Biographical Sketches of John Morton; Delaware County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Cyndie Enfinger . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** 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.