year rendered an extensive report to the counsel with regard to the boundary dispute with New Jersey. Murray appears to have had a principal share in amending and completing a draft of the Montgomerie Charter, in which task, according to the official resolution of thanks, he was said to have given "a lasting Instance of his great Learning Ability and Integrity in his Profession as well as for his Regard to this Corporation".

Through his marriage, Murray was brought into close alliance with the governor and undertook a defense of the prerogative against the attacks of William Smith, arguing before the Assembly in 1734 the legality of the court of exchequer.

Murray's "Opinion Relating to the Courts of Justice in the Colony of New York", his only published work, is one of the few really important contributions to legal history penned in the American colonies. The author enlisted the full weight of common-law precedent against the assertion that courts of law could be established only by statute, and set forth convincingly the view that "Fundamental Courts" are a part of the constitution of England. He appears on less solid ground, however, in claiming that the authority of the colonial legislatures and courts is derived, not from the King's commission, but from the common law to which the colonies are entitled. He concluded his argument by citing colonial precedents of 1702 and 1729, when the New York Supreme Court of Judicature sat as a court of exchequer. The substance of his arguments was embodied by Governor Cosby in an aggressive opinion in defense of the Court of Chancery the following year. Once again Murray and Smith clashed. In the election dispute between Garret Van Horne and Adolph Philipse in 1737, when the question was raised whether Jews were qualified to vote, Murray argued in the affirmative, because the law mentioned all freeholders of competent estate.

A member of the executive council under George Clinton, Murray was soon prominently identified with the opposition faction headed by Chief Justice James De Lancey, ultimately breaking with Clinton and Colden and effectually tying up the governor's military program. The joy of De Lancey and Murray when Sir Danvers Osborne succeeded Clinton in the governorship was soon tempered when that official, while a guest of Murray, committed suicide as a result of private grief. With De Lancey in the saddle, Murray was made one of the New York delegates at the Albany Congress of 1754. Murray devised to King's College his residuary estate, including a fine library, the origin of the Columbia collection. Unfortunately the greater part of this collection was destroyed or scattered during the occupation of the British or the fire of 1776. Joseph Murray died on April 28, 1757.

Achievements

• Joseph Murray became prominent and successful lawyer in colonial New York. He was associated as noted counsel or arbiter in some of the most important real-estate litigation in New York and New Jersey.

Religion

Joseph Murray was a strict Episcopalian and was active in the affairs of Trinity Church.

Membership

Joseph Murray was a member of the first board of trustees of the New York Society Library and a governor of that institution.

Connections

In 1738, Joseph Murray married Grace Freeman.

Father:

Thomas Murray

Wife:

Grace Murray (Cosby)