Background
Born about 1584, he was youngest of the three sons of George Morton of Eshere in Chilham, Kent, by Mary, daughter of Robert Honywood of Charing in the same county.
Born about 1584, he was youngest of the three sons of George Morton of Eshere in Chilham, Kent, by Mary, daughter of Robert Honywood of Charing in the same county.
He was educated at Eton College, and was elected to King"s College, Cambridge, in 1603, apparently by royal influence, but he did not graduate there.
In 1609 Morton returned to England, and August 1613 he was talked of as minister to Savoy, but he met with a serious carriage accident in the same year, and he did not start until 12 May 1614. Before 22 December of the same year he was appointed clerk to the council, and had set off on his return from Savoy to take up the duties of his office before 6 April 1615. In April 1616 he went to Heidelberg as secretary to the Princess Elizabeth, wife of Frederick V, Elector Palatine.
He may have given up his clerkship while with the electress but on 6 April 1619 he had a formal grant of the office for life.
He returned before 12 March in the following year. He resigned his place in 1623 in a fit of pique, on not being allowed to be present when the Spanish match was discussed.
lieutenant was rumoured in April 1624 that he was to succeed Sir Edward Herbert as ambassador to France, and later that he had refused the appointment, which, Dudley Carleton wrote, was as strange as that it was offered to him. By this time under the patronage of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and before 26 July he was formally appointed to Paris.
He was injured in November of the same year by a fall from his horse.
Early in 1625 Sir George Calvert gave up the secretaryship of state for a substantial consideration, and Morton was sworn in at Newmarket in his place. Buckingham had written to the mayor of Rochester in his favour, and he chose to sit for Kent, but he died in November 1625, and was buried at Southampton, where he had property. Wotton wrote an elegy upon him.
Morton married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Apsley, but left no issue.
His widow died very soon after him, and Wotton wrote an epigram upon her death. Morton was succeeded as secretary by Sir John Coke.
Useless Parliament]
He was elected Member of Parliament for the county of Kent and for the University of Cambridge (he had been seriously proposed for the provostship of King"s College) in the parliament of 1625.