H. G. Murray

Henry Garland Murray
- 1877

Daily Gleaner, May 26, 1869

'. . . Mr. Murray's great power in delineating character, and the exceeding humour with which he relates local anecdotes and the more comic incidents of his narratives'

1869-1877

The rising son: or, The antecedents and advancement of the colored race
William Wells Brown, writing in the U.S.A. 1874:
Henry G. Murray

To be able to tell a story, and tell it well, is a gift, and not an acquirement; a gift that one may well be proud of. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch, left his sunny home in the Island of Jamaica, last autumn, and paid a flying visit to our country. We had heard of Mr. Murray as the able editor of the leading newspaper in Kingston, and, therefore, he was not an entire stranger to us.
But his great powers as a lecturer, we were ignorant of. With a number of friends, we went one evening to listen to a lecture on "Life among the Lowly in Jamaica." The speaker for the occasion was Henry G. Murray, who soon began his subject. He was a man of fine personal appearance, a little inclined to corpulency, large, electric eyes, smiling countenance beaming with intelligence, and wearing the air of a well-bred gentleman.
He commenced in a calm, cool, moderate manner, and did not depart from it during the evening. Mr. Murray's style is true to nature, and the stories which he gave with matchless skill, convulsed every one with laughter. He evinced talent for both tragic and comic representation, rarely combined. His ludicrous stories, graphically told, kept every face on a grin from the commencement to the end. For pathos, genius, inimitable humor, and pungent wit, we have never seen his equal. He possesses the true vivida vis of eloquence. Mr. Murray is a man of learning, accomplishment, and taste, and will be warmly welcomed whenever he visits us again.

[There are no pictures of any of the Murrays, so this description of H. G. Murray is very valuable!]

1869

Daily Gleaner, January 29, 1869
MR. MURRAY'S lecture on "the manners and customs of Jamaica in the olden time" came off in accordance with previous announcement, at Wolmer’s School Room, on Wednesday evening. There was a large attendance, some of our most respectable citizens being present. The chair was taken by the Revd. Mr. Radcliffe, who on introducing the Lecturer expressed the high interest which he himself had always felt in the negro literature of this country; that he was greatly attracted by the subjects on which Mr. Murray intended to enlighten the company, that he came with very great expectation, and he felt confident that neither he nor the rest of the company would go away disappointed. Mr. Murray then introduced the subject with an account of our negro minstrelsy, singing with great effect several of of the pld time songs, which quite excited the mirth of the audience. He next entered upon a full account ol the Crop-over festivities and the Red and Blue sets, and for upwards of two hours kept his audience highly amused, and whose satisfaction was testified, in several instances, by continued rounds of applause. At the conclusion, a vote of thanks was proposed, and seconded by Dr. Allen, and the Revd. Mr. tlyams, and carried unanimously. The chairman in winding up the proceedings, said he had been highly gratified, and so he believed were all present. He supported the desire expressed by the other speakers, that Mr. Murray would continue his entertainments. A proposal which received the hearty concurrence of the audience.

1870

1871

1872

1873

1874

1875

1876

the final, fatal, trip - to Colon -

Daily Gleaner, December 11, 1876
The R.M.C. Str. Nile to take the European and Windward Island Mails this morning arrived here on Saturday evening from Colon. Among the passengers by her is Mr. H. G. Murray who had gone to Colon to deliver some of his amusing lectures, on the ancient custom of this country. This gentleman's health broke down there and he returns in a weak and shattered condition.

Daily Gleaner, December 21, 1876
By an advertisement in another column, it will be seen, that Mr. H. G. Murray's paper on life in Colon, will not be read before tomorrow night, it being found impossible for him to have St George's Schoolroom for the purpose before then.

**Final days, and the Gleaner's obituary:**

Daily Gleaner, January 15, 1877
Tonight, Mr. H. G. Murray purposes, as will be seen by an advertisement in another column, appearing before a Kingston audience at the St. George's School Room, Duke Street. The programme is attractive: Mr. Murray himself will read his paper on "Life in Colon" and a juvenile party, assisted by a professional hand, will contribute to the musical part of the entertainment, which promises to be quite a success. The lecturer can say hardly anything to persuade people to emigrate to the Columbian Republic, seeing that his recent visit to that country has made him a sufferer from a fever that seldom leaves him. His friends will, doubtless, turn out this evening, and give him a benefit. We have been requested to state, that tickets of admission can be had at this office, and at Mr. E. DeCordova's, Duke Street.

Daily Gleaner, January 20, 1877
The friends of Mr. Henry G. Murray will, without doubt, regret to hear that that gentleman is very seriously ill, at his residence, 142, Princess Street. For several days past, he has been suffering from the most excruciating pains.

Daily Gleaner, Tuesday, January 30, 1877

It is our painful duty to record this morning, the death of Mr. Henry Garland Murray. He expired between seven and eight o'clock on Sunday morning, and was buried in the afternoon, at Ebenezer. The very great multitude of mourners, not only of his friends -- but of his Masonic and other Brethren of the several Orders to which he belonged, who followed his remains to their last resting place, and the numerous well-wishers of his sorrowing family are evidence of the worth of the departed, who was justly regarded as "the Charles Dickens of Jamaica." Subjoined are some particulars respecting him: --

Mr. Murray was a native of St. James, and the son of a respectable and worthy citizen of Montego Bay. At an early age, young Murray was sent to the Mico School, in that town, where his progress was very rapid. Sometime about the year 1845, the writer, happening to visit Montego Bay on business, was informed by a friend, of a young lad named Murray, whose intelligence and aptitude for learning were something out of the common, and an introduction of the young man was proposed and accepted. The interview, accordingly, took place, when we found that the young gentleman's merits had not been over-rated. He was then tall for his age, and slender -- not having yet commenced that development of growth which, in his maturer years, resulted in considerably larger proportions.

