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Lewis Morris

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For other people named Lewis Morris, see Lewis Morris (disambiguation).

Lewis Morris
Morris painted by John Wollaston (c. 1750)
New York State Senator
from the Southern District
In office
July 1, 1783 – June 30, 1790
In office
September 9, 1777 – July 1, 1781
Member of the Continental
Congress from New York
In office
1775-1777
Member of the New York
Provincial Congress
In office
1775-1777
Personal details
BornApril 8, 1726
Morrisania, presently part of Bronx County, New York
DiedJanuary 22, 1798(1798-01-22) (aged 71)
Morrisania, New York
Political partyFederalist
Spouse
Mary Walton
​
(m. 1749)​
Children10, including Richard
Parent(s)Lewis Morris
Katrintje Staats
RelativesStaats Long Morris (brother)
Richard Morris (brother)
Gouverneur Morris (half-brother)
Robert Hunter Morris (uncle)
Lewis Morris (grandfather)
John Rutherfurd (son-in-law)
Alma materYale College
Known forSigner of the Declaration of Independence
Signature

Lewis Morris (April 8, 1726 – January 22, 1798) was an American Founding Father, landowner, and developer from Morrisania, New York, presently part of Bronx County. He signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence as a delegate to the Continental Congress from New York.[1]

Early life and family

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Morris was born on April 8, 1726, at his family's estate, Morrisania, presently part of Bronx County, in what was then the Province of New York. He was the third Lewis Morris in the Morris family. He was the son of Lewis Morris (1698–1762) and Katrintje "Catherine" Staats (1697–1731). After his mother died, his father married Sarah Gouverneur (1714–1786).[2] He graduated from Yale College in 1746,[1] and upon his father's death in 1762, he inherited the bulk of the estate.

Morris' father had seven children, including his siblings, Staats Long Morris (1728–1800) and Richard Morris (1730–1810), and his half-siblings, Mary Lawrence, Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816), Isabella, and Catherine. His uncle was Robert Hunter Morris (1700–1764), the governor of Pennsylvania. His cousin by marriage was William Paterson (1745–1806), the governor of New Jersey and father-in-law of Stephen Van Rensselaer, the lieutenant governor of New York, who was the brother of Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer, mayor of Albany, New York. Anthony Walton White (1750–1803), a Continental Army general, was his cousin through Morris' aunt, Elizabeth Morris (1712–c. 1784).

Family history

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His great-grandfather, Richard Morris (died 1672), immigrated to New York through Barbados after being part of Oliver Cromwell's army in the English Civil War of 1648. He purchased the first tract of land in the Bronx that became the basis for the Morrisania manor. Richard and his young wife died, leaving behind an infant son, Lewis Morris (1671–1746). Richard's brother, Colonel Lewis Morris, also of Barbados, came to Morrisania to help manage the estate owned by his infant nephew. Col. Morris and his wife were childless.

When he came of age, Lewis Morris expanded and patented the estate. He married Isabella and went on to serve as the 8th colonial governor of New Jersey.[3] Morris was a popular governor who championed land owning rights for the colonists. Morristown, New Jersey, was named for him.[4][5]

Career

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In 1769, he was elected to the New York General Assembly. In 1774, as the Revolution drew near, he resigned from the Admiralty Court.[1]

American Revolution

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When active revolution began, he was a member of the New York Provincial Congress, the revolutionary government, from 1775 until 1777. That body, in turn, sent Morris to the Continental Congress for those same years. While in Congress, he was an active supporter of independence and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. When warned by his brother Staats Morris, who was a general in the British army, of the consequences that would follow his signing of the rebellious document, Morris stated, "Damn the consequences. Give me the pen."[6]

In 1777, Lewis returned to New York, became a county judge of Westchester County, and was appointed a member of the New York State Senate representing the Southern District, which consisted of Kings, New York, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk and Westchester counties. He served in the 1st New York State Legislature, which began on September 9, 1777, until the end of the 4th Legislature, on July 1, 1781.[1]

His eldest three sons served during the Revolutionary War and had distinguished military careers.

