 |
| Rear Admiral George Morris |
The Dower House in Priestgate was
the perfect location for George Morris to live in his final years. Sat between
the beautiful centuries-old Hake House, home to a family of solicitors, and the
imposing Georgian mansion of Justice of the Peace Thomas Alderson Cooke, the neat,
modern house was perfect for the aging hero. But who was George Morris and why
was he living in Peterborough?
George had been born in Rotherhithe, Surrey, in 1778 to William Morris, a Master Superintendent in the Royal Navy. At only eleven years old George began his naval career with his father, following in the footsteps of his brother John.[1] At the age of only 15, George lost a leg whilst serving on the Audacious, but rather than leave the navy he continued for many years, advancing through the ranks.[2] He was a Second Lieutenant by the time he was involved in the Battle of Camperdown off the coast of the Netherlands (when his captain was said to have been cut in two by a cannon!) and he was engaged in a significant number of French and Dutch ship captures in his career during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. In January 1809 his ship was wrecked near Malmo forcing him to walk with his crew through snow and ice to Gothenburg (over 170 miles away) to where they knew another British naval ship was. The tenacity required to have made that journey with a leg missing is incredible and highlights the physical and mental strength he had. George and his crew remained on the ship whilst they waited for the ice to melt to enable them to return home to England.
 |
| The Battle of Camperdown by Thomas Whitcombe (via wikipedia) |
Home for George at that time was in the
arms of his bride Sarah. He had married her in 1807 in Minster, Kent, where Sarah
had been born, and also close to the naval dock at Sheerness. But Kent was not
to be home to their own family, for Sarah joined George when he was posted to (King’s)
Lynn shortly after returning from his Swedish ordeal. George was involved with
the Sea Fencibles, controlling a group of local men to defend the coast around
The Wash at a time of heightened fear that the country was going to be invaded.
George and Sarah very likely lived in Lynn initially, but by 1811 when Sarah
gave birth to their first child Ann, they were living in Wisbech. George was there
to greet his daughter, but he left shortly afterwards to join the Vulture,
which was sailing about the Channel Islands. He returned home at the beginning
of 1812 and, keen for a much-needed heir to the Morris naval dynasty, he
swiftly got Sarah pregnant. George Sculthorpe was born in 1812 in Elm, a small
village just south of Wisbech, which was to be their family home for several
years. In 1816 George received a pension of £300 per year as compensation for
the loss of his leg, which provided him with a very handsome income, having
left the navy at this point.
George was active in social circles in Wisbech and stewarded balls and assemblies including the Wisbech Ball in 1813 and the Wisbech Assembly in 1816 and 1820 held at the Rose and Crown. All the events provide us with clues to George’s friendship circle: at the 1813 ball he stewarded with Lieut-Col Watson, Hugh Jackson, Goddard Marshall, Major Smith, and John Sculthorpe; in 1816 he stewarded with Captain Swaine, also of the Royal Navy; in 1820 he stewarded with John Wing. We can make a good guess that John Sculthorpe was a close friend of George’s after giving his son George the middle name Sculthorpe, and a Jackson appears as an executor in his will. Captain Spelman Swaine had an even more impressive naval career, having travelled with, and saved the life of, Captain George Vancouver (look him up – he’s a big deal!). Likewise, the name Wing will become important shortly. George was also a member of the Wisbech Bible Society, which included a member of the Peckover family.
In 1821 Sarah died in childbirth aged 38. George and his four small children remained in Elm for a few more years, but Captain George, as he was then known, needed help running the household, not least because of his disability. He also needed help caring for his children – the youngest Bryan was only two years old – so his widowed mother Ann Minter Morris moved in to help.
 |
| Church of All Saints, Elm, by Tim Heaton via Geograph. |
In 1828 George discovered one of his sheep had gone missing. He went out to look for it and came across a sack that contained the skin and shortly after the still warm carcass of the sheep in the hands of Isaac Quince. The case went to trial and Isaac was found guilty of stealing the sheep: he was sentenced to death (later commuted to transportation). What’s interesting is that another gentleman with a case at the Ely Assizes that day was Tycho Wing, of Thorney Abbey (the Duke of Bedford’s steward) who had also had sheep stolen. It seems likely that the two men had made friends over their situation and at some point Tycho had mentioned a property that was going to become available on the Duke’s estate. It’s also likely that George became very unpopular with some of the locals after (temporarily) having a member of his small village community sentenced to death and this could have been the catalyst that made the Morrises decide to leave Elm.
The family had moved to Thorney by 1829 along with George’s mother. She sadly passed away in the July of that year, but her death does give us the earliest date that the family were living there and suggests that she had been living with the family for a while in Elm. This is because despite dying in Thorney she was buried in Elm, so she must have bought/been provided with a plot there – probably next to or with her daughter-in-law and grandchildren – and returned there on her death.
