Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/218

 1896, large 8vo. 5. 'The Bulstrode Papers,' vol. i., 1667-76 [London, 1897], large 8vo.

 MORTON, GEORGE HIGHFIELD (1826–1900), geologist, was the son of George Morton, a brewer, by his wife Elizabeth Bartenshaw, both of Liverpool. He was born in that city on 9 July 1826, went to school there, and when about sixteen years old became interested in geology. Going into business as a house decorator, he devoted every spare minute to his favourite study, exploring the country round Liverpool, and pushing his researches into North Wales and Shropshire. He formed a large and valuable collection of fossils, of which those from the Trias downwards have been acquired by the British Museum of Natural History, and the remainder by the Liverpool University College. Morton became F.G.S. in 1858, and was awarded the Lyell medal of that society in 1892. He was a member of various local societies, notably of the Geological Society of Liverpool, of which he was founder in 1859, honorary secretary for twenty-six years, and twice president. Also for several years after 1864 he was lecturer on geology at Queen's College, Liverpool. He died on 30 March 1900. His wife, whoso maiden name was Sarah N. Ascroft, died about two years before him, but one son and four daughters survived. He wrote, beginning in 1856, numerous papers on the district already mentioned, which have appeared in the publications of various societies, and, though in failing health, read his last one about a fortnight before his death ; but his chief work is the volume entitled 'Geology of the Country round Liverpool,' of which the first edition was published in 1863, a second, revised and enlarged, in 1891 with an appendix in 1897. As a geologist Morton was characterised by accuracy, thoroughness, orderliness, and caution, he cared more for the advancement of science than for his own reputation, and was a worthy representative of a class the painstaking and indefatigable local geologists to whom the science is so much indebted.

 MOULTON, WILLIAM FIDDIAN (1835–1898), biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, on 14 March 1835, was the second son of James Egan Moulton, a Wesleyan minister, who died in 1866, and Catherine, daughter of William Fiddian, a well-known Birmingham brass-founder of Huguenot descent. His grandfather had been, like his father, a methodist preacher ; and among his ancestors was John Bakewell, Wesley's friend. William was educated at Woodhouse Grove school, near Leeds, and Wesley College, Sheffield, of which he afterwards became a master. After having taught for a year in a private school at Devonport, he in 1854 went as an assistant master to Queen's College, Taunton, where he remained for four years. While at Taunton he graduated B.A. with mathematical honours at London University in 1854, and M.A. two years later, when he was awarded the gold medal for mathematics and natural philosophy. Subsequently he also won the university prizes for Hebrew, Greek, and Christian evidences. In 1858 he entered the Wesleyan ministry, and was appointed a classical tutor at Wesley College, Richmond, Surrey. He held that position for sixteen years, during which he gave much of his time to biblical studies. On the suggestion of a correspondent, Dr. Ellicott, afterwards bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Moulton published in 1870 a translation of Winer's 'Grammar of New Testament Greek,' accompanied with valuable notes, in which several errors were corrected and not a little original scholarship was shown. A new edition appeared in 1876, and a complete recast of the whole work had been begun under his supervision at the time of Moulton's death. In the year in which the first edition of Winer was issued, Moulton was invited to become one of the committee of revisers of the Jsew Testament. He was only thirty-five, by far the youngest of the company. He acted throughout with the Cambridge group, who preferred linguistic accuracy to literary picturesqueness. Yet he was especially responsible for the renderings from older English versions which were inserted from collations of black-letter Bibles made by his wife. He afterwards acted as secretary to the Cambridge committee for the revision of the Apocrypha.

Meanwhile Moulton bad in 1872 been chosen at an unprecedentedly early age a member of the Legal Hundred of the Wesleyan connexion. Two years later, in 1874, he was appointed the first head-master of the newly founded Leys school, Cambridge, where he entered upon his duties in February 1875, and remained for the rest of his life. In 1874 he received the degree of D.D. from Edinburgh, and in 1877 was made an honorary M.A. of Cambridge. While devoting 