Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/62

 Morison declined to drink the health of the newly proclaimed king, and the wine was poured down his breast. Lord-president Forbes commended his conduct in the crisis. He died on 5 Jan. 1786, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.

Morison married in 1740 Isobell, eldest daughter of James Dyce of Disblair, merchant in Aberdeen, by whom he had a family of five sons and eleven daughters. Of his sons, two reached manhood: (d. 1824), an army surgeon, is best known for the share he had in bringing into notice the medicinal springs of Strathpeffer, Ross-shire. His portrait was presented to him in recognition of these services, and no whangs in the pump-room hall there. The younger son, (1757-1845), after graduating at Aberdeen, was licensed as a probationer of the church of Scotland in January 1782, and was in the following year ordained minister of Oyne, Aberdeenshire, from which he was translated to Banchory-Devenick in 1785. He continued there during a long ministry of sixty-one years, receiving the degree of D.D. from Aberdeen University in 1824, and succeeding his brother in the estates of Elsick and Disblair in the same year. His benefactions to his parish were large, chief among them being the suspension bridge across the Dee, which was built by him at a cost of 1,400l. and is still the means of communication between the north and south portions of the parish. He died, 'Father of the Church of Scotland,' on 13 July 1845. Besides two sermons (1831-2) and accounts of Banchory in Sinclair's 'Statistical Account,' he published 'A Brief Outline. . . of the Church of Scotland as by Law Established,' Aberdeen, 1840, 8vo; and 'State of the Church of Scotland in 1830 and 1840 Contrasted,' Aberdeen, 1840, 8vo. He married in 1786 Margaret Jeffray (d. 1837), but left no issue (, Fasti Eccles. Scotic. pt. vi. pp. 493, 597).

 MORISON, JAMES (1762–1809), theologian, born at Perth on 13 Dec. 1762, was son of a bookseller and postmaster there. He likewise became a bookseller, first at Leith and afterwards at Perth. In religion he was for some time a member of the Society of Glassites, from whom he seceded and founded a distinct sect, of which he became the minister. He frequently preached and lectured, much to the neglect of his business. His oratorical gifts are said to have been considerable. He died at Perth on 20 Feb. 1809. On 13 Dec. 1778 he married a daughter (d. 1789) of Thomas Mitchel, writer, of Perth, and on 20 Dec. 1790 he married again. He left a large family.

Of Morison's writings may be mentioned: 1. 'New Theological Dictionary,' 8vo, Edinburgh, 1807. 2. 'An Introductory Key to the first four Books of Moses, being an Attempt to analyse these Books. . . and. . . to shew that the great Design of the Things recorded therein was the Sufferings of Christ and the following Glory,' 8vo, Perth, 1810, which had been previously circulated in numbers. He also published some controversial pamphlets and an appendix to Bishop Newton's 'Dissertations on the Prophecies,' 1795.

 MORISON, JAMES (1770–1840), self styled 'the Hygeist,' born at Bognie, Aberdeenshire, in 1770, was youngest son of Alexander Morison. After studying at Aberdeen University and Hanau in Germany, he established himself at Riga as a merchant, and subsequently in the West Indies, where he acquired property. Ill-health obliged him to return to Europe, and about 1814 he settled at Bordeaux. After 'thirty-five years' inexpressible suffering' and the trial of every imaginable course of medical treatment, he accomplished 'his own extraordinary cure' about 1822 by the simple expedient of swallowing a few vegetable pills of his own compounding at bed-time and a glass of lemonade in the morning. His success induced him to set up in 1825 as the vendor of what he called the 'vegetable universal medicines,' commonly known as 'Morison's Pills,' the principal ingredient of which is said to be gamboge. His medicines soon became highly popular, especially in the west of England, and in 1828 he formed an establishment for their sale in Hamilton Place, New Road, London, which he dignified with the title of 'The British College of Health.' He bought a pleasant residence at Finchley, Middlesex, called Strawberry Vale Farm, but latterly he lived at Paris, and it is said that the profits from the sale of his medicines in France alone were sufficient to cover his expenditure there. From 1830 to 1840 he paid 60,000l. to the English government for medicine stamps.

Morison died at Paris on 3 May 1840. He married twice, and left four sons and several daughters. The only surviving child of his second marriage (with Clara, only daughter of Captain Cotter, R.N.) was James Augustus Cotter Morison, who is separately noticed.

Morison's writings are simply puffs of his medicines. Among them may be 