Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/469

Rh Fort de France, Martinique, in 1783. He became a midshipman in 1771 and a lieutenant in 1779. serving in the West Indies during the war of 1778-'83. He accompanied de Grasse in Chesa- peake bay in 1781, and fought with the marines in the assault on Yorktown in October, 1781. Hav- ing captured the English frigate " Isis " in Chesa- peake bay, 12 April, 1782, he was promoted com- modore and appointed to the command of a divis- ion, with which he defeated the English off Mar- tinique. He died from yellow fever a few weeks after the conclusion of peace in 1783.

MORTIER, Edouard Louis (mor-te-ay), French naturalist, b. in Mulhouse in 1801 ; d. in Rio Janeiro in 1852. He was sent in 1835 on a scientific mission to South America, and explored the Guianas, the United States of Colombia, Vene- zuela, Peru, and Brazil, returning to France in 1840. In 1843 he settled in Brazil, and became professor of botany and natural history in the Col- lege of Rio Janeiro, which post he held till his death. He published "Des origines des Indiens habitant I'Ameriquedu Sud " (Paris, 1841) ; " Traite du tabac et du cacao " (1841) ; " Historia planta- rum circa Cayenne sponte crescentium " (1843) ; ^' Prodomus florae Brasilicae, sistens enumerationem plantarum cellularium quae in insuht Santa Cati- lina crescent " (2 vols., Rio Janeiro, 1849) ; " His- toria generalis plantarum Americanarum in qua famili;e per tabulas disponuntur " (2 vols., 1850) ; and several other works.

MORTON, Alexander, inventor, b. in Darvel, Ayrshire, Scotland, 8 March, 1820 ; d. in New York city, 12 Oct., 1869. He came to this country in early life, and entered Yale in 1844, but failing health prevented his graduation. He began the manufacture of gold pens in New York city dur- ing the summer of 1851, and between that year and 1800 invented automatic processes for pointing, tempering, and grinding them, which had pre- viously been done unequally, and often imperfectly, by hand. His pens attained a high reputation, and he amassed wealth and gave generously in aid of the National government during the civil war.

MORTON, Charles, clergyman, b. in Pendavy, Cornwall, England, in 1627; d. in Boston, Mass., 11 April, 1698. He was descended from Thomas Morton, secretary to Edward 111., was educated at Oxford, of which he became a fellow, took holy orders, and for some time was a royalist, but on his conversion to Puritanism was ejected from his living, under the act of conformity of 1662. He then retired to the parish of St. Ives, where he preached to a small non-conformist congregation, and after the great fire of Ijondon established a boys' academy at Alwington Green, where, among other youths, he taught Daniel Defoe. At length the annoyances that he sufliered under the processes of the bishop's court induced him to emigrate to New England. With his pupil, the future histo- rian, Samuel Penhallow, he arrived in Charlestown, Mass., in 1686, and a few months afterward he was chosen to the pastorate of the church there, which he held until his death. It was at first suggested that he be appointed president of Harvard, but a person so obnoxious to the government was judged unsuitable to occupy that post, and the office of vice-president was therefore created for him. He also read lectures on philosophy to a large class of students, but, by the order of the corporation, they were discontinued. Morton had great learning and much influence with his students. He was an enemy of large volumes, and therefore com- paratively little record is preserved of his busy life. One of his manuscript pamphlets, entitled " Compendium physicale ex auctoribusextractum " is in the library of the American antiquarian so- ciety, and another, " A Complete System of Natu- ral Philosophy in General and Particular," is in that of Bowdoin college. His published works include "A Discourse on Improving the Country of Cornwall," a part of which, on the use of sea sand as manure, is printed in the " Philosophical Transactions " for April, 1675 ; " The Ark. its Loss and Recovery " ; and a " System of Logic," long a text-book at Harvard (Charlestown, 1693).

MORTON, or MOURT, George, author, b. in York, England, in 1585; d. about 1628. He became a Puritan in 1600, and was one of the earliest Pilgrims that settled in Leyden, Holland, where he married in 1612, and until 1620 was the agent of those of his sect that lived in London. At the latter date he emigrated to New England, arriving in Plymouth on the &ldquo;Ann,&rdquo; and bringing re-enforcements to the Pilgrims. After a residence of several years he returned to England, according to some authorities, but others assert that he died in Plymouth. Morton is the author of the first book that was published in Great Britain that gave an account of the planting of Plymouth colony. This work, known as &ldquo;Mourt's Relation of the Beginning and Proceeding of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England,&rdquo; is full of valuable information and is an authority even at the present day (London, 1622; abridged and reprinted in Massachusetts historical collection; 2d ed., with notes by Rev. George B. Cheever, entitled &ldquo;Journal of the Pilgrims,&rdquo; Boston, 1845; 3d ed., with notes by William T. Harris, New York, 1852; 4th ed., with notes by Rev. Henry M. Dexter, Boston, 1865). &mdash; His son, Nathaniel, author, b. in Leyden, Holland, in 1613; d. in Plymouth, Mass., 16 June, 1685, came with his father to this country, and after the death of his parents was brought up in the family of Gov. William Bradford, who had married Nathaniel's maternal aunt. He early became Bradford's assistant in the management of public affairs, and by annual popular vote was secretary of the colony from 7 Dec., 1647, until his death. Almost all the records of the Plymouth colony are in his handwriting. He read extensively, and took great pains to note down the incidents of the early days of the colony, which he published under the title of &ldquo;New England's Memorial, or a Brief Relation of the most Memorable and Remarkable Passages of the Providence of God manifested to the Planters of New England&rdquo; (Cambridge, Mass., 1669; reprinted in England the same year, with supplement by Josiah Cotton, Boston, 1721; 3d ed., Newport, R. I., 1772; 4th ed., containing, besides the original work and the supplement, large additions with marginal notes, and a lithographic copy of an ancient map by John Davis, Boston, 1826; 6th ed., by the Boston Congregational board of publication, 1855). This work, compiled at the request of the commissioners of the four united colonies, was chiefly attested as correct by the most eminent survivors of the earlier generations. Until the recovery of Bradford's own history in 1855, Morton's was the chief early authority for the history of Plymouth colony. He also wrote a &ldquo;Synopsis of the Church History of Plymouth&rdquo; (1680), which is preserved in Ebenezer Hazard's &ldquo;Historical Collections&rdquo; and published by Alexander Young in his &ldquo;Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers of the Colony of Plymouth&rdquo; (Boston, 1841); and he was the author of numerous verses in commemoration of the virtues of the Pilgrims, the best specimens of which are those on the death of his aunt, Mrs.