USA > New Jersey > Historical and genealogical miscellany : data relating to the settlement and settlers of New York and New Jersey > Part 4
USA > New York > Historical and genealogical miscellany : data relating to the settlement and settlers of New York and New Jersey > Part 4
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The original William Morris of Tintern, had four sons, Lewis, William, Thomas and Rich- ard.
Bolton,* 2nd edition, Vol. 2, p. 455.
Hotten, in his Original List of Persons of Quality, 1600-1700, gives:
Births. Parish St. Michael's, Barbadoes, 6 Feb., 1678, Dorothy and Thomasine, daughters of Capt. Thomas Morris and Sarah, his wife.
Thomas Morris is also mentioned in a census of St. Michael's Parish, with wife and three children. These allusions may be to Thomas Morris, 6, but I deem it doubtful.
Issue
IO Lewis Morris, of Passage Point, Shrewsbury, N. J., born about 1655; died 1695.
8 JOHN MORRIS, son of William Morris, 3, received a Captain's commission in 1651. In 1688, he was drowned, and his body, found under the walls of Deal Castle, was buried with military honors. His descendants are still numerous in the Barbadoes. Bolton.
Issue
II John Morris
12 William Morris
13 Lewis Morris
14 Richard Morris
9 GOV. LEWIS MORRIS, son of Capt. Richard Morris, 5, the "one poor blossom of whom yet there may be great hope, " was born Oct. 15, 1671, and died in 1746.
The anticipations of greatness, expressed by Mr. Nicoll, were quickly realized, when Lewis Morris, merged from an unruly youth, into a Judge of the Sessions, at the age of twenty years: 1690, '92, '95, '96, '97, 1700, '01, '03, '04. He was a Judge of the Court of Sessions, sitting, alternately, at Middletown and Shrewsbury, N. J., and with him, on the same bench, sat, also as a justice, his kinsman, Lewis Morris, of Passage Point, for many years and until his death.
In 1700, he was President of the Court of Sessions.
About 1694, friction arose between the two Justices Morris, on the one hand, and their neighbors on the other, which culminated in law suits:
1694. The Grand Jury indicted Lewis Morris, of Tinton Manor, for fencing in the highway, and a little later, again indicted him for "stopping and fencing in ye highway that goes to Freehold and Middletown."
*Bolton drew from a manuscript history of the family, written by Valentine Morris, of England, a descendant of an elder brother of Captain Richard Morris. This Valentine Morris was born in 1727.
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"Called upon to take cognizance of this indictment, it was an awkward situation for his judicial associates, and they hedged for time, by diplomatically directing a process for his appearance, at the next Court. The finale of this attempt to restrain Morris was as audacious as it was amusing:
Thomas Gordon was appointed by the Court, King's attorney, and when the case of Morris was called "the King's Attorney demanded a Fee of any one that would employ him to plead to the indictment. There was no one that would prosecute the said Morris, so that the presentment was quasht."
But the fight was not over. At the Court of Sessions and Common Pleas, held at Shrewsbury, the 26th and 27th days of September, 1698, Lewis Morris, of Tinton Manor, was again presented by the Grand Jury, for fencing in the highway, between Tinton Falls and Swimming River Bridge; and still again, for a like offence, was he indicted, Sept. 12, 1699. This persistent opposition to the encroachments of Lewis Morris brought about a mutual dislike and hatred, which found further expression when, in 1700 and 1701, in the Quit Rent fight, the people defied the Justices, who were impotent in office, and whose Sheriff was restrained by the people, from levying on goods, and whose Constables were powerless to arrest. The greatest scene in this drama, perhaps, was the seizure of Governor Hamilton, Justices Lewis Morris, Samuel Leonard, Jedediah Allen and Samuel Dennis, the King's Attorney-General and Secretary, Clerk of the Court, and the under Sheriff, who were holding a Court of Sessions, at Middletown, Mch. 25, 1701, by about one hundred persons, who "kept them under guard, close prisoners, from Tuesday, the 25th of March, till the Saturday following, being the 29th of the same month, and then released them. "
Apparently this attack and incarceration had been premeditated for some time:
1700, July 30 . .... the Ambition & folly of Morris being known to the people of Monmoth they sent to advise with their neighberring Countys Middlesex & Essex what was best & most convenient to be done who generaly advised to secure themselves & oppose Morris & the rest that assert & would endeavour to set up Col Hamiltons arbitrary & illegal power & withall have promised assistance if ocation requires ..... we feare what may be [the] event of these things you know how hot headed Morris & Leonard are & itt may be feared their pride & mallis may cause great trouble if not prevented. It is the general resolution of the Country that if they make future disturbance to apprehend Hamilton Morris & Leonard & secure them ontill his Majesties pleasure shall be known concerning them . . .. . Letter to Jeremiah Basse.
