Under the Lord Proprietor, 1664-1685 63 



The oldest brother, Lewis, lost his ancestral estates under 

 confiscation by Charles I., but the loss was afterwards made 

 good by Cromwell. After the establishment of the Common- 

 wealth, Lewis went to the West Indies, where he became a 

 member of the council of Barbados and the owner of a large 

 estate. In the expedition against the Spanish in Jamaica in 

 1656, he served under a colonel's commission sent to him by 

 the Lord Protector. Later, he openly professed the tenets 

 of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, and entertained George 

 Fox, the founder of the sect, upon his visit to Barbados in 

 1 67 1. After the Restoration, the second brother, Richard, 

 joined Colonel Lewis at Barbados, where he married a lady 

 of fortune named Sarah Pole and became a wealthy sugar 

 planter. Colonel Morris's religious convictions got him into 

 trouble with the Barbados authorities, as he was heavily 

 fined for his failure to pay tithes and to contribute to the sup- 

 port of the militia. Probably this had something to do with 

 the change of residence which the two brothers planned. 

 Their attention was drawn to New York as a place of good 

 investment; and about 1668, Richard, with wife and posses- 

 sions, came to New York for the purpose of buying a large 

 estate. Before leaving Barbados, the brothers entered into 

 an agreement, providing "that if either of them should die 

 without issue, the survivor, or issue of the survivor, if any, 

 should take the estate. " 



By an instrument dated August 10, 1670, Samuel Edsall 

 conveyed Broncksland to Richard Morris, a merchant of 

 New York, and to Lewis Morris, a merchant of Barbados. 

 Richard and his wife took up their residence upon the estate, 

 but did not enjoy it long; for they both died in 1672, leaving 

 an infant son, Lewis, named after his uncle. Colonel Morris 

 received news of his brother's death and came from Barbados 



