Behind this simple tombstone propped up against a much larger one is a poignant story. Thomas Murray was born in 1776. He died at the tender age of 21 years on May 3, 1797, 4 months and 2 days after he married Sarah Lowell Hazen (born 1775), daughter of William Hazen, on January 1, 1997. Thomas was the son of John Murray and Deborah Brinley, his third wife. Prior to the American Revolution, Thomas Murray made a fortune in land speculation and finance. He was elected a Rutland, Ma. town selectman in 1747 and a representative to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1751. In 1755, he became a colonel in the militia and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1774, John Murray was appointed as a member of the Council of Massachusetts by Governor Thomas Gage. The appointment nullified the popular election and he was driven out of town by angry townsmen. His exile in Boston ended when the British evacuated in 1776, at which time Murray moved to Halifax, and then London and Wales. Thomas Chandler was conceived and born during those tumultuous times and a period of exile for his parents. Five years after the death of her young husband, Sarah Lowell Hazen Murray married Judge William Botsford, and it is in the Botsford plot, to the right of the tombstone of Sarah's famous son, Amos Edwin Botsford, that Thomas Murray's tombstone may be found. Shortly after I added this burial record, I deleted it to direct you to the story behind it that I found online in the Memoir of LeBaron Botsford, M.D..Thomas Murray took cold while driving down the river on the ice. Consumption set in and he died after a short illness. Notice of his death was published in the St. John Gazette on Friday, May 5th, 1797. In a letter dated Feb. 19, 1797 from Elizabeth Upham to her cousin William Botsford, she wrote of Thomas Murray that she thought him at present rather too boyish and brusque in his manner.Sarah, his widow, went to live with her sister, Mrs. Chipman, in the Chipman Hous, and there her baby boy was born several months after his father's death. Two years later, she met her next husband, William Botsford, the lawyer, when for the first time she took her seat in the family pew after two years that were passed "in the strictest seclusion."
Behind this simple tombstone propped up against a much larger one is a poignant story. Thomas Murray was born in 1776. He died at the tender age of 21 years on May 3, 1797, 4 months and 2 days after he married Sarah Lowell Hazen (born 1775), daughter of William Hazen, on January 1, 1997. Thomas was the son of John Murray and Deborah Brinley, his third wife. Prior to the American Revolution, Thomas Murray made a fortune in land speculation and finance. He was elected a Rutland, Ma. town selectman in 1747 and a representative to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1751. In 1755, he became a colonel in the militia and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. In 1774, John Murray was appointed as a member of the Council of Massachusetts by Governor Thomas Gage. The appointment nullified the popular election and he was driven out of town by angry townsmen. His exile in Boston ended when the British evacuated in 1776, at which time Murray moved to Halifax, and then London and Wales. Thomas Chandler was conceived and born during those tumultuous times and a period of exile for his parents. Five years after the death of her young husband, Sarah Lowell Hazen Murray married Judge William Botsford, and it is in the Botsford plot, to the right of the tombstone of Sarah's famous son, Amos Edwin Botsford, that Thomas Murray's tombstone may be found. Shortly after I added this burial record, I deleted it to direct you to the story behind it that I found online in the Memoir of LeBaron Botsford, M.D..Thomas Murray took cold while driving down the river on the ice. Consumption set in and he died after a short illness. Notice of his death was published in the St. John Gazette on Friday, May 5th, 1797. In a letter dated Feb. 19, 1797 from Elizabeth Upham to her cousin William Botsford, she wrote of Thomas Murray that she thought him at present rather too boyish and brusque in his manner.Sarah, his widow, went to live with her sister, Mrs. Chipman, in the Chipman Hous, and there her baby boy was born several months after his father's death. Two years later, she met her next husband, William Botsford, the lawyer, when for the first time she took her seat in the family pew after two years that were passed "in the strictest seclusion."
Gravesite Details
Not listed in Fernhill burial records. In fact, Thomas died 51 years before the cemetery opened. There is no listing for a later re-interral.
Family Members
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