Soon after this, Mr. Murray, not having yet attained the age of manhood, started a tiny newspaper under the description of The Juvenile General. In this he was assisted by some other youngsters. The style in which the short articles with which the sheet was filled was written induced an older brother Editor to playfully declare that it those articles were really written by boys, they must be boys of a very large growth. As may be supposed, however, the The Liliputian newspaper did not last long.

The next thing we hear of the subject of this notice is his having become a teacher in the Mico Institution, to which he was indebted for his own education. This part of his career does not seem to have lasted very long. While pursuing it, he lived for sometime in Vere, where he made the acquaintance of the lady whom he subsequently married, soon after which event he returned to Montego Bay, where, Mr. Alexander Holmes, the venerable Editor of the then existing Cornwall Chronicle, having died, he purchased the stock and goodwill of the paper. The speculation does not seem to have resulted advantageously to the purchaser; for, although the office of the paper was better supplied with presses and printing materials than perhaps any other in the island, while, the office itself was more spacious than any other, even in this city, the paper itself had long been in a languishing state, consequent on the recent social and political changes in the island to say nothing of the disastrous mercantile crisis that had been recently passed through. After a vain struggle to resuscitate a moribund concern, Mr. Murray gave up the paper, and sold out the stock.

Having received an offer from Mr. George Henderson of this city to conduct a paper then published by him, Mr. Murray came here, and entered on that duty which, however, did not last very long, the paper being given up of Mr. Murray next took charge of the Morning Journal, of this city, as Editor, continuing in that position for a few years. On throwing up that appointment, he commenced the publication of Murray's Daily News, which had but a short career, from the circumstance, perhaps, of the Editor not being possessed of the plant necessary for a printing office of his own. His next move was to visit the Isthmus of Panama, where he caught the local fever, the immediate and proximate cause of his death. And here seems to be the place where we may speak of a peculiar talent possessed by the deceased, which, lying latent, was fully developed in this city. We allude to his correct and humorous delineation of the uneducated native character, as illustrated in the Creole dialect and in a peculiar habitudes of those to whom it is their mother tongue. These peculiarities he frequently illustrated before large audiences in this city and other parts of the island, in the form of Lectures, but which he designated by the more modest term, "Readings." It was impossible for an audience to listen to him without being convulsed with laughter. Previous to his Isthmean trip, he had visited the United States, in hopes of lecturing; but, in consequence of a system of bureaucracy that prevails there, by which all persons desirous of lecturing must be taken in hand for some time by a certain monopolizing clique, he was unable to obtain an audience, even though the powerful influence of John B. Gough, the celebrated lecturer, was enlisted in his favour. Mr. Murray favoured this gentleman with a private reading, when the listener was so overcome by laughter that he declared he had not so indulged in several years; for though Mr. Gough's lectures are highly humorous, he is, in private life, a very grave man.

This short sojourn in the United States, though barren of pecuniary results, did Mr. Murray good in another way, as it has done many another Jamaican, including the writer of this notice. It served to clear away the mists of prejudice against the Americans, which it is almost impossible for the untravelled Jamaican not to entertain, and to enable him to judge more justly, and think more kindly than he had been taught of a great and enterprising people.

We are not aware that the deceased ever claimed to be eminent as a political writer. His forte, as a newspaper man, was description; and this was displayed to great advantage in his lectures, and in his pastoral sketches in the Morning Journal. As a writer and reader of the Jamaica Creole dialect, he had no superior. He knew it thoroughly, and could pronounce it, even to its minutest shades of inflection. He used to say that there was but one other man in the island equal to him in this respect; and, perhaps, in this he was too modest. He might probably have said, in regard to this, that he was first among equals, and is only in writing. In pronunciation, he was absolutely unequalled.

During his entire life, Mr. Murray was a man of strict temperance principles, never tasting spirits, nor any kind of fermented intoxicating liquors. While the United States, he obtained from the chief Temperance authorities there a diploma, or whatever the instrument is called, as Grand Patriarch of Jamaica. We believe he addressed a few audiences in this city on Temperance, but we are not aware thus he succeeded in obtaining any proselytes. In private life, he was very amusing, and could enjoy a hearty laugh himself, as well as excite the risibles of others. In religion he was a Wesleyan Methodist. He leaves a wife and five children to mourn their loss. Two sons and a daughter are fast approaching maturity of age, while the others are still in the stage of juvenescence. Thus has fallen beneath the sickle of the grim reaper, Death, one more, to add to the fast diminishing number of journalists that have recently been gathered in to his grim harvest.

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It is sad to think that the death of a brother Journalist, noticed elsewhere, leaves a wife and a large family, compromising several young children, in a state of absolute poverty, to put the matter in delicate terms. The long, severe and lingering illness of Mr. Henry Garland Murray deprived him of the ability to provide for those dear ones whom he has left behind. We appealed to a generous and kind-hearted community on behalf of the widowed mother and fatherless children. Knowing, as we do, that this appeal will not be made in vain, we venture to make it, and may the Father of the fatherless and the God of the widow, multiply abundantly the substance of those who may contribute as they are able to the fund which it is proposed to raise for the help of those who have lost their natural helper and protector. Subscriptions to the Murray Fund will be received at the Office of the Gleaner and by Mr. B. Mortimer Dias, at Portland House, 58, Harbour St.

Daily Gleaner, Tuesday, January 31, 1877

Daily Gleaner, May 6, 1881
Died
In this city on the 2nd inst., Caroline, widow of the late Henry Garland Murray, in the 52nd year of her age.

Attributed to Henry Garland Murray in an article - 'Creole Folklore from Jamaica' by William C. Bates, in the Journal of American Folklore, April-June, 1896