MURDOCK, James, author, born in Westbrook, Connecticut, 16 February, 1776; died in Columbus, Mississippi, 10 August, 1856. He was graduated at Yale in 1797, and became successively preceptor of Hopkins grammar-school at New Haven, and of Oneida academy (now Hamilton college), New York He studied theology under Timothy Dwight, and was licensed to preach as a Congregational minister in January, 1801, and settled as pastor of the church at Princeton, Massachusetts, in June, 1802, where he remained thirteen years. In 1815 he became professor of ancient languages in the University of Vermont, and from 1819 till 1828 he was professor of sacred rhetoric and ecclesiastical history in Andover theological seminary. In 1829 he removed to New Haven and devoted the rest of his life to study, principally that of ecclesiastical history, the oriental languages, and philosophy. He was president of the Connecticut academy of arts and sciences, vice-president of the philological society of Connecticut, and one of the founders of the American oriental society. He received the degree of D. D. from Harvard in 1819. He published a translation from the German of Munscher's 'Elements of Dogmatic History" (New Haven, 1880): a translation of Mosheim's "institutes of Ecclesiastical History," with copious notes (3 vols., New York, 1832); an edition of Milman's "History of Christianity," with preface and notes (1841) ; "Sketches of Modern Philosophy, especially among the Germans " (Hartford, 1842) ; a " Literal Translation of the Whole New Testament from the Ancient Syriac Version," with a preface and marginal notes (New York, 1851); and a translation from the Latin of Mosheim's " Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians before thee Time of Constantine the Great " (2 vols., 1852).