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--- john_murray_prior_bertram_murray [2021/03/17 12:24] – judith
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 ====== John Murray Prior/Bertram Murray ======
-If you enter 'John Murray Prior' into The National Library of Australia's wonderful search engine, Trove, you will get numerous references to various court cases. A few references call him John Murray-Prior but mostly the hyphen is omitted. His death certificate names John de M.[Montmorency?] Murray-Prior as his father; his mother as Nina J. Murray-Prior.((BDM, registration number 8340/1933)) The birth of his daughter Coralie de V. Murray-Prior (father John and mother Annie M-P), was registered in 1908((BDM, registration number 9070/1908)). John Murray/Murray-Prior excelled in re-inventing himself so his family history is murky. Thomas B. M-P believed that he was a descendant of an illegitimate child of [[priors_in_ireland_1636-c.1803|Thomas M-P (1773-1854)]] and an unidentified woman (after his wife Catherine died and before he took up with Mary Ann Thompson).((Thomas Bertram M-P, Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty, ms, n.d. p.5, NLA.)) That he was a relative of TLM-P is supported by a visit TLM-P made to 'J. de M.M. Prior' in July 1888.((TLM-P diary, ML))\\
+If you enter 'John Murray Prior' into the NLA's wonderful search engine, Trove, you will get numerous references to various court cases. A few references call him John Murray-Prior but mostly the hyphen is omitted. His death certificate names John de M.[Montmorency?] Murray-Prior as his father; his mother as Nina J. Murray-Prior.((BDM, registration number 8340/1933)) The birth of his daughter Coralie de V. Murray-Prior (father John and mother Annie M-P), was registered in 1908((BDM, registration number 9070/1908)). John Murray/Murray-Prior excelled in re-inventing himself so his family history is murky. Thomas B. M-P believed that he was a descendant of an illegitimate child of [[priors_in_ireland_1636-c.1803|Thomas M-P (1773-1854)]] and an unidentified woman (after his wife Catherine died and before he took up with Mary Ann Thompson).((Thomas Bertram M-P, Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty, ms, n.d. p.5, NLA.))\\
+\\
+John, then calling himself Jack Prior, turned up to visit the Murray-Priors at //Maroon// in Queensland in 1882. Nora M-P wrote that they had discovered that he was a 'sad scapegrace. He came out the other day with a wild story about being married to an heiress but could not get anyone to lend him money on the strength of it. Tom [de M M-P] has been very good to him & talks of paying his passage to Sydney to get rid of him.'((Nora to Rosa Praed, 20 February 1882)). The next that was heard about him was in August 1882 when TLM-P visited an old friend Captain Willis in England. His wife Harriet 'talked a good deal about Jack Prior and his mother. Saw the photo of John in the 12th Lancer uniform. Harriet seems to have been very fond of her half brother and said he made much of Jack. I do not think she cared much about Mr J.P. Jack had written from Mackay that he was a sort of nigger driver and was getting 15/- per week. She was anxious about him and some time before his mother had received a letter written by him and address My dear wife, telling her to come out to him and bring £100? It seems evident that he had enclosed the mothers letter in the envelope addressed to her, but there was no clue who the wife if wife might be. \\
+\\
+When TLM-P was in Sydney on his way to the Melbourne Exhibition, he wrote in his diary (23 July 1888):'Saw John de M. M. Prior at his office he asked me to go out and see his wife and child, did not care about it but as I had promised to do so some day, thought it best to have it over. Met at 6pm and went by train to Newtown. He is living in a very small house, good bedrooms, neatly furnished and comfortable. Saw his boy, in conversation gleaned that he had been married about 18 months at Melbourne where she has an Aunt. They must have come out in the same vessel. Jack is mysterious, has dropped the name Jack and his wife calls him Bertie. The baby is now 3 months old. There is no believing J. and no knowing what he is up to.' In a diary entry of 22 October 1888, TLM-P noted that he had received a letter from 'Jack M. Prior Address J. de M. M-P, Foleys Cottage, near Dunlops Hotel, Bondi, Sydney but makes no mention of the contents. Jack/Bertie/John's subsequent career fully confirms TLM-P's distrust.\\
 \\
-John, calling himself Jack Prior, turned up to visit the Murray-Priors at Maroon in Queensland in 1882. Nora M-P wrote that they had discovered that he was a sad scapegrace. He come out the other day with a wild story about being married to an heiress but could not get anyone to lend him money on the strength of it. Tom [de M M-P] has been very good to him & talks of paying his passage to Sydney to get rid of him.((Nora to Rosa Praed, 20 February 1882))
