Biographical Sketches of John Morton; Delaware County, PA
Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Cyndie Enfinger
<cyndiee@tampabay.rr.com>.
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Source: "History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, by Henry Graham Ashmead, L.
H. Everts & Co., Philadelphia, PA, 1884, page 738.
The Revolution
The losses sustained by the residents of Ridley township during the various
raids of the enemy are thus set forth in the claims filed, although the gross
sum does not represent the entire damages sustained by the people of that
section:
l. s. d.
From John Morton's estate, taken and destroyed by a
part of the British army, under Cornwallis, at or about
the time they attacked the Fort at Billingsport, into
which neighborhood the articles were removed for
safety, certified by Ann. Morton, Execx. Taken soon
after the capture 365 11 2
From John Price, taken by Lewis Turner, master of an
armed boat from New York, in March 1781 67 19 5
From Israel Longacre, by some persons who said they be-
longed to the shipping in the Delaware, then under the
command of Lord Howe, October or November 8 5 0
From John Victor, taken by a party of the enemy from
the water commander, not known, in the fall of 1777 56 8 0
From Lewis Trimble, by two British sergeants, under
General Howe, October 25 135 0 0
From Robert Crozer, December 25 6 14 3
--- --- ---
639 17 10
John Morton, whose name appears first on this list, was one of the most
conspicuous men of the Revolutionary war in Chester County. He was born in
Ridley in 1725, and is generally believed to be of Swedish descent, although
that fact has never been fully established. His father died before his birth,
and his mother subsequently married John Sketchley, an Englishman, who, himself
well educated, instructed his stepson-to whom he was much attached-in
mathematics, and imparted to him the common branches of a good education. In
1756, when thirty-one years of age, Morton was elected to the Provincial
Assembly, to which body he was successively re-elected until and including 1760,
a period of eleven years' continuous service. In 1765, when again a member of
Assembly, he was one of the delegates from Pennsylvania to the Stamp Act
Congress, which convened in New York in October of that year. In 1767 he was
elected sheriff of Chester County, and in 1769 was a member of Assembly,
continuing as such until 1775 inclusive, a period of seven years, presiding as
Speaker over its deliberations during the last year of his service therein. In
1764 he was commissioned one of the justices of the county courts, and part of
the time the president judge. In 1774, Governor John Penn appointed him an
associate justice of the Supreme Provincial Court. In that year the Assembly
appointed him a delegate to the first Continental Congress, and he was
reappointed to the second memorable Congress which adopted the Declaration of
Independence, and when that question was pending before Congress he voted for
the adoption of the measure. John Morton was the first of the signers of the
Declaration who died, that event occurring in April, 1777, he having then
attained the age of fifty-three. As a private citizen his life was so far as
known, without stain, his public record that of an earnest, honest advocate of
the right because it was right, and as an advocate and signer of the Declaration
of Independence he is deserving of the esteem and admiration of his countrymen.
===============================================================================
Source: "History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, by J. Smith Futhey and
Gilbert Cope, Pres. of J. B. Lippencott and Co., Philadelphia, PA, 1881, page
666-7.
MORTON, John, one of the most sterling patriots of our Revolutionary era,
was born in the township of Ridley, Chester (now Delaware) Co., in the year
1724. His family was of Swedish origin. He was chosen a member of Assembly in
1756, in which situation he was continued nearly twenty years; and wherever good
service was required in any important department of the government, so long as
he lived there we are pretty certain to find the name of John Morton. When the
day of trial came on the great question of independence, the Pennsylvania
delegation to the Continental Congress, on the 4th of July, 1776, stood four in
favor and five against the momentous proposition. The delegation consisted of
the following members, viz. John Morton (Speaker of the Assembly at the time of
their appointment, Nov. 4, 1775), Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, James
Wilson, John Dickinson, Charles Humphreys, Edward Biddle, Thomas Willing, and
Andrew Allen, Esquires. The first four were in favor of the measure, but being
in a minority, the State appeared to be against it.
There were but five of the Pennsylvania delegation, however, occupying
their seats on the occasion of the final vote. These were Franklin, Wilson,
Morton, Humphreys, and Willing. The first three voted in favor of the
Declaration and the last two against it, and thus the vote of Pennsylvania,
which, on the adoption of the resolution of independence on the 2d of July, had
been cast against it, was now cast in favor of the Declaration, and the
unanimity so important was secured.
Dickinson and Morris, who had voted against the resolution of independence
on the 2d of July, were not present on the 4th of July, when the final vote was
taken, or if present did not occupy their seats. It is said by some writers
that they were not present, and that their absence was brought about by the
influence of Samuel Adams, one of the warmest friends of independence. Thomas
McKean, one of the delegates from Delaware, in a letter written in 1817, says
that they were present, but did not take their seats on that day. At all
events, they did not vote, and thus permitted the Declaration to be adopted.
The probability is that, seeing that all the colonies except Pennsylvania had
now a majority of delegates in favor of independence, and that the Declaration
would certainly be adopted, they were not willing by their votes to place
Pennsylvania in the position of being the only colony in opposition to it, and
hence, although they doubted the expediency of the measure, withdrew, and
permitted the vote of the delegation to be cast in its favor.
John Morton lived in a section of the country which was very hostile to
independence. His neighbors and friends, almost to a man, entertained views on
this subject different from his own, some because they were favorably disposed
to the crown, and others because they believed the day of reconciliation had not
passed, and that the time had not come when the colonies could safely sever
their connection with the mother-country. When the subject was before Congress,
they sought to induce him to vote against the measure, and admonished him of the
disastrous results which would inevitably follow if the colonists should fail,
as in their opinion they undoubtedly would. Their efforts, however, were of no
avail, and he enrolled his vote in favor of independence, and thus secured that
unanimity so essential to the success of the cause.
John Morton did not live to see the result of the effort to achieve
independence. Having affixed his signature to the immortal document, he closed
his valuable life in the month of April, 1777, at the age of fifty-three years.
He was so conscious that he had performed an act which would commend him to
posterity that on his death-bed, when the censure of his friends was strongly
present to his mind, and when the cause of the colonists was gloomy in the
extreme, he sent to them this prophetic message: Tell them that they will live
to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it to have been the most glorious
service that I have ever rendered to my country.
As a private citizen, he possessed an unusual share of esteem; his moral
character was above all stain, and every act of his life, of which we have any
knowledge, shows that he possessed that rarest of mental faculties, -good
judgment. He was the first of the signers of the Declaration who died.
It may be added that when the British army passed through the neighborhood
of his late residence, after the battle of Brandywine, they despoiled his widow
and children of property to the value of three hundred and sixty-five pounds,-
Pennsylvania currency, nearly equal to tone thousand dollars,-a very
considerable sum in those day.