Donald Fisher Murphy

MURPHY, Donald (Daniel) Fisher (fl.1867-1891) — Liverpool

Lithographic artist and caricaturist. Lithographed An improved map of Cyprus, subtitled This statue of the Earl of Beaconsfield, K.C. expressing contempt for secret treaties, was hewn out of the island of Cyprus 1878 signed DFM, the artist identified as Donald Fisher Murphy, of 10 Yanwath Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool in the copyright notice; the Liverpool Mercury announced that he had “just issued ‘A jingo map of India and Afghanistan’, accompanied by a stanza of the old rhyme, ‘The house that Jack built’, adapted to the illustration of the foreign policy of Lord Beaconsfield” (17 Feb 1879), the map otherwise unknown.

Born Daniel Fisher Murphy in Edinburgh 17 Aug 1828, the son of William Murphy (see BME 2011) and his wife Jean Millar. He married (1) Sarah Matilda Gilmore at Belfast 18 Aug 1859, and (2) (as Donald Fisher Murphy) Fanny Mary Wild at Bristol early in 1867. In 1881 he was resident in Liverpool with his wife and a son born in Ireland in or about 1856 called William H. Murphy, also described as a lithographic artist. The 1891 census finds him boarding in a house in Blackpool, described as an artist. In that same year, as Daniel Fisher Murphy, he brought an action in Edinburgh against the trustees of his father’s estate, claiming his share of properties in Thistle Street and Roxburgh Street. The Lord Ordinary found in his favour and he was awarded a complete property in Thistle Street, a quarter and third shares in two others, and a quarter share in the house in Roxburgh Street (reported in The Scotsman, 21 Jan 1891). His wife died 1898 at West Derby (Liverpool). He is probably the D. F. Murphy who sailed from Liverpool for Boston, Massachusetts, in 1894 and who appears on other transatlantic passenger lists to 1911. An eighty-year-old Donald F. Murphy arrived in New York 17 Nov 1908 from Kingston, Jamaica, on the Prince Joachim.

10 Yanwath Street, Toxteth Park, Liverpool — 1878
119 Wood Street, Liverpool — 1881
31 Adelaide Street, Blackpool — 1891
31 Oakland Street, Blackpool — 1891

BNA. Census 1881-1891.

Leave a Reply