Biographical Sketch (1896):1346, p. 104-106. "Soon after his return from the Florida boundary Professor Barnard married Miss Margaret McMurray, a young lady of English parentage who had gone from her home in Ohio to pay a long visit to relatives in Alabama. This union was in every way fortunate. It was emphatically a love match on both sides, and it remained a marriage of love on both sides for more than forty years. It was certainly not a prudent marriage, as the world counts prudence, for neither Barnard nor his bride was rich; in fact, they were both poor, and what was worse, Barnard was in debt. His income had never been large, and he was no economist. While he had money, he spent it freely on his scientific experiments, in the purchase of books and instruments, in the pleasures of the day, or in the service of his friends; when his purse was empty, as it generally was, he had unlimited credit which he was only too ready to use. Mrs. Barnard soon brought order into his confused affairs. His debts must be paid, of course, and to pay them out of his small income meant nothing less than systematic and long-continued self-denial in the homeliest affairs of life. For years she kept their expenditures at the lower limit, stinting even their table in the use of meats and drinks which are commonly regarded as necessaries. Yet these were happy years to both of them. Mrs. Barnard's only pride was in her husband, and Barnard himself is strengthened and ennobled by a woman's influence. In their abundance of happiness they did not feel their self-imposed privations, and, as their burden of debt grew gradually lighter, they were gladdened by the prospect of release and ease.

Shortly after their marriage he began again to entertain the thought of renewing his candidature for holy orders, and entered into correspondence on that subject with the saintly Dr. Cobbs, Bishop of Alabama. As Mrs. Barnard was an enthusiast in the cause of temperance, it was probably under her influence that he became, about the same time, a devoted advocate of temperance reform; and the zeal and courage with which he threw himself into that movement in a community in which the daily use of alcoholic liquors was almost universal attracted to him the interested attention of the people of the whole State, made him the recognized leader of the temperance reformers, and commanded the respect even of those who were most opposed to his views."

Biographical Sketch (1923):34, p. 667. "Mrs. Margaret (McMurray) Barnard was a women of strong character, high intellectual attainments, brilliant in conversation, and her Wednesday evening entertainments at the president’s home were attended by leading statesmen and distinguished authors."

Biogaphical Sketch (1978):2342, p. 98. "It was obvious that what Barnard needed most was the stabilizing hand and the love of a devoted wife. He won that when he married Miss Margaret McMurray on December 30, 1847. Miss McMurray was born in England, raised in Ohio, and had come to Tuscaloosa for a long visit with her cousin Thomas Maxwell, a successful merchant and a social friend of Barnard. She had fallen in love with the South and the not-so-young professor. The new bride brought order to her husband's disorganized affairs, and being a stern temperance woman, made Barnard join the Sons of Temperance. But that was after he had spent nine years enjoying the social life of youth in Tuscaloosa and he was perhaps feeling the weight of his thrity-eight years."

1820 Birth:2254 Birth year estimated from age (60 years) in 1880 census enumeration. The same enumeration lists England as Margaret's place of birth.

1847 Marriage:2342, p. 116. "Among the increased number of humorous stories, there was one in October of 1847 entitled 'Popping the Question.' It had coincidence in so far as the editor (i.e. F.A.P. Barnard) was at that time wooing Thomas Maxwell's cousin Margaret McMurray, visiting from Ohio. The wedding took place two months later, on December 30."

1847 Marriage:2344 "In 1847 he was married to Miss Margaret McMurray of Ohio; of whose helpfulness he writes: 'To the encouragement derived from her good sense, energy and sanguine temperament, I am largely indebted for whatever success may have attended me in life'."

1847 Marriage:2362 "Married. In this city, on the 30th ult., by Rev. Dr. Manly, Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, of the University of Alabama, to Miss Margaret McMurray."

1850 U.S. Census:2351 Margaret enumerated in the household of her husband F. A. Barnard in District 1, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama as a female, age 27, born in England.

