Roger Morris

Background

Morris, Roger, , England 1727 1794 Male Loyalist Soldier British soldier and Loyalist, was the third son of Roger Morris of Netherby, Yorkshire, and of his wife Mary, daughter of Sir Peter Jackson.

Career

After serving as aide-decamp to Generals Braddock, Shirley, and Webb successively, he became major of brigade in March 1757, attached to the staff of Webb, his intimate friend, at Fort Edward.

Promoted to a belated majority in the 35th in February 1758, he served at Halifax during the summer, accompanied Monckton up the River St. John in September, and remained as commanding officer at Fort Frederic until the following spring.

Charming "Captain Polly, " adored by half the officers in New York, had given her hand to Morris, "a Ladys Man, always something to say, " in January 1758, and with it 51, 000 acres in Dutchess County, with 156 tenants, a rent-roll worth nearly £1, 000 a year.

For the next ten years Morris lived in New York, either at the town house on Stone Street, at the impressive Morris Mansion (later the Jumel Mansion) which he built in Harlem, or, for two months in the year only, in a comfortable "loghouse" on Lot Number Five.

In 1783 he left America forever with his wife, two sons, and two daughters, and settled in Yorkshire.

Both Roger Morris and his wife were buried in the churchyard of St. Savioursgate, York.

[See The Northcliffe Collection (Ottawa, 1926); W. O. Raymond, The River St. John (1910); John Knox, An Hist.

Jour.

of the Campaigns in North America (3 vols. , 1914 - 16), ed.

by A. G. Doughty for the Champlain Soc. ; E. H. Hall, Philipse Manor Hall at Yonkers, N. Y. (1912); W. H. Shelton, The Jumel Mansion (1916).

In the Public Record Office, London, A. O. 12:21, ff.

185 sqq.

is the examination of Morris' claim by the Commissioners for enquiring into the Losses and Services of the American Loyalists. ]

Politics

Even then he took no commission in the British army, serving only as inspector of the claims of refugees with the temporary rank of colonel, and as councilor under Governor Robertson.

Connections

After the battle of Lexington he went to England, unwilling to commit himself to either side, and though he returned in December 1777, could not prevent the confiscation of all his property by an act of attainder of the state legislature, in which both he and his wife were named.

Daughter:

Philipse

In 1764 Morris resigned from the army to assume an entirely different station and mode of life as the husband of one of the wealthiest heiresses in New York, Mary Philipse (July 3, 1730 - July 18, 1825), daughter of Frederic Philipse, second lord of Philipse Manor.

marriage:

Philipse

He or his family subsequently received as compensation from the British government a fourth of the value of their American estates, and his heirs, who by Mary Philipse's marriage settlement had a right to those estates and had not been themselves attainted, sold their claims to John Jacob Astor in 1809 for £20,000.

husband:

Philipse

In 1764 Morris resigned from the army to assume an entirely different station and mode of life as the husband of one of the wealthiest heiresses in New York, Mary Philipse (July 3, 1730 - July 18, 1825), daughter of Frederic Philipse, second lord of Philipse Manor.