In Memory of In Memory of
JOHN McMURPHY Mrs. MARY McMURPHY
Esq. Justice of the Relict of
Quorum who John McMurphy
departed this life Esqr. who died
Sept. ye 21st AD 1755 Nov. ye 19th AD 1770
AEtat 73 AEtat 87
He represented this Town
as a member of the General
Court between 20 & 30 years
John McMurphy was one of three brothers (John, Archibald and Alexander) who came to Londonderry, New Hampshire with their parents (James McMurphy) from Northern Ireland. John McMurphy, Esquire, was born in 1682, married Mary Cargill and had five children. His father was from Scotland, migrated to Northern Ireland and participated in the siege of Londonderry, Northern Ireland in 1689.
According to Parker's The History of Londonderry, the first house built in Nutfield was for Reverend McGregor, and the second house was for John McMurphy, Esquire.
This entry is in the Londonderry town records [according to page 20 of Parker's The History of Londonderry]
"John McMurphy, Esq., Justice of the Quorum, departed this life September 21, 1755, at Portsmouth, and was carried to Londonderry on Tuesday and buried on Wednesday, the 24th at the old burying place in this town, with an extraordinary company, aged about seventy-three years."
I was curious about his title "Justice of the Quorum", and so I consulted with Judy G. Russell, The Legal Genealogist , who stated "Under some statutory systems, the most respected, usually best educated justices of the peace were designated as justices of the quorum and while much could be done by a single JP, other things couldn't be acted on without the presence of the required number of justices of the quorum."
The off center winged cherubs heads on this double tombstone caught my eye as I was wandering Forest Hill Cemetery last summer. Although McMurphy lived in Londonderry, and was buried in Londonderry, and is featured in The History of Londonderry, this cemetery is now in the part of town that was named Derry after the schism in the early 1800s.
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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ John McMurphy, died 1755 in Londonderry, New Hampshire, "Justice of the Quorum" ", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 18, 2015, http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/08/tombstone-tuesday-john-mcmurphy-died.html: accessed [access date]).
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