[1] Forbes subsequently paid Murdoch long and frequent visits at Stradishall rectory, Suffolk, and placed his eldest son, Duncan, under his tuition.
Murdoch was likewise travelling tutor to the younger sons of James Vernon, ambassador to the court of Denmark.
William Leman gave him the rectory of Kettlebaston, Suffolk, in 1749, which he resigned in 1760 on being presented by Edward Vernon to the vicarage of Great Thurlow; but he still continued to reside at Stradishall.
Murdoch also wrote a short but clear and lively memoir of Thomson prefixed to the memorial edition of the poet's Works, 2 vols.
He also edited the illustrations of perspective from conic sections, entitled Neutoni Genesis Curvarum per Umbras, &c., 8vo, London, 1746.
He contemplated a complete edition of Newton's works, and by 1766 had found a publisher in Andrew Millar, but increasing infirmities obliged him to abandon the undertaking.
He translated from the German the portion of Anton Friedrich Buesching's New System of Geography, which relates to the European states, 6 vols.
[2] Murdoch's letters to Dr. Thomas Birch, 1756-9, are in British Library Add MS 4315; those to Sir Andrew Mitchell, 1756–70, are contained in Add MS 6840; while twelve letters by him are printed in the Culloden Papers: comprising an Extensive and Interesting Correspondence from the Year 1625 to 1748, London: T. Cadell & W. Davies, 1815.