MORTOX. JOHN. 



MORTON, THOMAS. 



558 



ifckebenoter. wae HMO commonly oalUd the Lion* Den ;' and 

 __i this retreat b watched a favourable moment to regain hU power. 

 Am opportunity | muted itoelf, nod ho immediately became muter 

 both of MrUof Castle and of the kinc's peteon. He then returned 

 power, aad by the belp of Queen EliiabeUi retained it for aome time. 



a* length the kings new farourit*, CapUiu Stewart, who, u 

 team aaya, shunned uo action however desperate, if it lad to 

 or faToar, charged him. in the king 1 * pretence, with being 

 rjr to the murder at Darnley. Upon thia charge Morton wat 

 entainlllil fint to hit own boose, then to the outie of rxlinburph 

 (Jnd of January 1681), and then to Dumbarton, of which Lennox, 

 the father of Darnley, had the command. Elizabeth uad every 

 etxWvour in favour of Morton, but the greater the solicitude which 

 ahe showed for hi* safety, the more eagerly did hu enemies urge hit 

 destruction ; and being carried by Captain Stewart, then earl of Arran, 

 into Edinburgh, he waa, on the lit of June l.'Sl, brought to trial, found 

 guilty, and condemned. When that part of the verdict wai read which, 

 BeaUte finding that be bad concealed, found that ho wiu alo aoeeatory 

 to the murder, he repeated the wordi with vehemence, and then 

 exclaimed, " l>od knowi it i not so." The next morning, speaking 

 of the crime for which be waa condemned, be admitted that on his 

 return from England, after the death of Rixzio, Bothwell had informed 

 him of the conspiracy against Darnley, which the queen, as he told 

 him, knew of and approved, but he had no hand in it And as to 

 revealing the plot, " To whom," said he, " could I reveal it ! To the 

 queen f 8be was aware of it To Darnley ? He was such a babe, 

 that there waa nothing told to him but he would tell to her again ; 

 and the two most powerful noblemen in the kingdom, Bothwell and 

 Huntly, were the perpetrators. I foreknew and concealed the plot, 

 bat as to being art and part in its execution, I call Ood to witness, 

 I am wholly innocent" When his keepers told him that the guards 

 were attending, and all waa in readiness, he replied, " I thank my God, 

 I am ready likewise," On the scaffold hii behaviour was calm, hia 

 countenance and voioa unaltered, and after some time spent in acts of 

 devotion, be was beheaded by the instrument called the Maiden, on 

 the 3rd of June 1581. Hia head waa placed on the public jail ; and 

 hi* body, after lying till sunset on the scaffold, covered with a beg- 

 garly cloak, was carried by common porters to the usual burial-place 

 of criminals. None of his friends accompanied it to the grave they 

 did not venture to discover their gratitude or respect by any expres- 

 sions of sorrow. 



MORTON, JOHN, cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury, was the 

 eldest son of Richard Morton, of Milbourne St. Andrews, in Dorset- 

 shire, and wae born at Here in that county, 1410. He received his 

 earliest education at the abbey of Cerne, whence be removed to B <lliol 

 College, Oxford. Of his progress there we know but little, till he 

 became principal of Peckwater Inn. His practice aa an advocate in 

 the Court of A relies subsequently recommended him to the notice of 

 Cardinal Bonrchier. The cardinal, beaide conferring upon him vari- 

 ous preferments, introduced him to King Henry VI., who made him 

 one of bis privy-council. He adhered to this unfortunate prince with 

 so much fidelity, lhat even hit successor Edward IV. could not but 

 admire his attachment, which he rewarded by taking Morton into his 

 council". In 1473 Morton was appointed Master of the Rolls; and 

 between this time and 1477 the list of his promotions to prebendal 

 tails and other preferments in cliff-rent quarters of the kingdom 

 proves the high esteem in which he was held. In 1478 Edward IV. 

 made him Bishop of Ely and Lord Chancellor of England, and at his 

 death appointed him one of hia executors. He waa viewed in no 

 favourable light by Richard HI., who, at the same time that Lord 

 Hunley was arrested, gave Morton in waid to the Duke of Buckingham. 

