CHAPTER XVI 



MORRISANIA 



THE first lord of the manor of Morrisania, the Honor- 

 able Lewis Morris, second of the name, died in the 

 spring of 1746, aged seventy-three. By his will, he 

 directed that he should be buried at Morrisania, and that his 

 funeral should be conducted in a manner that was Quakerish 

 in its simplicity. He prohibited "any mourning dress to be 

 worn on his account, as he should die when divine Providence 

 should call him away, and was unwilling that his friends should 

 be at the unnecessary expense, which was owing only to the 

 common folly of mankind." Which is equally true to-day, 

 when, to the high cost of living, is added the high cost of 

 dying. To his son Lewis, he left all that part of the manor 

 lying east of the Mill Brook; to his wife, Isabella Graham, 

 the remainder of the estate, lying westward of the Mill 

 Brook, called "Old Morrisania"; and to his second son, Rob- 

 ert Hunter Morris, he bequeathed his New Jersey estates. 



Upon the death of his mother, Lewis Morris, third of the 

 name, and second manor-lord, usually called "Junior," be- 

 came possessed of the whole manor. He was married twice, 

 his first wife being Elizabeth Staats, by whom he had three 

 sons; Lewis, the Signer of the Declaration of Independence, 

 Staats Long, a general in the British army, who married 



Catherine, Duchess of Gordon, whose son was the instigator 



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