Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/157

 Morton cataloguing them. Daniel Wray wrote to John Nichols, 29 Sept. 1771, that Morton had imported the ‘League and Covenant of 1638, the original upon a giant skin of parchment, signed by a handsome number.’

 MORTON, JOHN (1420?–1500), archbishop of Canterbury and cardinal, was born in Dorset, at either Bere Regis or Milborne St. Andrew, about 1420. He was the eldest son of Richard Morton, who belonged to a Nottinghamshire family which had migrated to Dorset (, Dorset, ii. 594). His family has been traced back to Edward III's time. He was educated at Cerne Abbey, a house of Benedictines near his home, and, going to Oxford, joined Balliol College, and proceeded D.C.L. He had chosen the profession of law, which necessarily made him take orders, and he appears as commissary for the university in 1446 (Munimenta Academica, Rolls Ser., ii. 552). He removed to London, but kept up his connection with the university (ib. p. 584), practising chiefly as an ecclesiastical lawyer in the court of arches. Here he came under the notice of Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury, who became his patron. Morton was at once admitted to the privy council, and was appointed chancellor of the duchy of Cornwall and a master in chancery. From this time he had much preferment, and was a great pluralist. In 1450 he became subdean of Lincoln, in 1453 he held the principalship of Peckwater Inn at Oxford and the living of Bloxworth in Dorset. In 1458 he became prebendary of Salisbury and Lincoln, resigning his subdeanery at Lincoln.

In the struggle between Lancaster and York, Morton followed the Lancastrian party, though for a short time accepting the inevitable ascendency of the Yorkists. He was probably with the Lancastrians on their march from the north early in 1461, and after the second battle of St. Albans, being chancellor to the young Prince Edward, he took part in the ceremony of making him a knight. After the accession of Edward IV he was at Towton in March 1461, and must have been in actual risk of his life. He was reported to be captured (Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, ii. 7), but followed Margaret and Prince Edward for some time in their subsequent wanderings. He was naturally attainted, and lost all (, Lancaster and York, ii. 283). When Margaret and De Breze made their descent on England in the autumn of 1462, Morton met them, and he sailed with them from Bamborough to Sluys, when Margaret went to throw herself upon the Duke of Burgundy's mercy in July or August 1463 (ib. p. 296 ; in Wars of the English in France, Rolls Ser., ii. ii. 781). He seems to have had no share in the outbreaks which resulted in the battles of Hedgeley Moor and Hexham. He lived, like Sir John Fortescue and other Lancastrians (cf. Arch. Journal, vii. 171), with Margaret at St. Mihiel in Bar. But when Warwick and Clarence decided to join the Lancastrians, Morton bore a large part in the reconciliation, and must have been well known to Louis XI. He left Angers on 4 Aug. 1470, and landed at Dartmouth with Warwick on 13 Sept. He was at once sent in advance, with Sir John Fortescue, to London, to prepare for Warwick's march thither, and this seems to confirm Campbell's statement that he was popular at this period, though he certainly was not so later. After the battle of Barnet (April 1471) he went to Weymouth, to meet the queen and Prince Edward, and with them passed to his old school at Cerne, and thence to Beaulieu. When the battle of Tewkesbury seemed to have ended the wars of the Roses, Morton submitted. He petitioned (Hot. Parl. vi. 26), and his attainder was reversed. Bourchier was still his friend, and collated him in 1472 to the rectory of St. Dunstan's-in-the-East. In the same year he received the prebend of Isledon in St. Paul's Cathedral, which he resigned on receiving that of Chiswick in the following year. On 16 March 1472-3 he became master of the rolls, his patent being renewed in 1475. Edward, who was always wisely forgetful of the past history of his opponents, thoroughly trusted him, and sent him in 1474 on an embassy to the emperor and the king of Hungary, to secure their adhesion to the league which England had made with Burgundy against Louis XI of France. He seems to have returned very quickly (Paston Letters, iii. 123), and was made archdeacon of Winchester and Chester the same year. In 1475 he was one of the counsellors who arranged the treaty of Pecquigny, and was bribed like the rest (, Richard III, p. 33). He performed a doubtful service to the Lancastrian cause at the same time by arranging for Queen Margaret's ransom. Morton continued to accumulate preferments, and on 31 Jan. 1478-9 became bishop of Ely, in succession to William Gray. He comforted Edward when dying  