Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/123

 of Mr. E. D. Nicolle, a series of experiments in freezing and thawing meat and vegetables. In 1875 he erected great slaughter-houses and a freezing establishment at Lithgow, and chartered the first steamer for the new trade. On the eve of its departure he collected around him at a great banquet the public men of the country, and declared that he had solved the problem of the world's food supply. The steamer's machinery failed; the metal did not stand the constant strain of refrigeration, and for a time the transport of frozen meat was thought impossible. Mort, deeply disappointed, gave up his cherished idea, and turned the great freezing-house into an ice factory and a depôt for sending cooked dishes into Sydney. He himself retired to Bodalla, his rural settlement. There on 9 May 1878 he died, ‘the greatest benefactor that the working men of this country ever had,’ and ‘the most unselfish man that ever entered the colony.’ He was twice married. To him was erected, at Sydney, the first statue with which an Australian citizen was honoured.

Mort was a man of indomitable energy, characterised at once by an intensely practical capacity for business and a love of natural scenery and the arts. He was broad and liberal in his views. In 1873 he offered his workmen shares in his business, and all his foremen became shareholders.

A bust of Mort, by Birch, A.R.A., is in the possession of his brother, Mr. William Mort, in London.  MORTAIN, ROBERT, , in the diocese of Avranches (d. 1091?), was uterine brother of William the Conqueror. He was the second son of Herlwin of Conteville, by his wife Herleva. His elder brother was Odo [q. v.], bishop of Bayeux. William the Warling, a cousin of Duke William, was in 1048-9 deprived of the county of Mortain, which was handed over to Robert, an instance of William's desire 'to raise up the humble kindred of his mother' while 'he plucked down the proud kindred of his father' (, vii. 19). In 1066 Robert was present at the select council held at Lillebonne to discuss the invasion of England; he contributed 120 ships to the fleet, according to Wace, a fact of doubtful authenticity (, Const. Hist. i. 279 note), and fought at Senlac (Roman de Rou, 1.13765). In 1069 he was left in England to protect Lindsey against the Danes, and at the same time his castle of Montacute (Eng. Lutgaresburg) in Somerset was besieged. When William I lay dying, Robert was present and pleaded the cause of his brother Odo with success. He joined with Odo in supporting Robert Curthose against William II, and held the castle of Pevensey against the king from April to June 1088 (, iv. 17), but he soon yielded and was reconciled to Rufus.

His possessions in England were larger than those of any other follower of William (, Norman Conquest, iv. 764), and have been estimated at 793 manors (, Introd. to Domesday Book, p. 13). Of these, 623 in the south-west counties returned him 400l. a year (, England under the Normans, p. 8). He had 248 manors in Cornwall, 196 in Yorkshire, 99 in Northamptonshire, 75 in Devonshire, with a church and house in Exeter, 54 in Sussex and the borough of Pevensey, 49 in Dorset, 29 in Buckinghamshire, and one or more in ten other counties (, i. 455). He was charged by the Domesday jurors with many 'usurpations,' particularly on the see of Exeter, the churches of Bodmin and St. German, Mount St. Michael, Cornwall, and Westminster. The charter which records his grant of Mount St. Michael as a cell to Mont St. Michel is spurious (, iv. 766). There is no ground for believing that he was Earl of Cornwall (Third Report on the Dignity of a Peer).

He married Matilda, daughter of Roger of Montgomery [q. v.] In 1082 they founded a collegiate church in their castle of Mortain, under the guidance of their chaplain Vitalis, abbot of Savigny. Robert also made grants to Fleury and Marmoutier (, Rot. Scacc. Nor. i. p. lxxv), and gave to Fecamp what he took from Westminster Domesday Book, f. 129). He had a son William, who forfeited Mortain after the battle of Tinchebrai, and possibly a son Nigel (, i. p. lxvii). His daughter Agnes married Andrew of Vitré, another married Guy de la Val, and another the Earl of Toulouse.

Robert died in 1091 (, Domesday Book Illustrated, p. 39, quoting and, Catalogue of Honor).  MORTEN, THOMAS (1836–1866), painter and book-illustrator, was born at Uxbridge, Middlesex, in 1836. He came to London and studied at the painting school kept by J. Mathews Leigh in Newman Street. Morten was chiefly employed as an lustrator of books and serials, mostly of a