George Morton

Career

When still very young, he was converted by William Brewster [q. v. ] to Puritanism.

He is one of the three emigrants to America who can be traced to the Scrooby district, the others being Brewster and William Bradford [q. v. ].

Here he changed his name to Mourt, perhaps to escape the displeasure of his Catholic relatives.

He received the writings sent in the Fortune from Plymouth in 1622, and published them under the title: A Relation or Iournall of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation setled at Plimoth in New England .

London, Printed for Iohn Bellamie (1622), which is still the only contemporary account of the voyage of the Mayflower and the first months of the colony.

Tradition has assigned to him the authorship, and it has always been known as "Mourt's Relation. "

He was assigned an excellent piece of land in 1624, but died in June of that year.

Morton's descendants have been numerous and influential.

His eldest son, Nathaniel [q. v. ], was secretary of the colony for many years.

[Accounts of Morton's life appear in J. K. Allen, George Morton of Plymouth Colony and Some of His Descendants (1908); J. A. Goodwin, The Pilgrim Republic (1888); Joseph Hunter, Colls.

The Founders of New Plymouth (1854); H. M. and M. Dexter, The England and Holland of the Pilgrims (1905).

The best edition of the Relation is Mourt's Relation or Iournal of the Plantation at Plymouth (1865), with intro.

and notes by H. M. Dexter. ]

Religion

Morton, George, , England 1585 1624 Male Pilgrim Pilgrim father, was probably the son and heir of Anthony Morton, a wealthy Catholic gentleman living near Bawtry or Harworth, not far from the little village of Scrooby, in Nottinghamshire, England.

Concerning the Church or Congregation of Protestant Separatists Formed at Scrooby .

Politics

Morton was one of the organizers of the voyage of the Anne and the Little James in 1623 and came himself with his wife and four children, and his wife's sister, Alice Southworth, a widow, who married Governor Bradford the following year.

Connections

Morton was possessed of considerable means, was entered in his marriage record (facsimile in Mayflower Descendant, October 1909, p. 193) as a merchant from York, was apparently one of the financial mainstays of the Pilgrims at Leyden, and was certainly closely associated with the leaders.

His property having by this time been spent in the Pilgrim service, Bradford assumed care of his wife and children.

Father:

,

Sister:

Anne

married:

Juliana

On July 23, 1612, he was married at Leyden to Juliana Carpenter.

married:

Anne

Wife:

Anne

brother-in-law:

Edward

He was one of those who went to London in 1619 to negotiate with the merchants, living probably at Aldgate, where his brother-in-law, Edward Southworth, was already established.

children:

Anne