Portrait #1652

Additional Details

  • Subject/Title:Murfree, Col. Hardy
  • Artist:Unknown
  • Date Created:late 1700s
  • Owner/Location:Private Collection
  • Frame Dimensions:39 x 34
  • Image Dimensions:29 x 24
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  • Materials/Media:Oil on canvas
  • Date Documented:2008
  • Condition:Good
  • Description:Near waist-length of subject facing three-quarter left with eyes looking directly at the viewer. He is wearing what appears to be a many-buttoned uniform coat over a white high-collared shirt with loose white tie wrapped around and under the collar. His short hair is greying slightly and parted on his left with short sideburns.
  • History:Portrait has passed down through the Murfree family.
  • Notes:Hardy Murfree was the son of William Murfree, founder of Murfreesboro, North Carolina, and his wife Mary Moore. Subject was born on June 5, 1752, in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. He was a Colonel in the Revolutionary War and fought at Brandywine, Monmouth, Stony Point, Kings Moutain, and other battles. He married Sally Brickell in 1780. Subject had large land holdings in Middle Tennessee. After his wife's death in 1807, he settled on some property near Franklin, Tennessee. He died in 1809 and his holdings were divided among his six children by the Tennessee State Legislature. The city of Murfreesboro, Tennessee is named in his honor. Col. Hardy Murfree was also the great grandfather of Mary Noailles Murfree who wrote under the name of Charles Edgbert Craddock. [This ancestry information submitted by Lynda Davis, a college literature professor in Texas.]