The story of John "The Penman" Murphy

(born 1808, Kings Co., Ireland; died 1881, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

John Murphy was one of 7 children of Thomas and Julia Murphy, from Portarlington, in Kings Co. (now known as County Offaly), Ireland. The family emigrated to North America about 1825, possibly via the port of Newry bound for New York, when John was 17 years old.

Thomas Murphy was a shoemaker born about 1777. He died on May 12, 1833, in Bytown. John's mother, Julia Murphy, lived with her youngest son Henry (a tinsmith) in Aylmer until September of 1854, when Henry died at the age of 33.

Presumably, if Julia were still alive (in her late seventies), John Murphy and his 2nd wife, Abigail Draper, would have taken over her care...

According to historical sources ("History of the Upper Ottawa" by Anson Gard), the six Murphy brothers, their father and a sister arrived in the Bytown area around 1828. These are the children of Thomas and Julia:

• John (b. 1809; d. 1881, Ottawa, Ontario)
• William
• Simon
• Thomas (b. Abt 1813, Kings Co., Ireland; d. Aug. 3, 1871, Ottawa, Ontario)
• Matthew (b. 1814, Portarlington, Kings Co., Ireland; d. January 18th, 1887, Nepean Twp., Ontario)
• a girl, name unknown
• Henry (b. Abt 1821; d. Sept. 17, 1854)

According to the historical account of Anson Gard, John was known as "John the Penman" due to his writing skills. He worked at the sawmill at Deschênes Rapids owned by Ithamar Day from 1835 until 1845. The settlement there was known at that time as Deschênes Mills. We're not sure what John Murphy's job was at the sawmill. There is some information that Ithamar Day was associated with the fur trade and that John learned to speak some of the Indian languages while in Day's employ. Ithamar Day's wife Laura died and was buried at Bellevue Cemetery; Ithamar and his daughters are believed to have moved to the Northwest. Ithamar Day's son Charles Dewey Day was elected as the first Member of the Canada East Legislature for West Quebec in 1842 and was later called to the bench as a Supreme Court judge.

In 1845, after his time with Ithamar Day, John Murphy began his 30-year career with the Union Forwarding Company, first as purser and bookkeeper, then as a steamship captain. The Company was started in 1845 by John Egan and Joseph Aumond and operated up to 9 steamboats.

By a peculiar coincidence, there was a SECOND John Murphy who lived in Aylmer and who worked with the Union Forwarding Company during the same era! The "other" John Murphy was known as Captain John L. Murphy, and was the son of James "Jemmy" Murphy, the first governor of the Ottawa County Jail at Aylmer. John L. Murphy became a financier and later bought out the other partners in the Union Forwarding Company.

"Our" John -- "The Penman" -- married twice, first to Esther Ebert (the elder sister of Elizabeth Ebert whom his younger brother Matthew later married), and then to Abigail Draper (who was incidentally his first wife Esther's first cousin).

John married Esther Ebert on Christmas Day 1837. They had the following children:

1. Harriet(b. 1836, Aylmer)
2. William H. (b. 1840, Aylmer)

John's first wife, Esther Ebert, died August 9, 1849 and was buried in Conroy's Cemetery (now known as Bellevue) at Aylmer, Quebec.

By 1851, John had remarried. His second wife was Abigail Draper, born May 16, 1813 in the Hull area. John and Abigail went on to have three more children:

1. Louise
2. Emma Josephine(b. 1853, Aylmer)
3. Edmund J. (b. 1855, Aylmer)

John Murphy retired about 1875 and finally died in 1881, at the age of 73 in 1881. His second wife, Abigail Draper, survived him and died at the age of 79 on January 31, 1904, in Aylmer. John Murphy and his two wives, Esther Ebert and Abigail Draper, are buried at Bellevue Cemetery.

1. "Pioneers of the Upper Ottawa" by Anson Gard (1906)
2. "Bellevue Cemetery, Aylmer, Quebec (Volume 1)" by Joan Jowsey & Lillian Mulligan (1986)
3. "Aylmer, Quebec: Its Heritage" by Diane Aldred (1974)
4. "Notes Historiques" de Rodolfe Maltais (1947)
5. "Hull, 1800-1900" by Lucien Brault (1950)
6. "Hurling Down the Pine" by John W. Hughson & Courtney C. J. Bond (1964)
7. "Historical Sketches of Ottawa" by Leslie Maitland & Louis Taylor (1990)
8. "An Ottawa Album: Glimpses of the Way We Were" by Marion Van de Wetering (1997)
9. "Ottawa: An Illustrated History" by John H. Taylor (1986)
10. "100 Years, Ottawa and the Valley: A Backward Glance from Centennial Year" by Harry J. Walker (1967)
11. "The Ottawa Country" by Courtney C. J. Bond (1968)
12. "The Upper Ottawa Valley" by Clyde C. Kennedy (1970)
13. "History of the Ottawa Valley" by Rev. John L. Gourlay (1896)
14. "Pioneer Days in Upper Canada" by Edwin C. Guillet (1966)
15. "1842 Census - Canada West - Carleton County"
16. "Recensement nominatif des familles du village d'Aylmer (Comté d'Ottawa) 1851"
17. "1861 Federal Census of Canada, The"
18. "1871 Census of Canada, The"
19. "1881 Census of Canada, The"
20. "1901 Census of Canada, The"

Back to Murphy Family of Ottawa, Canada Web site.