17II. Lewis Morris was appointed Second Judge, of the Supreme Court.
1715. He was appointed Chief-Justice of New York, and so remained for the succeeding eighteen years.
Lewis Morris must have possessed, naturally, a fine, legal mind, for though not bred to the law, he continued to rise in judicial prominence, until he attained the greatest heights of dis- tinction. Even his opponents conceded his ability, but his rulings were not infrequently par- tisan, and he carried this bias in favor of his friends to the end of his career:
"At the time of the preparation and filing of the Bill in Chancery, Lewis Morris was Governor of the Pro- vince. He had long been conversant with the matters in litigation and was deeply interested in the issue of this most important case-holding a large part of his property in New Jersey by Proprietary rights, Gov. Morris had presumed, without, as was alleged, due authority, to erect a Court of Chancery, and to exercise the pre- rogatives of Chancellor. Could the Bill in question have been, with its Answer, submitted to his adjudication, the plaintiffs would, undoubtedly, have obtained just such a decision as they desired. But this favorable prospect was blighted by the decease of the Governor in May, 1746." Hatfield's History of Elizabeth, N. J. Aside from his judicial positions, Lewis Morris held other high office. He was, frequently, a Member of the New York and New Jersey Assemblies, as also a member of various Governors' Councils.
1693, '94, '95. He was a member of Governor Hamilton's Council; New Jersey.
1697, '98, '99. He was a Member of the House of Deputies; New Jersey.
1698, Apr. 7. Jeremiah Basse superseded Hamilton, as Governor, by a Commission, dated July 15, 1697. When he had occupied this position thirteen months, friction arose between
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MORRIS OF MONMOUTH COUNTY
himself and Morris, which prompted the latter to raise a question as to the sufficiency of his commission.
For some cause, which I am now unable to state, Lewis Morris, May 10, 1699, demanded that Governor Basse and Council should sign a blank writ against Obadiah Holmes, Sheriff of Monmouth County, but the Governor and Council were unanimously of the opinion that it ought not to be signed during the sessions of the Court, not remembering any such practice in this Province, and knowing the said Holmes "to be a Sufficient man & easy to be come at, any time. "
The Governor and Council then ordered Lewis Morris and George Willocks to be brought before them and to give security for their appearance at the Court of Common Right, and to be of good behaviour, otherwise a mittimus to be issued "to convey them to Goal till they Should find Security," which Mr. Morris desired an hour or two to consider.
When Mr. Morris was notified, that £300, security, was called for, he refused, and said he would not give it, especially for the good behaviour as by no overt act had he in any way given occasion to them to suspect it.
Events now followed thick and fast. At the Court of Common Right, held, at Perth Amboy, May 11, 1698, at which sat Basse, and his Council:
"Lewis Morris, Esq', came into open Court & demanded by what authority they Kept Court, the Court declared by the Kings Authority. He denyed & being asked who was dissatisfied besides himself, he said one & all, the Court Commanding the sd Morris to be taken into Custodie, Coll: Richard Townley, Andrew Hampton, both of Elizabeth Towne, with three or four more cryed out one & all, & he, the sd Lewis Morris, said he would fain see who darst lay hold on him, & when a Constable, by order of the Court, layd hold on him he, in the face of the Court, resisted."
For this, he was committed for contempt of Court. There must have been a short but tempestuous scene before Morris was lodged in Woodbridge jail, for,
1698, May 12. "Matt: Moore aged 31 years or there abouts maketh Oath that he was in Court & see Lewis Morris affront the Govern': & upon which the Govern": ordred him to withdraw but would not & still gave the Governour very Saucy Language upon which he ordred the Constables to arrest the sd Lewis Morris, but he the sd Lewis Morris withstood the sd Constables & would not suffer them to come nigh him, upon which the sd Constables commanded me to lay hands upon him which I went to take hold on him, he made some resistance, & did endeavour to draw his Hanger, but I being quick prevented him."
And several others made similar affidavits.
Concurrently with this event, Lewis Morris was elected to serve in the General Assembly, for the town of Perth Amboy, and on the 15th of May, the Sheriff, of the County of Middlesex, made his return. This was a moral reinforcement of Morris, and his associate, Willocks, who were promptly rescued, by their friends, who battened in the jail with a heavy plank. No sooner were they free, than they returned to the attack. Basse had, temporarily, installed in his place, Capt. Andrew Bowne, and to him and the Council, Willocks and Morris addressed the following letter, which was delivered by Mrs. Willocks, May 16th.