 By the time John Murray Prior died in 1933, he was referred to as Bertram Murray, formerly known as John Murray Prior. By then he was wealthy, lived in the prestigious Sydney suburb of Rose Bay, and was described as a 'financial agent'.((PROBATE JURISDICTION. (1933, November 10). Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales, p.4027. Retrieved 27.11.2017 from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223540016)) NSW State Records, in its list of gaol photographs, states he was born in 1862 in England and migrated here, though he claimed not to known on which ship - it is so unlikely that someone who not know this detail that it suggests that he migrated using a false (or his real?) name. For his prison record with photograph, click on {{https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/index_image/2232_a006_a00619_17654000155r#expanded}}
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 John Murray Prior/Bertram Murray died on April 18, 1933, aged 72 years. He left a will that indicated complicated family arrangements, influential connections and philanthropic intent. It was sworn for probate purposes in NSW at £99,000 net and £100,000 gross. The list of beneficiaries included his widow, known both as Annie Murray and Annie/Anne Murray Prior, and their son Bertram A. Murray Prior (1888-1947), born a year before the alleged abduction of Jessie McDonald.((BDM, registration 9179/1888; Anne M-P, death notice, //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 30 January 1937, p.16 ; Bertram M-P, death notice, //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 11 June 1947)) Bertram A. M-P married Ida Lillian Cannis (?-2 August 1965) in August 1910 ((Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August,1910, p.12 and 10 August 1965))
-There were also bequests to four solicitors, servants and to numerous others with well-known names (e.g. £500 to A. J. Vindin, Turramurra and £125 to Miss Windeyer, Double Bay). Two of the bequests may have been children he had with Jessie: they were to Jean McDonald of Edgecliff and Ronnie Macdonald of New Zealand. Charitable bequests included £400 to the Salvation Army, Sydney, and £350 each to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Women's Hospital (Crown Street). Mrs Jessie Murray who shared his address at Rose Bay received a generous inheritance, more than his widow. Bequests which suggest a connection to the Murray-Priors were to his nephew John Brownrigg de Montmorency Prior [but note there was no Murray in his name unless this was a typo] of [[wp>Southern_Rhodesia|South Rhodesia]] and to three nieces (Nina, Teresian and Eileen, daughters of Harvey Murray Prior - note this is H**a**rvey, not H**e**rvey M-P, TLM-P's son.). His grandchildren, Swire de Montmorency M-P (d.20 December 1993) ((death notice, //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 22 December 1993)) and Adel Murray Prior, also received generous legacies.((//The Sun//, 19 October 1933, p.17.)) Adel trained as a nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney.((//The Sydney Morning Herald//, 18 December 1936, p.3.)) Swire married Phyllis Clare Rodgers (d.1997)(( //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 12 August 1997)) - they had children.((see, e.g. //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 17 February 1940, p.16.))\\
+There were also bequests to four solicitors, servants and to numerous others with well-known names (e.g. £500 to A. J. Vindin, Turramurra and £125 to Miss Windeyer, Double Bay). Two of the bequests may have been children he had with Jessie: they were to Jean McDonald of Edgecliff and Ronnie Macdonald of New Zealand. Charitable bequests included £400 to the Salvation Army, Sydney, and £350 each to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Women's Hospital (Crown Street). Mrs Jessie Murray who shared his address at Rose Bay received a generous inheritance, more than his widow. Bequests which suggest a connection to the Murray-Priors were to his nephew John Brownrigg de Montmorency Prior [but note there was no Murray in his name unless this was a typo] of [[wp>Southern_Rhodesia|South Rhodesia]] and to three nieces (Nina, Teresian and Eileen, daughters of Harvey Murray Prior - note this is H**a**rvey, not H**e**rvey M-P, TLM-P's son.). His grandchildren, Swire de Montmorency M-P (d.20 December 1993) ((death notice, //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 22 December 1993)) and Adel Murray Prior, also received generous legacies.((//The Sun//, 19 October 1933, p.17.)) Adel trained as a nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Sydney and in 1941 married Kevin Miles-Murphy.((//The Sydney Morning Herald//, 18 December 1936, p.3 and 20 March 1941.)) Swire married Phyllis Clare Rodgers (d.1997)(( //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 12 August 1997)) - they had children.((see, e.g. //The Sydney Morning Herald//, 17 February 1940, p.16.))\\
 So, who was John Murray Prior/Bertram Murray? 'Murray Prior' could easily be a second given name and surname as much as a single, later hyphenated surname. The addition of 'de Montmorency' may only indicate a desire to align with that powerful French family, as we have seen when discussing [[edward_i_butler_morres_and_lodge_families|'Air castles': Royalty and the Butler, Morres and Lodge families]]. Yet the strong possibility is that Thomas B. M-P was correct in thinking that John/Bertram was a descendent of an illegitimate child of TLM-P's grandfather Thomas.