1. Life and Learning
James Murray's early life was marked by a precocious intellect and a self-driven pursuit of knowledge, leading to an extraordinary command of numerous languages despite limited formal education. His early career as a teacher and his involvement in philological circles laid the groundwork for his eventual leadership of the Oxford English Dictionary.
1.1. Early Life and Background
Born on 7 February 1837, James Murray was the eldest son of Thomas Murray, a draper, in the village of Denholm near Hawick in the Scottish Borders. His brothers included Charles Oliver Murray and A. D. Murray, who later became an editor of the Newcastle Daily Journal. Although christened simply 'James Murray', he adopted the additional names 'Augustus Henry' in 1855 to distinguish himself from other individuals named James Murray in the Hawick area. Displaying a remarkable intellect and a voracious appetite for learning from a young age, he was compelled to leave formal schooling at the age of fourteen due to his parents' inability to afford the continuing fees for his education.
1.2. Education and Linguistic Studies
Despite his early departure from formal schooling, Murray embarked on an extensive path of self-education. At seventeen, he began his teaching career at Hawick Grammar School, which is now known as Hawick High School. Within three years, he had advanced to become the headmaster of the Subscription Academy in Hawick. In 1856, his intellectual curiosity also led him to become one of the co-founders of the Hawick Archaeological Society.
Murray's primary academic interests revolved around languages and etymology, the study of word origins. The remarkable depth and breadth of his linguistic knowledge are evident from a letter of application he sent to Thomas Watts, the Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum. In this letter, he asserted an 'intimate acquaintance' with Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, and Latin, along with a 'lesser degree' of familiarity with Portuguese, Vaudois, Provençal, and various related dialects. Furthermore, he claimed to be 'tolerably familiar' with Dutch, German, and Danish. His studies of Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic had been 'much closer', and he possessed 'a little of the Celtic'. At the time of writing, he was 'engaged with the Slavonic', having acquired a useful knowledge of Russian. He also stated he had 'sufficient knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac to read and cite the Old Testament and Peshito', and to a lesser degree, he knew Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, and Phoenician. Despite this impressive linguistic proficiency, he did not secure the position at the British Museum.
1.3. Early Career and Philological Society
In 1861, Murray met and married Maggie Scott, a music teacher. Two years later, they had a daughter named Anna, who tragically died young from tuberculosis, a disease then commonly known as consumption. Maggie also fell ill with the same disease. On the advice of doctors, the couple moved to London to escape the harsh Scottish winters, hoping the change of climate would improve her health. In London, Murray took an administrative position with the Chartered Bank of India, while diligently continuing his diverse academic pursuits in his spare time. Sadly, Maggie died within a year of their arrival in London.
A year later, Murray became engaged to Ada Agnes Ruthven, and they married the following year. Their best man at the wedding was his close friend, Alexander Graham Bell, who had previously received instruction from Murray in elementary electricity. Bell often affectionately referred to Murray as "the grandfather of the telephone."
By 1869, Murray's growing reputation in linguistic circles led to his election to the council of the Philological Society. By 1873, he had left his job at the bank and returned to teaching, this time at Mill Hill School. That same year, he published The Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland, a work that further enhanced his standing within philological communities. In 1881, his scholarly contributions were recognized with his election as a member of the American Philosophical Society.
2. Personal Life
James Murray's personal life was deeply intertwined with his professional endeavors, particularly his monumental work on the Oxford English Dictionary. He married Ada Agnes Ruthven, and together they had eleven children. By arrangement with his father-in-law, George Ruthven, all their children carried 'Ruthven' as part of their names. Remarkably, all eleven children survived to maturity, which was uncommon for the era. This large and supportive family played a direct role in the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, with all the children assisting their father in his immense lexicographical task.
Among his notable children were Harold James Ruthven Murray, who became a prominent chess historian, and Sir Oswyn Murray, who served as the permanent secretary at the Admiralty (United Kingdom) from 1917 to 1936. His son, Wilfrid George Ruthven Murray, also contributed to his father's legacy by writing an account of his life and work.
