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Murdock, David, D.D.

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Murdock, James, D.D.

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a Presbyterian divine, was born in the village of Bonbill, in Dumbartonshire, Scotland, in 1801. His father was a stone-cutter, who often labored with the friends of Hugh Miller. David possessed indomitable energy, and obtained for himself a thorough and accomplished education. He graduated at Glasgow University; studied theology in the theological school of the Scottish Independents; and was licensed and ordained in Glasgow, according to the forms of the Scottish Congregationalists, about the year 1831. His first charge was the parish of Cambuslang, near Glasgow, a place memorable for the wonderful preaching of Whitefield. In 1834 he accepted an appointment from the Colonial Missionary Society as a missionary to Canada, and on his arrival in that country he resided principally at Bath, preaching as a supply to the destitute and feeble churches of that region. In 1837, about the time of the Patriot War, he left Canada, and was settled as the successor of Dr. McMaster at Ballston Centre, N.Y.; in 1842 he accepted a call to Catskill as successor to the Reverend Dr. Porter. In 1851 he accepted a call to the First Presbyterian Church in Elmira, N.Y., where he labored until his death, June 13, 1861. Dr. Murdock was emphatically a man of the people. In the pulpit, in the lecture-room, on the platform, he was indeed pre-eminent. He was a great reader, and especially a profound scholar in the sciences. He was eminently successful as an essayist. An article by him on Canning and Chalmers, in the Presb. Quart. Review, is one of power. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 1862, page 189.