1850 U.S. Census (Thomas identified above as cousin of Margaret McMurray):
Tuscaloosa County, Alabama (District 1, Town of Tuscaloosa)
9 October 1850
Thomas Maxwell2352 •• 35, male, merchant, real property value $8,000, born in England
Susan •• 30, female, born in Massachusetts
James R. •• 5, male, born in Alabama, in school within the year
John T. •• 4, male, born in Alabama
Thomas H. •• 1, male, born in Alabama
John Maxwell2353 •• 73, male, born in England
Mary •• 64, female, born in England
John •• 39, male, clerk, born in England
Robert •• 33, male, real estate value $500, born in England

1854 Relocation to Mississippi:2342, p. 143. Barnard accepted offer of a position in mathematics at the University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi. "According to his offical biographer, Fulton, Barnard had not told his wife that he was contemplating a change. She was furious with him when she was told. she was very happy among her friends and relatives at Tuscaloosa, and had a strong aversion to Mississippi as a 'repudiating state,' a reference to Mississippi's act of repudiating the state debt following the panic of 1837."

1860 U.S. Census:2354 Margaret enumerated in the household of her husband F. A. P. Barnard in Paris, Lafayette County, Mississippi, as a female, age 37, born in England.

1871 Inheritance from Father:1960 Robert McMurray Sr. left his daughter Margaret Barnard $800 in his will written 24 June 1870 and recorded 31 March 1871. The bequest did not take effect until one year after the death of Sophia McMurray, Margaret’s mother. Sophia McMurray died in September 1877, thus Margaret would have received this inheritance in September 1878.

1880 U.S. Census:2254 Margaret enumerated in the household of her husband Frederick Barnard, President of Columbia College, in New York City as a wife, female, married, white, 60, born in England, father born in England, mother born in England.

1891 Death Mention:2565 "Barnard. Suddenly at Litchfield, Conn., Oct. 4, Margaret M., widow of F. A. P. Barnard, late President of Columbia College."

1891 New York Times Obituary:2564 Announcement is made of the death of Mrs. Margaret Barnard, widow of Frederick A. P. Barnard, late President of Columbia College, which occurred in Litchfield, Conn., Sunday night. Although in her sixty-sixth year, Mrs. Barnard had enjoyed perfect health up to Saturday afternoon, when she was attacked with apoplexy, which resulted in her death, without her having regained consciousness. Born in the State of Ohio of Scotch parentage, her girlhood was passed in Louisiana, where she first met her husband. She was then a Miss McMurray. Mrs. Barnard was a conspicuous figure in literary and church circles in this city, she being a member of the Nineteenth Century Club and a communicant of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church. She took an active interest in charitable work, and was instrumental in furthering the benevolent enterprises of the parish with which she was for a long term of years connected. In the course of the last year she had been engaged in collating biographical materials for the memoirs of her distinguished husband, Dr. Barnard, a work for which she was peculiarly well qualified.

1891 Auglaize Democrat Obituary:263 The Property of Mrs. Barnard. To be mostly divided among the Wapakoneta heirs of the deceased. Mrs. Margaret McMurray Barnard, of New York, the lately deceased wife of F. A. P. Barnard, deceased, late ex-president of Columbia College, was one of the four children of Robert McMurray, well known to most of our older citizens. For many years he was the toll gate keeper on the plank road. Margaret's brother Robert was the father of the Robert who was once editor and part owner of the Democrat, of Mrs. Sophia Morey and of W. J. McMurray the present editor and publisher of the Auglaize Republican; her brother Joseph was the father of William, the florist, and of Joseph who is now living in Los Angeles, Cal.; her only sister is Mrs. James Cordell, who for many years lived in Wapakoneta and now lives in Illinois. Margaret once visited her brother Joseph while in business in Alabama and there met and married Professor Barnard a teacher in the University of Alabama. No children were ever born to the Barnards. The professor became a successful educator and was called to the presidency of Columbia College. A short time ago he died and left the bulk of his estate to Columbia. Both he and his wife were devoted to the interests of the college and it was undoubtedly Mrs. Barnard's intention to leave her estate to the same institution. But in October last she suddenly died of apoplexy at her summer home in Litchfield, Conn. Her remains were interred in Sheffield, Mass. Having died intestate and without issue her estate which consists of a summer residence at Litchfield, Connecticut, and her person effects and chattel property in New York, which is estimated at something like twenty thousand dollars, descends to her sister and her two brothers' collateral heirs. Mrs. Cordell inherits one third, William and Joseph, sons of Joseph, each one-sixth, W. J., son of Robert, one-ninth, the three children of Robert each one-twenty-seventh, the five children of Mrs. Sophia Morey each one-forty-fifth of the estate. W. J. McMurray on Saturday left for New York to look after his own the interests of the other heirs. He was accompanied by Attorney Geo. R. Davis.