born about 1900 — Born in County Tipperary, Ireland, about 1900 (aged 30 at his marriage in April 1931, 40 in the 1940 census). His death has not been established.
Husband of Grace L. Murphy, in whose name the house was bought in 1944; he lived in it with her, mortgaged it with her in 1949 and sold it with her in 1951.[C-018, C-019, C-083]
Documented profile. Built from records we have read: deeds, directories, newspapers, inscriptions. The claims behind the page are listed with it, and what remains uncertain is said plainly.
Thomas J. Murphy was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, about 1900, the son of Philip Murphy and Frances (Kennedy) Murphy. When he came to the United States has not been found. On April 11, 1931, aged 30, he married Eleanor Grace Lybrand, a Lowell schoolteacher, in Manhattan. Their son James Francis was born at Arlington, Massachusetts, on October 21, 1933; by 1935 the family was living in Meriden, Connecticut, where a daughter, Moira, was born about 1937. The 1940 census found them in a house of their own on North Road, Chelmsford: Thomas, 40, with four years of high school, was a salesman in the drapery-hardware trade.
In June 1944 the house at 236 Fairmount Street was bought in Grace’s name. The 1946 city directory lists "Murphy Thos J (Grace L) slsmn h 236 Fairmount": the family lived on the third floor of the house they owned while other households rented the other apartments. In February 1949 Thomas and Grace mortgaged the property together, and on January 10, 1951 they sold it together to Alexander T. and Agnes E. Herron. By 1950 the directory no longer lists them at the address, and by July 1952, when Grace sold the Herrons the vacant land beside the house, she was “of Sarasota, Florida.”
His later life is not yet known. Grace later took the name Scott and died in 1989; where and when Thomas died has not been established. The research compilation of 2025 gave him a different life — born in Lowell in 1917, a telephone repairman who died in 2004 — taken from the obituary of a namesake; his marriage record and the 1940 census show that the owner of the house was another man.
New York City marriage records, certificate 8603, Manhattan, April 11, 1931: Thomas J. Murphy, 30, born in County Tipperary, son of Philip Murphy and Frances Kennedy; Eleanor G. Lybrand, 29, born in Lowell. FamilySearch index (free account).
United States census 1940, Chelmsford, enumeration district 9-89, sheet 5A: the family on North Road, with Thomas a salesman in the drapery-hardware trade. FamilySearch (free account).
Lowell city directory, 1946, p. 445: "Murphy … Thos J (Grace L) slsmn h 236 Fairmount." Internet Archive.
The deed to Grace L. Murphy of Lowell describes two portions of "Lot 2" on a new plan — a division of the estate into lots, shown on the June 1944 plan. The 1946 directory lists Thomas J. Murphy, salesman, and Grace at 236 Fairmount: owners who lived in the house. They mortgaged it in 1949.[C-018, C-019]
Documented
Thomas J. and Grace L. Murphy sell the house to Alexander T. and Agnes E. Herron, later of Rye, New Hampshire, who hold it for six years. In July 1952 Grace Murphy, by then of Sarasota, Florida, sells them the vacant land to the southeast as well.[C-019, C-085]
Documented
Children, grandchildren and later generations, from records we have read. Only people who have died are named; where later generations may be living, their names are kept private.
Married: Eleanor Grace (Lybrand) Murphy, later Scott (1901–1989)[C-421, C-386, C-388]
Married: Ardith Helen (Aylward) Murphy (1935–2010)[C-421]
Later generations are living (4 people in our research); their names are kept private. If you are a descendant, we would love to hear from you.
Later generations are living (5 people in our research); their names are kept private. If you are a descendant, we would love to hear from you.
Descendants of Thomas J. Murphy and Eleanor Grace (Lybrand) Murphy, and the other families of the house, with a search by name: Families of the house.
Research notes: C-018, C-019, C-083, C-085, C-174, C-385, C-388, C-389, C-390, C-391.
This page is a working record, not a finished one. If you are a descendant, a collector, a local historian or an archivist and you hold anything connected to Thomas J. Murphy — a photograph, a letter, a diary, an object, a family story, a document we have misread — we would like to hear from you. We publish nothing without permission, credit every contribution, and correct the page when the evidence says we should.
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