John Murdock of Plymouth

John Murdock of Plymouth

John Murdock of Plymouth, like Robert of Roxbury, makes his first appearance in the records in his marriage to Lydia Young in Plymouth, December 10, 1696. She was probably the daughter of John Young, and was born in Eastham, Massachusetts in 1664. John married second Phebe Morton, daughter of John Morton of Middleborough, November 4, 1719.

John received a grant of forty feet of land from the Court in 1689, and was admitted as freeman, June 3, 1690. In the earliest records he is called a shopkeeper, but he later became a merchant and importer and accumulated a good fortune. He dealt largely in real estate and had large holdings at the time of his death. He filled many positions of usefulness and importance, his name appearing very frequently in the town records.

There was a Phebe Murdock in Plymouth, who married Nathaniel Warren, and after his death in 1707 she married Thomas Gray. She was probably a sister of John, although no decisive evidence of the relationship is known.

In the earliest records John's name appears as Murdo. A John Murdo appears in the Scotch records of the sixteenth century as an overseer of the masonry work on Melrose Abbey and other ecclesiastical buildings, and the name is still found in Scotland, where it is considered a variation of Murdoch. It disappeared in Plymouth after the second generation, Murdock or Murdock being substituted.

John was an active member of the Scots Charitable Society for many years and there can be no doubt but that he was born in Scotland, but the place and date of birth are unknown. He died in Plymouth in March, 1756, but there is no record of his age. As he lived nearly seventy years after the date of his first marriage, he must have been at least ninety years old at the time of his death.

His will devises personal property only, he having disposed of his real estate by deeding it to his heirs before the will was drawn up. He left his wife 1,000 pounds and a part of his house. The church of the Third Precinct in Plymouth received 100 pounds as a permanent fund, and the same amount was given to a fund for the poor of Plymouth. The "Scotch box" in Boston received 50 pounds. His daughter, Phebe Bowdoin, received a bequest of three debts owed by her husband, William Bowdoin, of Boston, amounting to 12,000 pounds old tenor and about 333 pounds "lawful money." His granddaughter, Ruth Wall, received a farm, and everything else was bequeathed to his son, John.

He is buried on Burial Hill in Plymouth.