With a friend in Tycho Wing, George didn’t waste any time ingratiating himself with the rest of the local gentry in Thorney and was soon sitting on a board as a Commissioner of the North Level. He was also sufficiently established enough to be on the committee to attempt to establish a central assizes court in Wisbech in 1836.
 |
| Thorney Churchyard. Snowdrops and headstones at Thorney Abbey by Richard Humphrey via Geograph. |
The family lived at The Gores, a farmhouse southwest of the main village of Thorney and they were joined by George’s sister Mary, who was no doubt attempting to mitigate the loss of his wife. She would have been a mother figure to George’s daughter Sarah Dorothea and son Bryan who were still living at home, the older siblings Ann and George having left home to marry and enter the church respectively. Sarah Dorothea married George Frederic Brittin in 1843 at Thorney Abbey, her brother George conducting the ceremony! She moved to Thornhaugh to live as a farmer’s wife and had several children, one of whom became a surgeon and moved to Australia. Dorothea (as she was usually named on census records) died in 1864 aged 46.
The Gores was home to the Morris
family for decades, and indeed generations, because Bryan became a farmer and his
own son George Lever Morris followed in his wake. Bryan married Mary Whitting
Lever, the niece of his father’s good friend (and executor) William Whitting in
1848 in Islington by licence (very common for local families). This seems to be
the point at which George and Mary decided to leave Thorney and find a
comfortable property for them to live their diminishing years in.
It is impossible to know exactly what prompted George and Mary to move to Peterborough, but it is likely to be because of a friendship between George Morris and Thomas Alderson Cooke, for it was his house that they lived in. They were very similar in age, both well-respected gentlemen, and had both sat on many boards over the years. They were also very sociable men, and it is easy to believe that their close proximity in their final years would have comforted and entertained them both.
 |
| The side of the Dower House by Geographer via Geograph |
The little property that George lived in had been built as a Dower House for Thomas’ wife Mary on the event of his death, but by the late 1840s Thomas was still active – he was still working as a magistrate – and showed no sign of imminent demise, so it was the perfect property to rent out to his friend. We know that George was living there by the 1851 census, but it’s likely that he moved in at around the time Bryan married in 1848. He stayed there until at least 1855, following the death of Thomas in December 1854. Thomas’ will stated that Mary could remain in the larger mansion house for one year after his death and was then granted the smaller property ‘lately crafted and built’ for her use for the rest of her life. It’s likely that he remained in the property until his death given the particular information in his will (see below) particularly given that Mary Cooke lived with her daughter Helen in later censuses.
George died on 29th September
1857 aged 79. His body was returned to Thorney where he was buried with his
family. His will reveals the treasures that were most important to him: to
George Sculthorpe he gave his ‘Gold Chronometer with gold chain seals… my
painting of the Battle of Camperdown, my naval medal and such of my own books
as he shall make choice of’; to Bryan ‘my portrait and other paintings… and my
gold pocket watch and gold chain’; and he was quite particular about the ornaments
that lived on his mantlepiece, ensuring they were equally divided between his
daughters Ann and Sarah Dorothea. Amazingly, we know that at least one of these
items survives, because George’s portrait can be viewed. It was donated to the
National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth back in 1990 and has been made
available to share under Creative Commons Licence. The artist is unknown, but
George’s personality shines through. Can you imagine him sitting in the Duke’s
Head in Thorney discussing the North Level, or sharing a whiskey with Thomas
Alderson Cooke in his final years, sharing the success of their children and
grandchildren? His was a long life, and a life well lived. The loss of his leg
at so young an age didn’t appear to hinder him as he carved out his naval
career, family, and his friendships and is yet another example of successfully
overcoming disability (albeit with a handsome pension).
References
I am indebted to the relatives of Rear Admiral George Morris for pulling together some incredibly useful information about his life on their Ancestry family trees, including information from the British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849. I have also used the British Newspaper Archive to search for information about George and his family, and the National Archives for supplying George and Thomas’ wills. I must mention Dorothy Halfhide who pointed me towards the Thorney Society website for information about George and as a resource for the wider history of Thorney. I have used the downloaded portrait of George from Art UK from the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth and Geograph images whilst I look for the cable to my camera where my own images are.
Useful Websites
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/rear-admiral-george-morris-116566
www.Britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
[1] He joined his father in October 1789 which made him 11. His brother, father and other family members began their career at the age of 10, so he was a little later than them.
[2] Some
records say he was 16, but his birthday was in October 1789 and his injury was
in May 1794.
No comments:
Post a Comment