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 at the beginning of October the expedition, which had cost the country over a million sterling, returned ignominiously home. Wolfe wrote to one of his friends: 'The whole affair turned on the practicability of escalading Rochefort, and the two evidences brought to prove that the ditch was wet (in opposition to the assertions of the chief engineer, who had been in the place) are persons to whom, in my mind, very little credit should be given. Without this evidence we should have landed, and must have marched to Rochefort, when, in my opinion, the place would have been taken or surrendered in forty-eight hours ' (, p. 397).

Pitt was furious at the failure, and declared from his place in the House of Commons that he 'believed there was a determined resolution, both in the naval and military commanders, against any vigorous exertion of the national power.' A court of inquiry was ordered, composed of Charles Spencer, duke of Marlborough, Lord George Sackville, and Major-general Waldegrave. They met on 9 Nov. 1757, and on 21 Nov. made a report unfavourable to Mordaunt. A general court-martial, of which Lord Tyrawley was president, the members including Charles, earl Cadogan [see under, first ], Sir [q. v.], Lord Delaware, and, earl of Albemarle [q. v.], was assembled at Whitehall to try Mordaunt on the charge of disobeying his majesty's 'orders and instructions.' The court assembled on 14 Dec. 1757, and met, by successive adjournments, until 20 Dec., when it 'unanimously' found Mordaunt not guilty. After a week's consideration the king confirmed the finding.

Mordaunt, who was a K.B., and governor of Berwick, and was M.P. for Cockermouth from 1754 to 1767, became a major-general and colonel 12th dragoons (now lancers) in 1747, was transferred to the colonelcy of the 4th Irish horse (now 7th dragoon guards) in 1749, and to that of the 10th dragoons (now hussars) the same year; became a lieutenant-general in 1754 and general in 1770. He died a widower at Bevis Mount, Southampton, on 23 Oct. 1780, aged 83.



MORDEN, JOHN (1623–1708), founder of Morden's College, Blackheath, son of George Morden (d. 1624), and grandson of Robert Morden of Thurlow in Suffolk, was born in the parish of St. Bride's, London, in the summer of 1623. As a 'Turkey' or Levantine merchant he, after some extraordinary vicissitudes, amassed a large fortune, returned to England 'from Aleppo' about the end of Charles II's reign, bought property in Charlton and Greenwich—his most considerable purchase being the manor of Wricklemarsh—and was on 20 Sept. 1688 made a baronet by James II. Morden was one of the twenty-four 'committees of the East India Company' to whom Robert Knox dedicated his 'Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon' in 1681. He represented Colchester in parliament from 1695 to 1698, and was apparently a commissioner of excise in 1691. In 1695 he founded the excellent 'college' at Blackheath for the reception of 'poor, honest, sober, and discreet merchants who shall have lost their estates by accidents, dangers, and perils of the seas, or by any other accidents, ways, or means, in their honest endeavour to get their living by way of merchandising.' The pensioners were to be upwards of fifty years of age, bachelors or widowers, and members of the church of England. The first admission of members took place on 24 June 1700. The college, which is beautifully situated, is a quaint and spacious structure of richly coloured brick, with stone coigns and cornices, forming a quadrangle surrounded by piazzas. The building was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and the chapel, consecrated by Bishop Sprati in 1705, contains some oak carving by Grinling Gibbons. Over the front are statues of Morden and his wife Susan, daughter of Sir Joseph Brand (d. 1674) of Edwardstone in Suffolk, and in the hall are their portraits, together with one of Queen Anne. An anagram and acrostic on John Morden ('I Honor Mend'), dated 1695, is also preserved in the college. In the chapel are the founder's arms, and a list of the benefactions made to the college since his death (given in, Environs of London, iii. 338). There is a cemetery (now disused) attached to the college.

Morden died on 6 Sept. 1708, and was buried on 20 Sept. in the chapel of his foundation. By his will, dated 15 Oct. 1702, and a codicil dated 9 March 1703, he endowed the college after his wife's death with a considerable real copyhold and personal property valued at about 1,300l. per annum. He placed in the college twelve 'decayed Turkey merchants,' each of whom wore a gown with his badge, and had 'a convenient