he was giving public readings. On 15 Aug. 1881 he was, on the nomination of the Queen, appointed a brother of the Charterhouse. A benefit at which very many actors assisted was given him at the Haymarket on 16 Oct. 1889. Though somewhat soured in later life, Morton was a worthy and a not unamiable man. He was in early life an assiduous fisherman. His dialogue is full of double entente, sometimes, after the fashion of his day, a little coarse. It was generally humorous and telling. He may claim to have fitted to a nicety the best comedians of his day, and to have caused during the productive portion of his career from 1835 to 1865, more laughter than any other dramatist of his epoch. He died at the Charterhouse 19 Dec. 1891, being buried on the 23rd at Kensal Green.

Many of Morton's plays are published in the collections, English and American, of English plays.

[The chief source of information for Morton's early career is the short Memoir in Plays for Home Performance, by the author of Box and Cox, with Biographical Introduction by Clement Scott, 1889, the particulars being supplied by Morton himself. Personal knowledge furnishes a few facts. The Times for 21 and 24 Dec. 1891; the Era for 26 Dec. 1891; the Era Almanack, various years; the Sunday Times, various years; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. iv. 432, v. 144; and Scott and Howard's Life of E. L. Blanchard have been consulted. While not aiming at completeness, the list of plays is longer and more accurate than any that has appeared. Inextricable confusion is apparent in previously pub

lished lists.]

J. K.

MORTON, NICHOLAS, D.D. (A. 1586), papal agent, was son of Charles Morton, esq., of Bawtry, Yorkshire, by Maud, daughter of William Dallyson, esq., of Lincolnshire, his race, as Strype observes, being 'universally papists, descended as well by the man as woman' (Annals of the Reformation, ii. 389, fol.) He was born at Bawtry, and received his academical education in the university of Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 15421543 and commenced M.A. in 1545 (COOPER, Athena Cantabr. ii. 10). He was constituted one of the original fellows of Trinity College by the charter of foundation dated 19 Dec. 1546 (RYMER, Fœdera, xv. 107), and he was B.D. in 1554. In 1556 he was appointed by Cardinal Pole one of the six preachers in the cathedral church of Canterbury (STRYPE, Memorials, iii. 290). He is stated to have been a prebendary of York, but this appears somewhat doubtful (DODD, Church Hist. ii. 114).

Adhering to the Roman catholic religion,

he, soon after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth,withdrew to Rome, and was there created D.D. and constituted apostolical penitentiary. He was examined as a witness at the papal court in the proceedings there taken to excommunicate Queen Elizabeth, and was despatched to England to impart to the catholic priests, as from the pope, those faculties and that jurisdiction which they could no longer receive in the regular manner from their bishops, and to apprise them and the catholic gentry that a bull of deposition of Queen Elizabeth was in preparation. He landed in Lincolnshire, and the result of his intrigues was the northern rebellion of 1569 under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland (COOPER, Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 11). Morton was 'the most earnest mover of the rebellion,' and his first persuasion was to tell the Earl of Northumberland and many others of the excommunication which threatened them, and of the dangers touching their souls and the loss of their country (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Eliz., Addenda, 15661579, p. 390). When and how Morton effected his escape from England does not appear.

About 1571 he went from Rome to the English College at Louvain, carrying letters and money to its inmates from the pope. On 24 May 1580 he and Thomas Goldwell, formerly bishop of St. Asaph, arrived at the English College at Rheims from Rome, to which city they returned on 8 Aug. the same year, after having in the interim paid a visit to Paris (Douay Diaries, pp. 165, 167, 169). The indictment framed in 1589 against Philip, earl of Arundel, for high treason states that William Allen, D.D., Dr. Morton, Robert Parsons, Edmund Campion, John Hart, and other false traitors, on 31 March 1580, at Rheims, and on other days at Rome and Rheims, compassed and imagined to depose and kill the queen, to raise war against her, and to subvert the established church and government (Baga de Secretis, pouch 49). In a list of certain English catholics abroad, sent by a secret agent to the English government about 1580, mention is made of Nycolas Morton, prieste and doctor, who was penytensiary for the Englyshe nation; but nowe dealythe no more in that office, and yet hathe out of the same xii crones by monthe, and everye daye ii loaves of brede and ii chambells; besydes a benyfice in Piacenza, worth Ve crownes by yeare, wch ye cardynall off Alexandria gave hym' (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Eliz. vol. cxlvi. n. 18). On 5 May 1582 a correspondent of Walsingham announced the arrest of Dr. Wendon, Dr. Morton, and other English

RICHARD MORTON (1669-1730), his only son, was born in 1669. He was entered at Exeter College, Oxford (as of Enwood, Surrey), on 16 March 1685-6, and matriculated on 19 March of the same year. Leaving Oxford on 17 Oct. 1688, he migrated to Catharine Hall, Cambridge, where he was admitted fellow commoner on 22 Nov. 1688. He proceeded B.A. in 1691, and M.D. per literas regias in 1695. He was admitted a candidate of the College of Physicians on 22 Dec. 1695, and fellow on 22 Dec. 1707. He was appointed physician to Greenwich Hospital in April 1716, and died at Greenwich on 1 Feb. 1730, and was buried at Plumstead. Some verses of his appear among several eulogies by Clopton Havers [q. v.] and others on his father, prefixed to the first edition of the second volume of the Iuperoλoyía (London, 1694).

