James Cavanah Murphy

James Cavanah Murphy (1760–1814) was an Irish architect and antiquary.

Life Murphy was born at Blackrock, Cork, and was originally a bricklayer. He made his way to Dublin to study, and his name appeared in a list of the pupils of the drawing school of the Dublin Society about 1775, as working in miniature, chalk, and crayons. Later he practised in Dublin. In 1786 he was one of seven architects who were consulted on additions to the House of Commons, and he and another carried out the execution of James Gandon's design for the work.

In December 1788, William Burton Conyngham commissioned Murphy to make drawings of Batalha Monastery in central Portugal. He was back in Dublin in 1790, and was in England at the end of the year. In 1802, he went to Cádiz, where he remained for seven years studying Moorish architecture, with some diplomatic duties. Thomas Crofton Croker mentioned that Murphy left a large collection of notes and drawings. A large folio volume of his drawings of arabesque ornaments went to the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Family Murphy was unmarried, and his estate of £5,000 was administered in November 1814 by his sister, Hannah, wife of Bernard McNamara.