Charles MORRIS

1711 - 1781  (70 years)

• Name	Charles MORRIS
  Birth	8 Jun 1711	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  Gender	Male
  Death	4 Nov 1781	Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada
  Burial	Old Parish Burying Ground, Windsor, Nova Scotia
  Notes	In 1730 at the age of nineteen Charles Morris married Mary Read, the daughter of John Read, the Attorney General of Massachusetts. He was initially a schoolteacher but then became a surveyor, and in the spring of 1748 at the direction of Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts, he embarked with a party of fifty men to explore and survey Nova Scotia with a view toward British colonization of the territory. Nova Scotia had initially been settled by French Acadians, but sovereignty over the territory was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Morris' survey was sent to the Board of Trade and Plantations in England, and a copy is preserved in Halifax. When Halifax was founded in 1749 as a British fortress by the English General Edward Cornwallis, Morris and military engineer John Bruce laid out the town. On 25 Sept 1749 the Governor appointed Morris the Surveyor General of the province, and a descendant held that position for three subsequent generations. In 1753 Morris also laid out the town of Lunenburg, about twenty miles to the west. (The Old Town of Lunenburg is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) He subsequently laid out the towns of Lawrencetown, Liverpool, Barrington, and Yarmouth. In 1755 he was appointed to the Governor's Council of Nova Scotia, and that same year he created the first definitive map of Nova Scotia. His Funerary Hatchment is on the wall of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Halifax. Morris' judicial career began in 1750, when, in December of that year, he was appointed Justice of the Peace for the Town of Halifax. In March of 1752, he was made a Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. There was no judge in Nova Scotia who had formal legal training, but that changed in 1754 with the appointment of Jonathan Belcher as the first Chief Justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. In 1763 Morris was one of two judges appointed to assist Chief Justice Belcher. During May of 1764, Morris was appointed Master in the Court of Chancery. It is believed that Morris gained considerable legal education from his years under Justice Belcher. With the death of the Chief Justice in 1776, Morris stepped into his shoes as the Chief Justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court until the appointment in April of 1778 of Bryon Finucane. Morris continued as First Assistant Judge of the Supreme Court until his death. It should also be noted that Morris, at the direction of the Governor's Council in 1755, prepared a detailed plan that described how the French Acadians might be removed from their lands in Nova Scotia and dispersed elsewhere into other British colonies or back to England and France to counter their continuing resistance to British colonization. On September 4, 1755 the Acadian Expultion began in earnest at the direction of Governor Charles Lawrence and continued throughout the French and Indian War, until approximately 10,000 of the 14,000 Acadians living there had been removed from the territory, albeit not without sporadic armed resistance or flights into the woods. Of that number, nearly half died of disease or in shipwrecks. Many who survived eventually ended up in French colonial New Orleans, where 'Acadian' was anglicized to 'Cajun.' Acadians were eventually allowed to return to Nova Scotia in small numbers upon pledging fealty to Great Britain. According to Phyllis Blakeley (1922-1986) writing in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Charles Morris was buried 4 Nov. 1781 at Windsor, Nova Scotia. According to The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1913, Volume LXVII, p.289 Morris "owned a farm at Windsor N.S." and further, "He was buried probably at the Windsor churchyard." This likely refers to the Old Parish Burying Ground at 1291 King St. This was the site of the original Anglican Church in Windsor, founded in 1771. According to Henry Youle Hind M.A., writing in 1889, there are about 4,000 graves in the Old Parish Burying Ground, including 1,104 Anglicans. And yet Find a Grave records only 719 burials, suggesting many went unrecorded or their headstones were lost to history.
  Person ID	I85736	Zentmeyer Main Tree
  Last Modified	21 Oct 2024

  
  

  Father	Charles MORRIS,   b. 1675, Bristol, England d. 8 Nov 1730, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts (Age 55 years)
  Mother	Esther RAINSTHORPE,   b. 1676, London, England d. 12 Sep 1755, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts (Age 79 years)
  Marriage	5 Sep 1700	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F1206	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary READ,   b. 14 Apr 1716, Stratford, Fairfield, Connecticut d. 12 Mar 1782, Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age 65 years)
  Marriage	1730	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  Children	1. Thomas Charles MORRIS,   b. 31 Dec 1731, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts d. 26 Jan 1802, Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age 70 years)   2. John MORRIS,   b. 1736, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts   3. William MORRIS,   b. 19 Feb 1736, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts   4. Hezekiah MORRIS,   b. 11 Mar 1738, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts + 5. Mary Elizabeth MORRIS,   b. 27 Mar 1742, Boston, Middlesex, Massachusetts d. 26 Feb 1766, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts (Age 23 years)   6. Alexander MORRIS,   b. 21 Mar 1743, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts   7. Francis MORRIS,   b. 21 Dec 1746, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts   8. Samuel MORRIS,   b. 12 Jun 1748, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts   9. James Rainsthorpe MORRIS,   b. 20 May 1750, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts   10. Sarah MORRIS,   b. 23 Dec 1757, Hopkinton, Middlesex, Massachusetts
  Family ID	F23195	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 Dec 2018

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Birth Record for Charles Morris in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  		Image of Charles Morris
  		Early Halifax Map Individual lots shown in 'M' were forty feet wide and sixty feet deep, with fifty-five foot wide streets. But interestingly, while this map denotes L only as 'Store House,' a German version of the map denotes L as 'Zeughaus' which translates as 'Arsenal' or 'Weapons Storage.' Perhaps Morris did not want to publish strategic data...
  		The Acadian Expulsion 1755-1763 Although the expulsion was ordered by Governor Charles Lawrence, Morris was the author of the expulsion plans, and his writings indicate that he supported the endeavor.
  		Historical marker honoring Charles Morris Located at 1272 Hollis St. in Halifax, the original location of Charles and Mary Morris' house.
  		The Morris house in 1953 at its original location. It was operated as a rooming house for a number of years.
  		Charles and Mary Morris' House Your webmaster took this picture in 2024 at the southern corner of Charles and Creighton Streets in Halifax. The house was moved from its original location on Hollis St. in 2012 by the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia. It is currently used as low-income housing.
  		Funerary Hatchment for Charles Morris On the wall of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Wikipedia defines a Funerary Hatchment as "a depiction within a black lozenge-shaped frame, generally on a black background, of a deceased's heraldic achievement, that is to say the escutcheon showing the arms, together with the crest and supporters of his family or person" and according to International Heraldry, "The word Hatchment is a corruption of the word Achievement." (Ach-ment) This source goes on to say that the dark background on the left and light background on the right meant that the man was married, and that the wife was still living at the time of his death. (Charles' wife Mary died four months later) The white cross on a blue background is the flag of Halifax. Latin translates roughly "Although it will finally come too late," whatever that means.
  		The Old Parish Burying Ground in Windsor, Nova Scotia The cemetery accepted burials from 1771 until it closed in 1887, notwithstanding the sign. It contains approximately 4,000 graves, likely including that of Charles Morris.