3. Work on the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
James Murray's most significant contribution was his central role in the creation and editing of the Oxford English Dictionary. From its ambitious inception to its eventual completion, Murray's vision and tireless efforts shaped the OED into an unparalleled record of the English language.
3.1. Initiation of the OED Project and Appointment as Editor
The idea for a comprehensive new English dictionary emerged from a lecture titled "On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries" delivered by Richard Chenevix Trench at the London Library in 1857. This sparked the Philological Society's plan in 1858 to compile a "New English Dictionary on Historical Principles." Herbert Coleridge was appointed as the first chief editor, but he died two years later in 1860, leaving the ambitious project in its early stages.
In 1877, Murray was approached by the Philological Society to take on the dictionary project. He prepared several sample pages, which were then sent to the Oxford University Press, a leading potential publisher. On 26 April 1878, Murray was invited to Oxford to meet with the Delegates of the Oxford University Press. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss his potential role as editor of a new English dictionary, intended to replace Johnson's Dictionary and to comprehensively capture all words then existing in the English-speaking world, along with their various shades of meaning.
A formal agreement was established on 1 March 1879, officially appointing Murray as the editor of what would become the Oxford English Dictionary. Initially, the project was expected to take ten years to complete, resulting in approximately 7,000 pages across four volumes. However, the true scale of the undertaking far exceeded these initial estimates. When the final volumes were eventually published in 1928, years after Murray's death, the dictionary comprised twelve volumes, defining 414,825 words and illustrating their meanings with an astonishing 1,827,306 citations.
3.2. The Scriptorium and Working Methods
To manage the immense volume of work required for the dictionary, Murray established a specialized workspace. In preparation for the task, he constructed a shed made of Corrugated galvanised iron in the grounds of Mill Hill School, which he famously named the Scriptorium. This structure served as the headquarters for his small team of assistants and, crucially, as the repository for the continuous influx of "slips." These slips were individual pieces of paper, each bearing a quotation illustrating the use of a word to be defined in the dictionary, which were collected from a public appeal for contributions. As work on the early parts of the dictionary progressed, Murray eventually resigned from his teaching position to dedicate himself full-time to lexicography.
In the summer of 1884, Murray and his family relocated to a large house on the Banbury Road in north Oxford. Here, a second, larger Scriptorium was built in their back garden. This new building offered increased storage capacity for the ever-growing number of slips that were being sent to Murray and his team. Such was the volume of correspondence generated by Murray and his collaborators that the Post Office took the unusual step of erecting a special post box directly outside Murray's house. Murray's connection to mail extended further, as he became president of the Oxford Philatelic Society, making use of the substantial collection of postage stamps he received from his numerous volunteer readers around the world.
3.3. Editorial Philosophy and Methodology
Murray's approach to lexicography for the OED was fundamentally descriptive rather than prescriptive. He viewed the dictionary not as a tool to dictate correct usage, but as a comprehensive "record of how speakers developed and used language over time." This meant that his goal was to document the historical evolution and actual usage of words, rather than to impose rules on how they should be used.
His criteria for including vocabulary in the dictionary focused on the "central part" of the "common language," encompassing both written and spoken forms of English. Murray's objective was to "write biographies of words," meticulously tracing their origins, forms, and changes in meaning throughout history. He explicitly rejected the common preconception among linguists, dating back to Plato's Cratylus, that one could derive a word's meaning directly from its origin or form. When asked about the "correctness" of certain linguistic variations, such as whether "different from" was superior to "different to," Murray often responded that such issues were matters of "natural expression and preference," emphasizing the inherent diversity of language. This descriptive stance was a hallmark of his editorial philosophy, aiming to reflect the language as it was used rather than how it "should" be used.
3.4. Major Contributors and Collaboration
The compilation of the OED was a massive collaborative effort, relying on contributions from numerous volunteers. Among the most significant contributors was William Chester Minor, who became one of the project's most effective and prolific volunteers. Minor's extensive work came to Murray's attention, leading Murray to visit him in January 1891. In 1899, Murray publicly praised Minor's immense contributions to the dictionary, stating that "we could easily illustrate the last four centuries from his quotations alone." That same year, Minor alone provided an astonishing 12,000 quotations for the OED, demonstrating the scale of his dedication.