Srs
We are now able (God be thanked) to treat with you any way you think fitt if you had valued either your own or the welfare of the Government your procedures had been more calm Your day is not yet out, & it is in your power to follow the things that make for peace, & if you do not, at your door lye the consequence, our friends will not suffer us to be putt upon, farewell.
GEO. WILLOCKS LEWIS MORRIS
When Jeremiah Basse was replaced, as Governor, by his predecessor, Hamilton, Lewis Morris was again returned to the Council.
1700. Lewis Morris was President of Governor Hamilton's Council.
1700, July 23. Col. Hamilton hath put Mr. Morris into Commission of his Council & Justice believing him to be the onely man that can make the province Submit to him as Governor ..... & itt is saide Morris hath given out that he will carrie his point in makeing the people submit to Coll Hamiltons Government or
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HISTORICAL MISCELLANY
he will embrue the province in Blood ..... In this posture things stand in this County & we beleive Including the Scotch that throughoutt the province theare is six to one against owneing Col Hamilton Governor and almost all biterly against Morris, whome they looked uppon as the first man as Indead he was that opposed Government, &c. Signed Andrew Bowne, Rich. Hartshorne one of ye Council.
1701. He was a Member of Governor Hamilton's Council.
1701. Lewis Morris was active, in the behalf of the Proprietors, who desired to surrender their rights of government to the Crown, and "In behalfe of all ye Proprietors Residing in East Jersie," signed the memorial to that effect.
1702. Lewis Morris was in London, suggesting the surrender of New Jersey to the Crown, and so impressed the Lords of Trade, that they suggested to the Secretary of State, that the Queen should appoint him temporary governor, but nothing came of it, as it was decided to consolidate New York and New Jersey under one government. For his endeavors in England, Governor Hamilton gave him a grant of land.
1703. Lewis Morris was a Member of Lord Cornbury's Council.
1703. Lewis Morris was the head of the Scotch party, who, by reason of a Scotch governor, Hamilton, "carryed it with a high hand agt the rest of the Inhabitants."
1705. Lord Cornbury wrote that Lewis Morris "does give his tongue too great a liberty." 1705. Again did Lewis Morris offend Lord Cornbury, who suspended him from the Coun- cil, and wrote: "he will always obstruct the Queen's service, and indeed he has so intirely given himself up to the Interest of the Proprietors, that he can see with no other eyes but theirs." But, apparently, Lewis Morris was too valuable a man to be continuously suspended, for, in 1707, Lord Cornbury was commanded, by the Lords of Trade, to restore Lewis Morris to the Council, upon his submission.
1707. Lewis Morris wrote, at considerable length, to the Secretary of State, in England, a full account of the Condition of the Province of New Jersey, wherein he scored his enemies and paraded his own loyalty.
1707, June 28, Philadelphia. Col. Robert Quary, writing to the Lords of Trade, said:
"Mr. Jennings & Coll: Morris, with the assistance of two or three others, was very hard at work in hatching the most scandalous paper, that I ever saw in my life;" and further on said that Col. Lewis Morris, "at the mouth of them all, told his Lordship, that the Queen's order & instructions did not concern or affect them," i. e. the New Jersey Assembly.
1708. Lewis Morris was proposed by Lord Lovelace for membership in his council, to which he was appointed.
1709. Lewis Morris was the subject of complaints, in letters of great length, written by Lord Lovelace, accusing him of changing his principles, and turning from party to party, as served his interests, and, as Lord Cornbury had said of him, he was possessed of "neither good Principles nor morals."
1709. He was suspended by Lieut .- Governor Ingoldsby from the Council, but was rein- stated by the Lords of Trade, who stated that he had been removed for insufficient reasons.
1709, April. The Lieutenant-Governor and Council of New Jersey, viz., Richard Ingoldsby, William Sandford, Dan: Coxe, Robert Quary, William Pinhorne, Richard Townley and Roger Mompesson, addressed Governor Lovelace, at New York, at considerable length, upon the great disorder prevailing throughout the Province, wherein they impeached him for want of tact and force, and attribute much of the existing state of affairs to Lewis Morris. Alluding to the Assembly, they say :
"Their Resolutions of not raising any money for the Support of the Governmt. nor of making or repairing jayles, a work of so absolute a necessity, But finding them so throwly Guided & Driven by Mr Morris and Sam1 Jennings whose mischevous tempers this poor Country hath for many years past groaned under, we thought it our duty in Conscience to testifie to her Sacred Majestie our dislike and abhorrence of the Same." "and that we conceived those disturbances to be wholly owing the uneasie and disloyall Princi-
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MORRIS OF MONMOUTH COUNTY
ples of Two men in that Assembly, M' Lewis Morris and Mr Sam1. Jennings a Quaker, never known to be consistent with themselves, Men to whom all the factions and confusions in the Government for many years are wholly owing."