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 398-9, ii. 20; Sylvester's Reliq. Baxterianæ, pt. iii. p. 96; Lives of Eminent and Remarkable Characters in Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk; Burton's Hist. of Bewdley, pp. 26, xxix, App.; Wood's Fasti (Bliss), vol. ii. cols. 191, 220, 326; Addit. MS. 19165, ff. 579, 581; Palmer's Nonconformist's Memorial, iii. 235; Post Boy, 1-3 Sept. 1698; Eloy's Dict. Historique de la Médecine; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Catalogues of Libraries of Surg. Gen. (Washington); Trin. Coll. Dublin, Med. and Chir. Soc. Macray's Cat. of Rawlinson MSS. in Bodleian Library; information from the Rev. E. H. Winnington Ingram of Ribbesford, the Rev. John Hodgson of Kinver, and (as to medical works) from Norman Moore, esq., M.D.; Registers of Exeter College, per the Rev. C. W. Boase; Records of Greenwich Hospital, per G. T. Lambert, esq.]

B. P.

MORTON, ROBERT (d. 1497), bishop of Worcester, was the nephew of Cardinal John Morton (1420–1500) [q. v.] His father was William Morton (NICHOLS, Collectanea Topographica et Geneal. iii. 170), not Sir Rowland, who did not die till 1554 (BURKE, Extinct Baronage, p. 373). He became prebendary of Thorngate, Lincoln, 16 Aug. 1471, and succeeded his uncle as archdeacon of Winchester in 1478. He held the degree of LL.D. (WHARTON, Anglia Sacra, i. 538). On 30 May 1477 his uncle had secured the reversion of the office of master of the rolls for him in the event of his own death or resignation. Robert obtained it by a new patent 9 Jan. 1479. He kept the office under Edward IV and Edward V, and lost it under Richard III, when his uncle was in disgrace. He was reinstated by Henry VII, and named as one of the commissioners to perform the office of steward on Henry's coronation. He said he required help as master of the rolls because of his activity in the king's service, and a coadjutor was given him 13 Nov. 1485.

In 1481 he was canon of Windsor, but he resigned the office 8 March 1486. On 15 March following he was granted, jointly with Margaret, countess of Richmond, the advowson of a prebend in the church of Windsor and the advowson of a canonry in Windsor (21 Dec. 1487 and 12 Jan. 1488). On 8 June 1482 he was collated archdeacon of Gloucester, and resigned when he became a bishop. On 16 Oct. 1486 he received a papal provision for the bishopric of Worcester, obtained a license of consecration from his uncle 24 Jan. 1486-7, was consecrated 28 Jan., and received his temporalities 10 Feb. He was enthroned by proxy 22 July 1487; he instituted to vacant benefices as early as 8 Jan. (THOMAS, Account of the Bishops of Worcester, p. 200).

On 15 March 1497 he received a pardon from Henry VII, which was intended to secure his property against extortions. He died in the following April or May. His arms are given in Thomas and his epitaph in Browne Willis. He was buried in the nave of St. Paul's Cathedral, London. In his will he gave twenty marks to the cathedral of Worcester, and directed that he should be buried in the cemetery of the place where he should die (BROWNE WILLIS, Survey, i. 643). The same writer states that Morton received many other preferments, but these seem to have belonged to a person named Robert Moreton, whom Le Neve does not identify with the bishop.

[Foss's Judges of England, v. 67, &c.; Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, ed. Hardy, ii. 223, iii. 26, 78, 389; Thomas's Account of Bishops of Worcester, p. 200.] M. B.