Post-Revolution

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Beginning on July 1, 1783, he returned to the New York State Senate and served in the 7th Legislature through to the end of the 13th Legislature, ending on June 30, 1790.[1] In 1788, when the New York convention met to ratify the U.S. Constitution, he was one of the delegates. Morris was a Federalist presidential elector in the 1796 election and cast his votes for John Adams and Thomas Pinckney.

In 1784, Morris was elected an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati. On May 1 of the same year, he was appointed to the first Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York and served until his death,[1] when he was replaced by Simeon De Witt.[7]

Personal life

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Mary Walton Morris, portrait by John Wollaston
Old Morrisania

On September 24, 1749, Lewis married Mary Walton (1727–1794), a member of a well-known merchant family. Maria was the daughter of Jacob Walton and Maria (née Beekman) Walton.[8] They had ten children:[9]

After the war, Morris had to rebuild the family estate, which had been looted and burned by the British when they occupied New York. In 1790, he offered the land, now part of the South Bronx neighborhood of Morrisania, as the site of the U.S. capital. He died on the estate and is buried in the family vault beneath St. Ann's Church in the Bronx.[13]

Descendants

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Through his eldest son, Lewis V. Morris, he was grandfather to Lewis Morris (1785–1863) and Sabina Elliott Morris (1789–1857). Lewis Morris (b. 1785) was the father of Charles Manigault Morris (1820–1895), a Confederate officer. Sabina married her first cousin, Robert Walter Rutherfurd (1788–1852), the son of John Rutherfurd and Helena Morris, and was the mother of Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816–1892), a pioneering astrophotographer who took the first telescopic photographs of the moon and sun, as well as many stars and planets.

Through his son, Staats Morris, his great-grandson was Daniel François van Braam Morris (b. 1840), a Dutchman and governor of Celebes in the Dutch East Indies. A great-granddaughter of his grandfather, Lewis Morris, named Mary Antill was married to Gerritt G. Lansing, himself a brother of Congressman John Lansing. John Lansing's daughter, Sarah, was married to Edward Livingston, a great-grandson of Philip Livingston.

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Lewis Morris is portrayed by Ronald Kross in the 1969 Broadway musical 1776 and by Howard Caine in the 1972 film. Although Morris was chairman of the New York delegation to the Second Continental Congress, he abstained ("courteously") on every vote, claiming that the New York Provincial Congress never gave Morris explicit instructions on anything. However, when George Washington noted in a dispatch that Morris's estates were destroyed by the British, but his family was taken to safety in Connecticut, Morris abandons his lack of instructions and moves to sign the Declaration.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "MORRIS, Lewis - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  2. ^ "Gouverneur Morris [1752–1816]". New Netherlands Institute. Retrieved June 17, 2014.
  3. ^ Stellhorn, Paul A., and Birkner, Michael J. "Lewis Morris" Archived August 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine in The Governors of New Jersey 1664–1974: Biographical Essays. (Trenton, New Jersey: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1982), 54–58. Retrieved 29 April 2013.
  4. ^ Hutchinson, Viola L. The Origin of New Jersey Place Names, New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed September 8, 2015.
  5. ^ Gannett, Henry. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, p. 215. United States Government Printing Office, 1905. Accessed September 8, 2015.
  6. ^ "Americana (American Historical Magazine)", New York 1914, p. 627
  7. ^ Simeon de Witt, New Netherland Institute
  8. ^ a b The American Historical Magazine. The Publishing Society of New York. 1906. pp. 136–142, 429–430. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Reynolds, Cuyler; Cutter, William Richard (1914). Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation | Vol. III. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  10. ^ Huger is the great-grandfather-in law of Arthur Middleton Manigault.
  11. ^ Holice, Debbie (September 2001). "Otsego NY, Morris Pioneers". www.usgennet.org. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  12. ^ Their offspring took the surname "Van Braam Morris" and they live in the Netherlands.
  13. ^ Elizabeth Spencer-Ralph and Gloria McDarrah (October 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: St. Ann's Church Complex". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
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