MORRISANIA 15 



patriot and statesman, the half-brother of Staats Long and Lewis 

 Morris. 



General Lewis Morris, the last manor-lord of Morrisania, 

 was born at Old Morrisania in 1726. He was graduated from 

 Yale College in 1746. During the period prior to the Revolution 

 much of his time was passed in the pursuit of agriculture on his 

 estate at Morrisania, where he surrounded himself with the ele- 

 gance and luxury of the period. At the beginning of the Revolu- 

 tion he espoused the Whig cause and early in the war was made a 

 Brigadier-General in the Continental army. In 1775 he was 

 elected a member of the Continental Congress from New York, 

 and was sent to Pittsburgh to secure the allegiance of the Indians 

 to the cause of the colonists. He was in attendance at the meeting 

 of the Colonial Congress of the Province of New York at White 

 Plains, July 9, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was 

 ratified by that body. Thruout Washington's Westchester 

 County campaign, and at the battle of White Plains (October 28, 

 1776) he was in active service. He also took an important part 

 in the succeeding winter campaign in New Jersey, being present 

 at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. His three eldest sons were 

 enlisted in the American army at the same time. 



General Morris died in 1798. The manor-house of Lewis 

 Morris, known as "Christ's Hotel," stood west of Brook Avenue 

 near the Mill Brook, until it was torn down two decades ago by 

 the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which had 

 acquired the property. 



Gouverneur Morris, the most illustrious of the Morris family, 

 was born at Morrisania, January 31, 1752. In accordance with the 

 wish of Lewis Morris, Junior, as expressed in his. will, dated No- 

 vember 19, 1760, namely, that "his son Gouverneur Morris may 

 have the best education that is to be had in England or America," 

 Gouverneur was sent to King's College (now Columbia) from 

 which he was graduated in 1768, at the age of sixteen. His ora- 

 tion on Commencement Day won great applause and a silver 

 medal. 



In 1775 he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress of New 

 York, and on July 8th of that year a member of the Committee 

 of Public Safety of Westchester County. He was one of the com- 

 mittee appointed to draft the Constitution of the State of New 

 York, which was adopted in 1777. 



