mouton] 
BRITISH ORNITHOLOGY 
419 
Morton (John), 1671-1726 
According to the writer of his life in the Diet. Nat. Biog ., 
Morton was born “ between July 18, 1670, and July 18, 
1671,” a date apparently assumed from the inscription on 
his monument, below mentioned. He matriculated at 
Cambridge, December 17, 1688, graduated B.A. from Em- 
manuel College in 1691, took an ad eundem degree at Oxford 
in 1694, and proceeded M.A. m 1695. In 1694 he was curate 
of Great Oxendon, Northants. Sloane visited him there 
about 1706, about which time Morton became Rector. His 
acquaintance with Sloane, however, dated from a few years 
earlier, a correspondence having commenced between them 
in 1703, in which year Morton was elected F.R.S. He was 
acquainted with Ray, who, he wrote to Dr. Richardson, 
“ initiated me early in the search and study of plants,” and 
appears to have kept up a regular correspondence on natural 
history matters with Dr. Woodward and Edward Lhuyd, as 
well as with Dr. Richardson and Sloane. He himself attri- 
buted his interest in fossil shells to the perusal of Dr. Martin 
Lister’s works. 
He died July 18, 1726, aged 55, and was buried at 
Great Oxendon, where a monument with an inscription 
to his memory was erected at the expense of Sir Hans 
Sloane. 
1712. The | Natural History | of | Northamp ton-shire ; | With | Some Ac- 
count of the | Antiquities. | To which is Annex’d | A Transcript 
of Doomsday-Book, | so far as it relates to That County. | By 
John Morton, M.A. | Bector of Oxendon in the same County, 
and Bellow of the Boyal | Society : Formerly of Emanuel- 
College in Cambridge. | [Greek Quotation.] | London : | Printed 
for B. Knaplock at the Bishop’s-LIead, and B. Wilkin | at the 
King’s-Head, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, mdccxii. 
Collation — 1 vol. folio, pp. 4 + pp. iv preface and errata + pp. 
551 +pp. 46 Transcript of Doomsday-Book + pp. x, Index. 
Birds treated of pp. 423-39. 