"As to M' Morris the whole County where he lived namely the County of Monmouth are witness to his troublesome temper, whereby he was a perfect torment to his neighbours; those who know him best have most reason of complaint, And since he came to write man hath been Eminently concerned if not Principall in all the Rebellions & Disorders that have been in this Province, as may appear by his own hand writing" . "there is hardly a County in the Eastern Division wherein he did not succeed to stirr them to dangerous and notorious Riotts and Rebellions, but only the County of Bergen where he did not faile for doing mischiefe for want of good-will, But that the Dutch People therein were wiser, and treated him with that Contempt his Evill Designs Required; ffor his old and Present Confederate the Nonjuror Willocks and He made a Journey (or Voyage) into that County to Infuse the same notions of Rebellion agst Governmt as they had preached at Elisabeth Town, with better success. But all they got of that People was They did not understand oversetting of Governmt and pulling Magistrates Judges and Justices from the Bench; It was a werke they had no liking to; and so closed their Resolutions among themselves, that they would not have to do with the Spiker-maker; That was the very term of Contempt (being Dutchmen) they used towards Morris grounded upon the Iron works his Unkle left him." ..
"But after the Red-hott Letters of Mr. Morris Especially that to the Governmt .. which is wrote with that Pride and venom that Bedlam would scarce afford a man mad enough to sett a Governmt at such Defiance and treat Gentlemen with that contempt; and his and Willocks their Short Epistle .. aforesaid brought into the Councill by Mrs Willocks whilst the Assembly was sitting, and Morris and Willocks aboard a Sloop turning it in the Bay before the Town, Firing Guns as by way of Defiance to the Governmt. and the Record of com'on right .. in all which Morris was personally contriver and actor of the Disorders as also the Records of those Dangerous Riots in Essex County (after Morriss Inconsistencies had made him Almanzor like change Parties) carried on by the same Principles and the same men that Morris had stirred up into Re- bellion. where a Body of about seventy horse came Purposely to destroy the Courts, Pulled the Magistrates of the Bench, tore their Cloaths from their Backs, Striking and abusing them with the greatest Billinsgate Language they could find as appears by the Record of the Court of Sessions at Newark . . A Place where Morris himself in Person with most of the same men had used a Court much at the same Rate but a little before. So that his affording them Precepts and Examples the last Rebellion (tho he was not Present) may Justly be laid at his Door. As also that other Ryott of forcing the Keys of the Jail of the County of Essex from the High Sheriff, and abusing his Person, and setting Criminals at liberty, being no more than was done by the same men, (as appears by the Records of the Court of Com'on Right) but a little before in Middlesex County, for Mr. Morris when with a Beam of an house they Batterd Woodbridge Jail to Pieces and set him and his Seditious Companion Willocks at liberty. Who were there committed for Severall High Crimes and Misde- meanours as appears by the Presentmt of the Grand Jury" .
"And we have Just reason to say that the Disturbances of this Province seems to be owing wholly to those two men vizt. Lewis Morris and Sam1 Jennings, their naturall tempers and the constant business of their lives was to be always in Broiles, always in Contention; Humanum est Errare, sed Diabolic'n perseverare; Those mens Extravagances are a large field; But after an Instance or two more of Morris's Inconsistencies shall desist."
. "Have but patience till the year 1700 and you will find him quite another man wonderfully changed in less than two years time, Then you shall find him accept of Comissions from the Proprietors Governmt, and declaring that he would go through with them, and if any man resisted he would spill his Blood or he should Spill his; for he made no Scruple of Conscience, and would go through with the office he had accepted from ye Governmt though the Streets ran with Blood."
. "it is apparent what opinion his old friends had of him. Even those whom he led into the former Violences against Government, who broke Jayls to release him His own words are these vizt. 'It was your complaint I had left you in the lurch like a villain, deceived you, ingaged you in a Business and left you in the middle of it, That if I came to your Town you would tear me to pieces and more Expressions of this nature you used.' .. So that we think he has proved his Inconsistences himself under his own hand plain Enough, without any need of our Paraphrase or Explanation, and upon the whole matter. The Question lies only here whither he was Guilty of Rebellion in the Year 1698 or in the year 1700."
1710. Lewis Morris, having taken up a permanent residence on his Morrisania plantation, was sent, as a Deputy, from Westchester County, to the New York Assembly, to which he was returned until 1728.