of

MORTON, THOMAS (d. 1646), author

New English Canaan,' was an attorney of Clifford's Inn, London, who appears to have practised chiefly in the west of England (YOUNG, Chronicles of Massachusetts, p. 321). He was a man of good education and an able lawyer, but he bore an evil reputation, illused his wife, and was even suspected of having murdered his partner (Mass. Hist. Coll. 3rd ser. viii. 323). The allusions in his book show that he was passionately fond of field sports and travelled much. In June 1622 he landed at New England with Thomas Weston's company, and remained for about three months, taking a survey of the country, with which he was delighted. In 1625, having bought a partnership in Captain Wollaston's venture, he again sailed for Massachusetts Bay. His leader fixed the plantation at 'Mount Wollaston' (now Braintree), on the shores of the bay. Wollaston soon left for Virginia with most of the servants,

and Morton established himself in the summer of 1626 in control over the remainder at 'Mare-Mount' (Merry Mount), as he called the place. In the spring of 1627 he erected the maypole, and on May day, in company with the Indians, held high revel, greatly to the disgust of the Plymouth elders. The business methods which he pursued were, however, a more serious matter. In trading for furs with the Indians, he not only sold them guns and ammunition, but instructed them in their use. He was thus acting in violation of the law. When in 1625 the Plymouth people found their way into Maine, and first opened a trade with the Indians there, Morton was not slow in following them. In 1628 the Plymouth settlers established a permanent station on the Kennebec; yet in 1627, if not in 1626, Morton had forestalled them there, and hindered them of a season's furs. The Plymouth community ultimately resolved to suppress Merry Mount, which was rapidly developing into a nest of pirates. After endeavouring to reason with Morton, they sent Captain Miles Standish [q. v.] to arrest him. He was taken at Wessagusset (now Weymouth), but managed to escape in the night to Mount Wollaston, where, after offering some resistance, he was recaptured. He was sent back to England in 1628, in charge of Captain John Oldham (1600?-1636) [q. v.], with letters from Governor William Bradford [q. v.], addressed respectively to the council for New England and Sir Ferdinando Gorges [q.v.], requesting that he might be brought to his answer' (ib. 1st ser. iii. 62). In the meantime John Endecott [q. v.], as governor of the chartered new Massachusetts Company, had jurisdiction over Morton's establishment. He ordered the maypole to be cut down, and changed the name of the place to 'Mount Dagon.'

Morton managed to ingratiate himself with both Oldham and Gorges. Bradford's complaints were accordingly ignored. He also made himself useful to Isaac Allerton in his efforts to obtain a charter for the Plymouth colony. Allerton, when he returned to New England in August 1629, scandalised Plymouth by bringing Morton back with him, lodging him in his house, and for a while employing him as his secretary. Morton subsequently returned to Mount Wollaston, and encouraged the 'old planters' in their resistance to the new Massachusetts Company. He refused to sign articles which Endecott had drawn up for the better government and trade of the colony, and set his authority at defiance. There is reason to suppose that he was employed by Gorges to act as a spy, and was anticipating the arrival

of John Oldham at the head of an expedition to be despatched by Gorges. He continued to deal with the Indians as he saw fit, though not in firearms. In August or September 1630 he was arrested, and after being set in the stocks was again banished to England, and his house was burned down. He had a long and tempestuous passage, and was nearly starved. For some time he was imprisoned in Exeter gaol, but by 1631 was at liberty, and busily engaged in Gorges's intrigues for the overthrow of the Massachusetts charter. A petition was presented to the privy council on 19 Dec. 1632 asking the lords to inquire into the methods through which the charter had been procured, and into the abuses which had been practised under it. The various allegations were based on the affidavits of Morton and two other witnesses. On 1 May 1634 he wrote to William Jeffreys, an old planter' at Wessagusset, triumphantly informing him that as a result a committee, with Laud at its head, had been appointed, which was to make Gorges governor-general of the colony (Mass. Hist. Coll. 2nd ser. vi. 428-30). In May 1635 Morton was appointed solicitor to the new organisation, and successfully prosecuted a 'suit at law for the repealing of the patent belonging to the Massachusetts Company.' In March 1636, while against the company, he seems to have been in the pay of George Cleaves, a man subsequently prominent in the early history of Maine (ib. 4th ser. vi. 127). In August 1637 Gorges wrote to Winthrop that Morton was 'wholely casheered from intermedlinge with anie our affaires hereafter' (ib. 4th ser. vii. 331); but in 1641, when Gorges, as lord of the province of Maine,' granted a municipal charter to the town of Acomenticus (now York), Morton's name appears as first of the three witnesses. The whole scheme failed for want of funds.

In the summer of 1643 Morton, starved out of England, reappeared once more at Plymouth, and endeavoured to pass himself off as a Commonwealth man who was commissioned by Alexander Rigby, M.P., to act in his behalf for a claim of territory in Maine. Not succeeding, he is said to have gone to Maine in June 1644. A warrant for his arrest was at once despatched. In August he was in Rhode Island, promising grants of land to all who professed loyalty to the new governor-general (PALFREY, Collections, ii. 147 n.) By 9 Sept. he was a prisoner at Boston. In November 1644 he was charged before the general court with libelling the colony before the privy council and in his book, and with promoting a quo warranto against it. His letter to Jeffreys was pro