Talk:Lindley Murray

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Untitled

Removed copyvio from here. Mel Etitis (Μελ Ετητης) 22:57, 28 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Discrepancies

I have run across three discrepancies:

Date of birth: 22 April 1745 vs. 7 June 1745
Date of death: 16 February 1826 vs. 16 January 1826
Place of birth: Harper Tavern vs. Swatara Township

How it's left at the moment is there's a note about the discrepancies. I used the 22 April 1745 birth date and the 16 February 1826 date of death in the body of the article, because it seems there are more sources for those.

For place of birth, since Swatara is often listed as the place of birth and it's just a bit east of Harper Tavern, I used "Harper Tavern, near Swatara Township..." It may be that the writers meant Swatara Creek, which flows by Harper Tavern.

Does this make sense? If you have insight or a way to sort the dates more definitely - or express the place of birth differently, that would be helpful.–CaroleHenson (talk) 06:39, 25 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The older editions of Murray's memoir only state the year he was born. This 1996 edition, this book, and the PA marker source (search on Lindley Murray) say that he was born on 7 June 1745. I am beginning to wonder if that's the right date, because it seems to me that the state of PA and someone working on his memoirs would want it to be right - and might be in the best position to research this (state public records, family members, etc.)–CaroleHenson (talk) 13:53, 25 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I made the change to 7 June 1745 for the date of birth here.

If there are any concerns or differences of opinion, that would be really helpful to know, I just took my best shot, but I could be wrong.–CaroleHenson (talk) 17:48, 25 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The saga continues. I just saw that his date of birth is 17 April 1745 (4/17/1745 Old Style corresponds to 4/28/1745 New Style), not 22 April 1745. 17 April 1745 is the date on his Find a grave record, which is not a reliable source. I cannot tell if there are dates on the grave stone.

In the thesis, his date of birth is 27 March 1745 on page 32 Fens-de Zeeuw, Lyda (2011). Lindley Murray (1745–1826), Quaker and Grammarian (PDF) (Thesis). Utrecht: Lot Dissertation Series. ISBN 978-94-6093-066-9. - as I understand, since it wasn't published as a book, it's not a reliable source either.

As I have gone along, though, I keep seeing 16 February 1826 as his date of death and either Harper Tavern or Swatara for his place of birth, so that's good.

I am not sure what to do with that information. I might try the Teahouse.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:43, 25 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

~~Oops, it another date in the thesis, it's 27 March 1745. I changed the date and underlined it above.~~ The only thing that makes sense to me right now is to say he was born in 1745, and discuss the different dates in a note.

Again, if anyone's out there, your opinion would be nice to have. This has become a tangled mess for the date of birth.–CaroleHenson (talk) 20:40, 25 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thankfully, Nikkimaria sorted things out and eliminated the content from unreliable sources in the note in the article, so I am striking it out here, too, so that it's clear why it wasn't included. The note is so much better now.–CaroleHenson (talk) 15:46, 26 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Law practice

Melchior2006 I saw your edit summary comment "‎Law career: confusing... did he ever leave practice? Cut the comment tending toward saints' legends..."

It's very confusing to me how long he was in practice. I don't think he did much for the first four years of the Revolutionary War. He's described as fishing, sailing, and something else. There's a source that said he returned to his practice in 1779, so that's in there, but it sounds like he made much more money on the import-export and shipping businesses.

I have been debating whether to spend more time on it. It seems (his memoir, Monaghan, not sure) that it was harder for him to get business in the last years of the war and during economic downturnsttt. If he was practicing law from 1779 to 1783, I don't think it was full-time.–CaroleHenson (talk) 21:05, 26 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

thx for the confirmation about that passage being confusing. By the way, is/was some of this article copied from 18th-century publications? Some of the writing is/was notably antiquated. -- Melchior2006 (talk) 07:46, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I did some rewriting of the older content, but apparently not enough. I totally agree with your removal of content like "saints' legends". I don't think I introduced anything that is antiquated, but I will take a spin through the article.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:58, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Melchior2006 I made copy edits here. I think that's better. Feel free to make edits, too.–CaroleHenson (talk) 20:53, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I made some more edits. Here's an updated diff.–CaroleHenson (talk) 21:18, 28 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]