 He escaped however from the duke's castle at Brecknock, and con- 

 cealed himself for a time in the Isle of Ely ; soon after which, naming 

 in dieguhe to the Continent, ho joined the Earl of Richmond, and is 

 said to have been tbe person who first proposed the coalition of the 

 two houses of York and Lancaster by the marriage with the eldrst 

 daughter of Edward IV. Aa soon as Henry VII. waa seated on the 

 throne, ho also made Morton one of hU privy-council, and on tbe 

 sleath of Cardinal Bourchier. in 1486, joined with the Popo in pro- 

 moting him to the archbishopric of Canterbury. In August, 1487, if 

 not rarlier, he was again constituted Lord Chancellor, and i'i 1493 

 created a cardinal by Pope Alexander VI. He died September 1 .'th 

 1600. Morton was a man of great talents, learning, and probity. The 

 cot or drain from Peterborough to Wlsbeach, known by the name of 

 Morton's Leame, was made entirely at his expense while be wat 

 Bishop of Ely. It has been argued with tome appearance of proba- 

 bility, that tbe English I .if., of Richard III., usually attributed to Sir 

 Thomas More, was really written by Morton : but if Morton did not 

 really writ* the Life, it teetni to be quite clear that More (who wai 

 in early life a page in Morton's bouse) mutt have derived part of hit 

 lafciaaaaun directly from the archbishop. (Tannor, JJtbl. II, 

 pp. 131 6S3 ; Bontbam, J/itt. <,/ Ely, 4to, Cambr, 1771, pp. 178-181 

 Coalmen. Hvy. J>,c/.\ 



MORTON, SAMIJEL GEORGE, M.D., celebrated at an Etlmolo 

 gist, wat born at Philadelphia in the United States of North America 

 U 1 199. H ie parents were members of the Society of Friends, and he 

 bad the misfortune to lote hia father early in life. Hit mother how 

 tree married a second time when young Morton wat thirteen yean 



old, and from hia step-father he seems to have derived a liking for the 

 atudy of natural history. After leaving school he wan placed in a 

 counting-house, but his taste fur natural science led him to abandon 

 msiueas and enter the medical profcesion. He was n 

 with Dr. Joseph 1'arrish of Phila ielphia, who. although uncom 

 with any public medical office, had the highest reputation for the 

 management aud education of young men studying the medical pi-c- 

 ession. He attended the lectures and pasted through the course of 

 nttraction prescribed for the student of medicine in his native city, 

 and received his diploma of Doctor of Medicine in March, 18'JO. He 

 waa at the tame time admitted a member of the Academy of Silences 

 Philadelphia). Soon after this event he sailed for Europe, and, after 

 visit i tig an uncle Mr. JamesMorton of Cloumel, in Ireland, he repaired 

 ;othe University of Edinburgh. Here he studied two years, and gradu- 

 ated in medicine in 1823. His inaugural thesis wai entitled, ' '1 

 lieu inaugurate de Corporis Dolore. During his period of prepara- 

 tion for graduating in Edinburgh he visited France and Italy, and 

 made a stay in Paris. He returned to America in the summer of 

 !!, just in time to witness the departure of some of the most 

 eminent literary and scientific men in Philadelphia to join in the 

 11-etarred social experiment of Mr. Robert Owen at New Harmony in 

 Indiana. He became immediately an active member of the Academy 

 of Sciences, and commenced his contributions to its transactions by 

 a geological paper. It was entitled, ' Analysis of Tabular Spni 

 Bucks County.' He subsequently contributed many papers on Quo- 

 ogy and Paleontology to the transactions of tbe Academy. Several 

 of the most importaut of these papers were published in a separate 

 volume entitled, ' SynoptU of the Organic Remains of the Cret.i 

 Jroup of the United States.' This was a very valuable contribute it 

 :o Geology, and was received with the warmest commendations by 

 European geologists. He cultivated generally the natural history 

 science*, and wrote several papers on zoological subjects. 



Whilst pursuing natural history with success, he did not neglect to 

 cultivate professional knowledge. In 1&84 he published A work 

 entitled ' illustrations of Pulmonary Consumption ; its Anatomical 

 Character, Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment.' He also edited an 

 edition of Dr. Mackintosh's ' Practice of Physic,' with notes and addi- 

 tions. From 1839 to 1843 he filled the chair of anatomy in the 

 me, Heal department of Pennsylvania College. In 1849 he published 

 An Illustrated System of Humau Anatomy, Special, General, and 

 Microscopic.' 



His previous labours, however, were but preparations for the great 

 works on which his reputation as one of the first ethnologist* of his 

 day is founded. The line of his research on the races of men lay more 

 particularly in their anatomical configuration, and especially in the 

 structure of the skull. During his researches, he made one of the most 

 valuable collections of skulls extant, and which is now in the possession 

 of the Philadelphia Academy of Practical Scicuces. The origin of thii 

 colUction may be given in his own words : " Having had occasion," he 

 says, " in the summer of 1830 to deliver an introductory lecture to a 

 course of anatomy, I chose for my subject ' The different Forms of the 

 Skull as exhibited in the Five Races of Men.' Strange to say, I could 

 neither buy nor borrow a cranium of each of these races, and I fin 

 my discourse without showing either the Mongolian or the Malay. For- 

 cibly impressed with this grett deficiency in a most importaut branch 

 of science, I at once resolved to make a collection myself." The iv-uit 

 of this determination wot not only hia great collection, but the two 

 magnificent works, entitled 'Cr.uiia Americano,' and ' Crania Kgjptiaca.' 

 These works embraced not only on account aud illustrations of the 

 vkulls, but general ethnological observations on the races of men. 

 The collection on which these works were founded contains 951 

 human crania, collected from all parts of the world, 'J78 crania of 

 mammals, 271 of birds, and 88 of reptiles and fishes. 



Although in his earlier writings he maintained the specific unity of 

 the human race, in the latter part of his life he was led to doubt thi* 

 view, and to express his conviction of the existence of a diversity of 

 species amongst men. This view has been strongly insisted on, in a 

 work published since his death, under the title of ' Types of Mankind.' 

 This work, edited by Messrs. Nott and Gliddon, contains a large mass 

 of matter by the editors and other*, with many " Excerpta " from 

 Morton's inedited papers. In these he undoubtingly avows hi 

 in an " aboriginal plurality of races ; " and expresses his conviction, 

 that " man will yet be found in the fossil state at low down as the 

 Eocene deposits, and that he walked the esrth with tbe megalonyx and 

 palmotherium." It is only right to add that these views have not 

 been generally received ; and that our most distinguished ethnologist*, 

 palaeontologists, and geologists have not endorsed bit later doctrines. 

 Dr. Morton died at Philadelphia, after a short illness of five days, on 

 the 17th of May, 1861. 



MORTON, THOMAS, was born in 1764, in tbo county of Durham. 

 HU parents having died while he was young, hia uncle, Mr. Mad li-on, 

 a stockbroker in London, took him into bis care. He was educated at 

 the Soho Square Academy, celebrated for the annual theatric il per- 

 formances of the pupils, several of whom became distinguished actor*. 

 He wat afterwards entered a student of Lincoln's Inn, but the 

 fondness for theatrical amusements which he had contracted at school 

 wat not to be subdued ; he became a constant play-goer, and directed 

 his studies to the drama rather than the law. Having written a 



