Governor of New Jersey.
Robert Hunter Morris, born at Morrisania, N. Y., about 1700, was the second son of Governor Lewis Morris, who appointed him Chief Justice of New Jersey on the unanimous recommendation of the Council, to succeed Col. Robert Lettice Hooper, deceased. His commission, dated March 17, 1738 (1739 N. S.), was during good behaviour. It is published in N. J. Archives, IX., 207-9. (For a note on the significance of this provision in the commission of Judges, see N. J. Archives, IX., 323-6.) Chief Justice Morris was also named as a member of his father's Council, in the commission (1738) appointing the Governor, and sturdily defended the doughty Chief Magistrate on all occasions. In 1748 he was one of the three commissioners to run the northern boundary line of New Jersey. He had accompanied his father to England in 1735, and revisited that country in 1749, when he returned to assume the government of Pennsylvania he left the child with Will Shirley, who paid out œ70 or œ80 subsequently for its support. Writing in 1763, Morris asked his friend, John Penn, to make some inquiries about the child, of whom he had lost all trace, and whom he was anxious to have in America. He spent several years in England on his second visit, and was treated with respect and consideration. He sought an appointment as Lieutenant Governor of New York. Instead, John and Thomas Penn made him Governor of Pennsylvania, and he returned in 1754 to assume that office. For two years he enjoyed a continual disagreement with the Assembly of that Province, and then resigned. He had tendered his resignation of Chief Justice of New Jersey in 1754, but as it was not accepted he resumed the duties of the office in 1756. In 1757 he revisited England once more, and during his absence William Aynsley was appointed to succeed him, taking his seat on the bench at the March Term. 1758, but died July 6 of the same year. Nathaniel Jones was commissioned to fill the assumed vacancy, and presented himself at the March Term, 1760. But Chief Justice Morris was on the bench. His commission was during good behaviour. True, he had resigned, but his resignation had not been accepted, and he had concluded to resume the position. His right to do this was sustained by his associate, Justice Samuel Nevill, in an opinion from the bench. Morris died suddenly on the night of January 27, 1764, at a party at Shrewsbury. He led out the parson's wife in a dance, opened the ball, danced down six couples, and then fell dead on the floor, in an apoplectic fit. He was buried at Morrisania, Westchester county, N. Y. Chief Justice Morris was a very remarkable man, and filled a large place in the public affairs of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Samuel Smith, the historian, speaks very highly of his abilities as a judge and as a speaker. He never married.--N. J. Archives. XI., 562-3; XXIV., 305. New Jersey Historical Society. "New Jersey Biographical and Genealogical Notes from the Volumes of the New Jersey Archives." Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Historical Society, 1916.