1710. Governor Hunter wrote the Lords of Trade that Lewis Morris had been expelled
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HISTORICAL MISCELLANY
from the New York Assembly, for pressing the reconsideration "with some warm expressions," of a motion to levy for the Governor's yearly expenses twenty-five hundred ounces of plate, "which they interpreted to be falsely and scandalously vilifying the honour of their house." Nevertheless Lewis Morris had the confidence of his constituents, for he was promptly returned to the Assembly. As a reward for his defence in the Assembly, Governor Hunter appointed Lewis Morris, Chief-Justice, of New York, in 1715.
17II. Lewis Morris wrote a lengthy letter to John Chamberlayne, Esq., defending Gov- ernor Hunter from an attack, on the part of the Clergy, for not removing a dissenting minister from the parsonage at Jamaica, and installing the Rev. Mr. Poyer therein.
1712, June 2. Jacob Henderson, Missionary, of Dover Hundred, in Pennsylvania, writing, concerning the state of the Church of England, in New York and New Jersey, stated that "ye Quakers or other Dissenters, " had "at their head one Coll: Lewis Morris, a profess'd Church man, but a man of noe manner of principles or credit, a man who calls the service of the Church of England Pageantry, who has joyned in endeavours to settle a conventicle in the City of New York and whose practice it is to intercept letters, and let such as pleases him pass, and those yt doe not he destroys as can be fully proved."
This, with a further arraignment of Colonel Morris, with Governor Hunter, provoked an answer, in which the writer said that "a little Helebore might do him, (the Rev. Mr. Hen- derson), more good than a reply," and denying these imputations said, "if a mans outward behaviour at home or abroad and in all the duties of his life is a true means of judging of a man all who know anything of Coll Morris will say that he is unexceptionable."
1715, Mch. 28. Governor Robert Hunter wrote to the Lords of Trade:
"Mr Mompesson our Cheif Justice is dead, I have commissionated Lewis Morris, Esq', in his room for these reasons amongst others, that he is a sencible honest man, and able to live without a salary, which they will most certainly never grant to any in that station, at least sufficient to maintain his Clerk."
Despite the doubt in Governor Hunter's mind, Lewis Morris must have been voted a salary, which was raised in due time and provoked antagonism. For Governor Montgomerie reduced this salary as Chief Justice, which had been enlarged from £130 to £300, upon the ground of increased work, although the true reason was "that the Chief Justice being a Member of the Assembly in 1715, when the revenue was given, his salary was augmented by the great number of his friends he had then in the House, and for the services he did there"
"This the people of the province have often complained of since I arrived here," and his salary was cut £50.
Between 1720 and 1728, Lewis Morris lived on apparently amicable terms with the Gov- ernor, Burnett, and in similar friendly relations with Burnett's successor, Montgomerie, despite the reduction in his salary. But another state of affairs prevailed upon the arrival of Governor Cosby, in 1732. Lewis Morris, as Chief Justice, favorably sustained the claims of Rip Van Dam, President of the Council, between Montgomerie's death and Cosby's coming, for a salary which Cosby desired to cut one half. This decision provoked the ill-will and even hatred of Cosby, who addressed him a discourteous letter with personal reflections and innuendoes. To this Morris made a dignified reply, but Cosby removed him from office. An indignant populace turned against Cosby and supported Morris, whom they shortly returned to the Assembly by an enormous vote and with great rejoicing throughout the city. The Zenger case arose from this act, and liberty of the press followed, despite Cosby's efforts to suppress it.
1733, May 3, Burlington. Governor Cosby, writing to the Duke of Newcastle, gives his version of the situation in the following letter: "My Lord,
On my arrival at New York I found Mr Lewis Morris Chief Justice, Mr James Delancey Second Judge and Mr Frederick Phillips the third Judge of the Supreme Court of that province; the two last Men of good
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Characters both, as to their understanding and integrity, but the Chief Justice a Man under a general dislike, not only for his want of probity but for his delay of Justice, his excessive pride and his oppression of the people. These things, My Lord, I have been obliged to hear, without the mention of any one virtue in his behalf. I have often expected that he would come to me as others before him thought it their duty to former Governours, from whence I might have an opportunity to tell him of these complaints; but whether it be owing to his pride, his folly, or some unaccountable humour, he has not been once to visit me since I have been here, and I have no reason to think, that any admonition would have the least effect upon him, or if it would, things are come to that pass, that I can no longer suffer him to sitt upon that Bench. I will point out a few of his faults, and give an instance to prove each, that Your Grace may see I do not displace without reason. And:
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