Robert Murray was born December 25th, 1832, in Earltown Col. Co., Nova Scotia. He graduated from the "Old Free Church College" in 1852, and was appointed editor of the Presbyterian Witness in 1855. He was also a secretary for the Halifax Evangelical Alliance, an advocate of the free common school system in Nova Scotia, and one of the early members of the Dalhousie University Board of Governors. He received an honorary LLD from Dalhousie in 1902. Robert Murray was also a poet and wrote the hymn "From Ocean Unto Ocean" as well as a Canadian stanza to "God Save the King."

In 1867, he married Elizabeth Carey, who died in 1920. They had five children: Antoinette, Robert Harper, John Carey, William Cunningham, and Norman Grant. The family lived on the Studley estate owned by Antoinette Nordbeck, where Elizabeth served as companion and caregiver to Antoinette and her sister Caroline. When the Nordbecks died, the estate was left to Elizabeth. When Robert died in 1910 his widow, sold the family property to Dalhousie to help with its expansion. Dalhousie's Studley campus takes its name from this property.

Waite, P. B. The Lives of Dalhousie. Vol. 1. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997.

Documents donated to the Archives in March 1971 by Frances C. Murray.

Fonds consists of written and typed addresses to Robert Murray in celebration of his Jubilee as editor of the Presbyterian Witness.

All records are open.

[Identification of item], Robert Murray fonds, MS-2-58, Box [box number], Folder [folder number], Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.