Morris, Robert Hunter, , New York 1700 1764 Male Chief Justice (State) Governor (State) chief justice of New Jersey and governor of Pennsylvania, was born at Morrisania, N. Y. , the second son of Lewis Morris, 1671-1746 [q. v. ], and Isabella (Graham).
While his father was governor, Morris belligerently defended the royal prerogative, using his influence on the council with telling effect.
He received a "liberal education, " as that term was understood in the eighteenth century, and was trained in political affairs by his father, whose argumentative ability he seems to have inherited.
His great concern after 1745 was for the speedy suppression of the riots occasioned by disputes over land titles and by resentment on the part of tenants against the proprietors.
Several projects besides the settlement of the land problem were in his mind.
In 1754 John and Thomas Penn offered him the governorship of Pennsylvania, which he accepted.
The Pennsylvania interlude was far from happy for Governor Morris.
At the outset he clashed with the assembly over his refusal to publish his instructions.
The ill feeling thus engendered cropped out in a controversy concerning funds to be devoted to the protection of the frontier against the French and their Indian allies.
As the assembly would not vote the money in accordance with the proprietors' instructions, Morris failed to secure adequate support for the militia and was bitterly denounced by the western counties.
So ably did Benjamin Franklin present the cause of the legislators that the Governor finally gave up the struggle and resigned in 1756.
Returning to New Jersey, Morris resumed his post as chief justice, for his resignation, presented in 1754, had never been accepted.
In 1757, however, he visited England, and during his absence William Aynsley was named chief justice and served until July 1758.
Since Jones did not contest the matter, Judge Morris remained on the bench until his death.
Despite his disputatious temperament, Morris was a great favorite socially.
Of handsome countenance and imposing presence, he charmed his acquaintances by his facile conversation and compelled their admiration by the wide range of his interests.
[R. S. Field, "The Provincial Courts of New Jersey, " N. J. Hist.
Soc.
Colls. , vol.
III (1849); Samuel Smith, The Hist.
of the Colony of Nova-Cæsaria or N. J. (1765); Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, in A. H. Smyth, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, vol.
I (1905); Pa.
Archives, 4 ser.
II (1900); Archives of the State of N. J. , 1 ser.
V-IX (1882 - 85), and XXXII (1928), p. 298; E. B. O'Callaghan, Docs.
Rel.
to the Colonial Hist.
of the State of N. Y. , vol.
VI (1855); W. W. Spooner, Hist.
Families of America (copr.
1907); N. J. Hist.
Soc.
Colls. , vol.
IX (1916). ]
Within the year Governor Morris named Robert as chief justice of the province, his commission to run "during good behavior in same, " though the warrant of the previous incumbent, Robert L. Hooper, had been phrased "during the royal pleasure. "
During the five years that he remained in England he worked against the plan to reunite the provinces of New York and New Jersey, tried to collect the arrears of salary which the assembly refused to pay his father's estate, and urged his friends to help him secure a suitable executive post in America.
He was still active in public affairs when he dropped dead at a dance given near his home in Shrewsbury, N. J. Though he had never married, he had at least three natural children, one of whom, Robert Morris, c. 1745-1815 [q. v. ], inherited most of his considerable estate.
