Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/121

 appointed assistant quartermaster-general at headquarters, an office which he held simultaneously with the engineer charge of the Medway division until 1766, and afterwards with that of the Tilbury division until 1769. In 1773 he was appointed commanding royal engineer of the West India islands of Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago, which had been ceded to Great Britain by France at the conclusion of the seven years' war. Morse was promoted captain and engineer in ordinary on 30 Oct. 1775. He returned to England in 1779, and on 20 Aug. was placed on the staff and employed first on the defences of the Sussex coast, and later at Plymouth and Falmouth.

In June 1782 Morse accompanied Sir Guy Carleton [q. v.] to New York as chief engineer in North America. On 1 Jan. 1783 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. On his return home he was employed at headquarters in London. He was promoted colonel on 6 June 1788, and in the summer of 1791 was sent to Gibraltar as commanding royal engineer. He was promoted major-general on 20 Dec. 1793. He remained five years at Gibraltar, when he was brought home by the Duke of Richmond to assist in the duties of the board of ordnance. On 10 March 1797 Morse was temporarily appointed chief engineer of Great Britain during the absence on leave of Sir William Green. He was promoted lieutenant-general on 26 June 1799. On 21 April 1802 the title of inspector-general of fortifications was substituted for that of chief engineer of Great Britain, and on 1 May Morse became the first incumbent of the new office, and was made a colonel commandant of royal engineers.

Morse held the post of inspector-general of fortifications for nine years, during which considerable works of defence were constructed on the coasts of Kent and Sussex against the threatened invasion by the French. He was promoted general on 25 April 1808. Owing to ill-health he resigned his appointment on 22 July 1811, and was granted by the Prince Regent an extra pension of twenty-five shillings a day for his good services. He died on 28 Jan. 1818 at his house in Devonshire Place, London, and was buried in Marylebone Church, where there is a tablet to his memory. He married, on 20 April 1785, Sophia, youngest daughter of Stephen Godin, esq., and left an only daughter, Harriet, who was married to Major-general Sir James Carmichael-Smyth, bart.

Morse was the author of 'A General Description of the Province of Nova Scotia, and a Report of the Present State of the Defences, with Observations leading to the further Growth and Security of this Colony, done by Lieutenant-Colonel Morse, Chief Engineer in America, upon a Tour of the Province in the Autumn of the Year 1783 and the Summer of 1784, under the Orders and Instructions of H.E. Sir Guy Carleton, General and Commander-in-Chief of H.M. Forces in North America. Given at Headquarters at New York, 28 July 1783,' 1 vol. text, 1 vol. plans, MSS. fol. (Brit. Mus.)

The following plans drawn by Morse are in the war office: 1. Town and River of Annapolis, 1784. 2. Fort Annapolis, with Projects for its Reform, 1784. 3. Cumberland Fort, Nova Scotia, 1784. 4. Town of Shelbourne, with Harbour, and Roseneath Island, 1784. The following are in the archives of the government of the Dominion of Canada: 1. Town and Harbour of St. John, New Brunswick, 1784. 2. Quebec, Cape Diamond, Proposed Barracks.  MORSHEAD, HENRY ANDERSON (1774?–1831), colonel royal engineers, born about 1774, was the son of Colonel Henry Anderson of Fox Hall, co. Limerick. He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich on 29 May 1790, and received a commission as second lieutenant in the royal artillery on 18 Sept. 1792. He served in the campaigns on the continent under the Duke of York in 1793-4, and was present at the action of Famars 23 May 1793, at the siege of Valenciennes in June and July, the siege of Dunkirk in August and September, and the battle of Hondschoote 8 Sept. He gained the esteem of his commanding officers, and in acknowledgment of his services was transferred, at his own request, to the corps of royal engineers on 1 Jan. 1794. He took part in the siege of Landrecies in April 1794, affair near Tournay on 23 May, and siege of Nimeguen in November. On his return to England he was sent, in June 1795, to Plymouth. He was promoted first lieutenant on 19 Nov. 1796, and in May 1797 he embarked with two companies of royal military artificers for St. Domingo, West Indies. On the evacuation of that island in 1798 he was attached to the staff of Sir Thomas Maitland [q. v.], who was his warm friend through life. When he returned to England in November 1798 he was employed in the Thames division, and stationed at Gravesend. He was promoted captain-lieutenant 18 April 1801, and was sent to Portsmouth, and subsequently to Plymouth. He was promoted captain 1 March 1805, and in that year he 