Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/97

 before his death that he had been in love all his life with a Miss Molly Dacre, who became Lady Clarke.

After his death his songs, a number of which had appeared in 1786 as 'A Collection of Songs by the inimitable Captain Morris,' were published in two volumes, under the title of 'Lyra Urbanica, or the Social Effusions of Captain Morris, of the late (sic) Life Guards' (London, 8vo, 1840 ; 2nd edit. 1844). Prefixed is a portrait engraved by Greatbatch from a picture in the possession of the family. An oil portrait by J. Lonsdale was, at the Beefsteak sale in 1867, purchased by Earl Dalhousie, and the bard's chair, with the initials ' C. M.,' was at the same time purchased by Charles Hallett.

Charles's elder brother, Captain (fl. 1806), was also a song- writer of repute in his day. Born at Carlisle, where he was baptised on 22 April 1732, he entered Winchester College as a scholar in 1741, and proceeded B.A. from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1753 (, Winchester Scholars, p. 244). He soon afterwards joined the 17th foot. After serving with distinction at the siege of the Havannah and under General Bradstreet in America, he returned to England in 1767, and two years later married a Miss Chubb, daughter of a merchant at Bridgwater, by whom he had six children. Morris was one of the original subscribers to the literary fund, at whose annual meetings (1794-7) he recited his own verses. He is stated in 1806 to have been living in retirement at Hampstead, where he amused himself by suggesting emendations to the works of Pope, and 'regularly read both the "Iliad" and "Odyssey" every year' (Public Characters of 1806, p. 342). His published volumes were: 1. 'The Bee, a Collection of Songs,' London, 1790, 8vo. 2. 'Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,' 1791, 8vo. 3. 'A Life of the Rev. D. Williams,' 1792, 8vo. 4. 'Quashy, or the Coal-black Maid. A tale relative to the Slave-trade,' 1796, 8vo (cf., Register of Living Authors, 1804, pt. ii. p. 114).

Both Charles and Thomas must of course be distinguished from another Captain Morris, a convivial member of the Owls' Club at the beginning of this century, whose odd personality is vividly described by the Rev. J. Richardson in his 'Recollections of the last Half-Century' (i. 268-89).  MORRIS, MORES, or MORICE, CHRISTOPHER (1490?–1544), master of ordnance, was probably born about 1490. On 4 Dec. 1513 he was made gunner in the Tower of London, with a salary of 12d. a day, and the appointment was confirmed on 14 Aug. 1514 (, Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, i. No. 4591, 5340). In the following March Morris was serving at Tournai, but soon returned to his post at the Tower, where he apparently remained until the summer of 1522 (ib. ii. pt. ii. p. 1514, in. pt. ii. No. 3288, g. 2923, 2992). He was on board one of the vessels which, under Surrey's command [see and third ], escorted Charles V to Biscay after his visit to England in 1522; in July a detachment with artillery was landed on the coast of France near Morlaix, which was captured, 'for the master gunner, Christopher Morris, having certain falcons, with the shot of one of them struck the lock of the wicket in the gate, so that it flew open,' and the town was taken. In August 1523 Morris was acting as lieutenant-gunner before Calais, and on the 23rd of that month he sailed with the vice-admiral, Sir William Fitzwilliam (afterwards Earl of Southampton) [q. v.], and landed near Treport; after severe fighting they re-embarked, burning seven ships and capturing twenty-seven pieces of ordnance. In April 1524 Morris was at Valenciennes in charge of the ordnance; in the same year he was appointed 'overseer of ordnance,' and commissioned to search the isle of Thanet for the goods of a Portuguese vessel that had been beached there.

For some time afterwards Morris was employed mainly in diplomatic work; at the end of 1526 or beginning of 1527 he was sent with letters to the English envoys at Valladolid, and started back with their despatches on 1 Feb. 1526-7. In the same year he was appointed chief gunner of the Tower, and in September was bearer of instructions to Knight, the envoy at Compiegne (, Henry VIII, ii. 224). In 1530 he served in Ireland, and in January 1530-1 before Calais; in the same year he inspected the mines at Llantrysaint, Glamorganshire, as the king's commissioner, and appears as owner of a ship, the inventory of which is given in Cotton