3.5. Scale and Completion of the OED
The Oxford English Dictionary project, under Murray's leadership, grew to an unprecedented scale. While initially projected to be completed in ten years, spanning 7,000 pages across four volumes, the final work far exceeded these estimates. The full dictionary was eventually published in 1928, thirteen years after Murray's death, completing a project that had effectively spanned 70 years from its initial conception. The completed OED comprised twelve volumes, defining 414,825 words and supported by 1,827,306 illustrative citations. The declaration of its completion was made on New Year's Eve, 1927.
4. Recognition and Honors
Despite his immense contributions to scholarship, Murray remained somewhat of an outsider within the academic establishment of Oxford. He was never made a Fellow of an Oxford college, and he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford only in 1914, the year before his death.
However, his monumental work on the dictionary did eventually garner significant recognition. In 1908, James Murray was recognized for his devotion to the dictionary and his lifetime of scholarship with a knighthood. He was also awarded honorary doctoral degrees by a total of nine universities during his lifetime. These included an LL.D from the University of Glasgow in June 1901, and the aforementioned D.Litt. from the University of Oxford in 1914.
5. Death
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray died on 26 July 1915, at the age of 78. The cause of his death was pleurisy. He had expressed a wish to be buried in Oxford, specifically beside the grave of his close friend, James Legge.
6. Impact and Legacy
The lasting influence of James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary on language, scholarship, and popular culture is profound. The OED stands as a testament to his vision and dedication, fundamentally shaping how the English language is understood and documented.
6.1. Portrayals in Literature and Film
James Murray's life and his extraordinary work on the Oxford English Dictionary have been depicted in various literary and cinematic works. The book The Surgeon of Crowthorne (published in America as The Professor and the Madman), by Simon Winchester, was released in 1998. This book chronicles the later life of William Chester Minor and his extensive contributions to the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, highlighting the unique collaboration between Minor and Murray.
The film rights for Winchester's book were acquired by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions in 1998. The film adaptation, titled The Professor and the Madman, was directed by Farhad Safinia and starred Gibson as Murray and Sean Penn as Minor. It was released in May 2019.
In 2003, Simon Winchester published a broader historical account titled The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, which delves into the origins of the OED and its eventual completion nearly seventy years later. Another notable literary work is The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020), a best-selling novel by Australian author Pip Williams. Much of this novel is set within the Scriptorium, the specialized workspace where Murray and his team diligently worked on the OED.
6.2. Academic and Public Assessment
James Murray's contributions to lexicography are widely regarded as foundational. His insistence on a descriptive approach, documenting the historical usage of words, revolutionized dictionary-making. The Oxford English Dictionary itself is considered the definitive record of the English language, a scholarly achievement of immense proportions that continues to be updated and utilized globally. His work provided an unprecedented understanding of the evolution of English vocabulary, making it an indispensable resource for linguists, historians, and the general public alike. The knighthood and numerous honorary degrees he received, though some came late in his life, reflect the eventual public and academic recognition of his unparalleled dedication and the enduring value of his life's work.
7. Further Reading and Resources
For those seeking more in-depth information about James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary, several key biographical works and academic studies are available.
Notable biographical accounts include Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary by K.M. Elisabeth Murray, his granddaughter, published in 1977. Another significant work is Sarah Ogilvie's 2012 book, Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary. Simon Winchester has also authored two widely read books on the subject: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary (2003), and The Surgeon of Crowthorne (1998), which focuses on the relationship between Murray and William Chester Minor.
Other related academic and biographical works include Margaret Thomas's 50 Thinkers of Language, Ko Tazawa's Biographies of Dictionary Makers, and Daisuke Nagashima's Reading the OED: A Guide to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Additional resources can be found online, including the entry for James Murray on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography website, and various biographies with photographs on sites such as the Crime Library, BBC, and Bikwil.com. Information about the blue plaque commemorating Murray's residence in Oxford is available on the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques website. The Murray Scriptorium website also provides access to letters and papers related to James Murray. His works are also available through Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive.