Harold Murdock

Harold Murdoch, who descended from original settlers was a man of wit, insight, scholarly persistence and judicious temperament. Whilst not an academic historian, over a number of years Murdoch amassed his own library of books and original manuscripts, which became a rish source for early American and eighteenth-century English history as well as Johnsoniana. In 1910, as Vice-president of the National Shawmut Bank, Murdoch was elected as a resident member of the Massachusetts Historical Society— such an honor was bestowed on only 100 living people. He subsequently read his first paper, titled “Historic Doubts on Lexington,” to the society, and it was later published as the first essay in his book titled, "The Nineteenth of April 1775".