Anthony Morris

Background

Morris, Anthony, 1654---1721, , England 1654 1721 Male Religious Leader Quaker leader of early Pennsylvania, son of Anthony and Elizabeth (Senior) Morris, was born in Old Gravel Lane, Stepney, London.

Career

In 1687 he was clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and as such signed an "Advice" to all Monthly Meetings against the sale of rum to the Indians.

In 1688 he sat in the Quarterly Meeting of Philadelphia that considered the famous petition against slavery presented by the German Friends of Germantown, and signed on behalf of the meeting the Minute passing the matter on to the Yearly Meeting.

When past middle life he began to speak in meetings for worship.

Later he traveled in the ministry to New England and other parts of America, and to Great Britain.

He seems to have prospered financially, judging by the ample properties he owned in Burlington and Philadelphia.

He retired from active business, however, when he became engaged in the ministry.

In August 1694 he was commissioned associate justice of the provincial supreme court, a position which he held, with his other judicial offices, until 1698.

[Sources include: R. C. Moon, The Morris Family of Phila.

(5 vols. , 1898 - 1909), esp.

vol.

I; J. W. Jordan, ed. , Encyc.

of Pa.

Biog. , vol.

X (1918); G. P. Donehoo, ed. , Pennsylvania: A Hist.

(1926), vol.

IX; F. B. Lee, ed. , Geneal.

and Memorial Hist.

of the State of N. J. (1910), vol.

III; J. H. Martin, Martin's Bench and Bar of Phila.

(1883); Bull.

of Friends' Hist.

Soc.

Hist.

Soc. ]

Connections

In his youth he joined the Society of Friends "by convincement, " and was married to Mary Jones, Mar. 30, 1676, in the Friends' Savoy Meeting House, in the Strand, London.

He had fifteen children.

married:

Agnes

Morris was married four times: in 1689 to his second wife, Agnes, widow of Cornelius Bom, in Philadelphia; in 1693/94 to Mary, widow of Thomas Coddington, at Newport, R. I.; and in 1700 to Elizabeth Watson, in Philadelphia.

Wife:

Agnes

Morris was married four times: in 1689 to his second wife, Agnes, widow of Cornelius Bom, in Philadelphia; in 1693/94 to Mary, widow of Thomas Coddington, at Newport, R. I.; and in 1700 to Elizabeth Watson, in Philadelphia.

Friend:

John

of Phila., May 1919; the Friend, July 21, 1855; John Smith, "The Lives of the Ministers of the Gospel among the People Called Quakers" (1770), a manuscript in the library of Haverford Coll.; and manuscript records of the Friends preserved at 304 Arch Street, Phila.