John Murray

Murray, Rev. John. (Alton, Hants, England, December 10, 1741--September 3, 11815, Boston, Massachusetts). As a young man he joined the Universalist church in London which had been gathered by James Relly. In 1770 he emigrated to America, bringing with him a copy of the collection Christian Hymns, Poems, and Sacred SOngs, sacred to the praise of God, our Saviour, published by Relly earlier in that year. This book was reprinted for Murray in 1776 at Burlington, New Jersey, and a second reprint in 1782 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in which five hymns by "J.M." were included. These were the earliest Universalist hymns written in America. Murray is regarded as the founder of the Universalist denomination in the United States and was minister of its first church, organized at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1779. He was minister of the First Universalist Society in Boston from 1793 until his death.

--Leonard Ellinwood, DNAH Archives