Lindley Murray (1745–1826), Quaker and Grammarian

Abstract

The American-born Quaker Lindley

Murray (1745–1826) arguably was the most influential English language

grammarian; undeniably he was the best-selling one. Murray was the

author of the English Grammar (1795), and between 1795 and the middle of the nineteenth century millions of copies were sold of this grammar alone, while several of his other textbooks were no less popular. In my dissertation, I paint a comprehensive portrait of this prolific writer, and I investigate how Murray’s Quakerism influenced his language use, by analysing a corpus of 262 of his unpublished private letters. In addition, I compared his own usage to the rules that he compiled for his English Grammar, to see whether Murray practiced what he preached.