Gov. Joseph Morton, Sr.

Biography

Joseph Morton was the son of Ambrose Mourton, a hosier of Wells, Somerset, England.[1]

He was among a group of religious Dissenters who immigrated to the Province of Carolina around 1681. The proprietors made him a landgrave, and he was commissioned as governor on 18 May 1682. He served in that position until 1684. When Governor West retired in 1685, he was selected to succeed him and served until November 1686. Morton had a plantation on the Edisto River, which was sacked by the Spaniards in August 1686.[2][3]

landgrave in British English: (from the 13th century to 1806) a count who ruled over a specified territory.

Joseph Morton's wife Elinor was possibly a Blake, although no proof of that name has been found. She predeceased him about 1687.

From Salley, A. S., Jr. “Governor Joseph Morton and Some of His Descendants.” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine. Vol. 5. (1904). Page 109. < Archive.Org >

Governor Morton died between the spring of 1686, when we find records of him as Governor and the date of the recording of his will, May 25, 1688. 7.

7. Will of Joseph Morton, of Carolina, Landgrave, made April 14, 1685, and proved November 20, 1688. mentions sons, Joseph and John (to whom he gave lands in Berrow, Somersetshire) ; daughter Deborah Blake ; sister. Rebecca Bowell, brother-in-law, Edward Bowell, and wife, Elinor. Recorded in Carolina, May 25, 1688. Administration granted, March 19, 1705, to Mrs. Anne Wills, wife of Thomas Wills, formerly Mrs. Anne Morton, widow and administrator with the will annexed of John Morton, son of said Joseph. (See The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol. IV, p. 292.)

Issue :
i. i. Joseph Morton (d. 1721) Married Sarah Wilkinson.
2. ii. John Morton. (d. abt 1699)
3. iii. Deborah Blake. 8 (m. Joseph Blake)
4. iv. Florence Morton. (m. John Beamor)

Preservation Society of Charleston: Joseph Morton Alfred O. Halsey Map 1949.

Governor May 1682 – July 1684
Interim Governor October 1685 – November 1686

Born in England around 1630, Joseph Morton immigrated to Carolina with his family in about 1681. He was a prominent Dissenter at a time when the Lords Proprietors were encouraging settlement by non-Anglicans, and in 1682 the proprietors named Joseph Morton a landgrave and appointed him governor.

Joseph Morton was politically at odds with the Goose Creek Men, who identified themselves with the Anglican Church. Their opposition to reforms favorable to Dissenters forced the Commons House of Assembly into stalemate. The Lords Proprietors replaced governor Morton with Sir Richard Kyrle, who arrived in Charleston in July 1684. [Kyrle died a few weeks later, and former governor Joseph West became interim governor.] In October 1685, the proprietors again selected Joseph Morton to serve as interim governor, replacing Robert Quary.
In the summer of 1686, Spanish forces in three galleys destroyed Stuart’s Town (near today’s Beaufort), then headed north for Charleston. They detoured up the North Edisto River to sack Governor Joseph Morton’s plantation, killing his brother-in-law. The invaders’ ships were scattered by a hurricane before they reached the Ashley River, but the close call drove Joseph Morton into alliance with the Goose Creek Men to plan a retaliatory attack on Saint Augustine. The adventure had nearly begun when new governor James Colleton arrived in November 1686, declared martial law, and prevented the vengeace raid.

Joseph Morton died in early 1688. His son Joseph Morton, Jr., inherited his landgrave’s patent and became politically influential in his own right.

• Roper, L. H. “Morton, Joseph, Sr.” Walter Edgar, ed. South Carolina Encyclopedia. University of South Carolina Press, 2006.
• Salley, A. S., Jr. “Governor Joseph Morton and Some of His Descendants.” South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine. Vol. 5. (1904).

  ---

South Carolina Encyclopedia

Landgrave Joseph Morton b 1630 Wells Somerset Eng immigrated to SC c 1680/1 d Jan 1686 SC m Elinor Blake dau of Benjamin Blake of Bridgewater. Governor of South Carolina of that part of Carolina lying south and west of Cape Fear" on 18 May 1682. Terms: 1682-1684,1685-1686.

“A number of English dissenters came over with Governors Morton, Blake and Axtell. “Generally speaking, there were three distinct areas of settlement in the SC Colony, as follows: 1) Barbadian and English colonists settled in Charles Town, and upon the Ashley and Cooper rivers; 2) French Huguenots settled on the Santee, at the Orange Quarter on the Easter Branch of the Cooper and at Charles Towne; 3) English dissenters and Scotch dissenters settled on the Edisto River. The English came over with Morton, Blake and Axtell, and the Scotch with Lord Cardross.

“Thus Berkeley County was strongly Church of England, Colleton was ‘imbued with dissent” and Craven, while Calvinistic in its tenets, was without hostility to the Church

He was the Fifth Colonial Governor and served two terms (first 1682- Apr 1684; second Sep 1685-1686 ) commissioned May 28 1682. He was commissioned Governor to show appreciation for his efforts of bringing a large number of people to the colony. He replaced the popular Gov. Joseph West. ;

Among this number of "substantial persons;" as they were called by Hewatt (History of South Carolina and Georgia; I.140. London; 1779) was also Joseph Blake; the nephew of the Admiral; and the friend and trustee of Lord Berkeley; one of the Lord’s Proprietors. His wife; Lady Blake; and her mother; Lady Axtell; were valuable accessions to the infant Baptist church; and it is likely that Screven was a neighbor of theirs in England. Joseph Blake himself; if not a communicant; at least entertained the sentiments of the Baptists and favored their cause.

His his sister was the wife of Governor Morton; and the mother of Joseph Morton; who was a friend of liberty and voted against the establishment of the Church of England as the religion

It is possisble that Edisto Island was settled before Charles Towne. Old records claim that the Earl of Shaftesbury; one of the Lords Proprietors; bought the land in 1674 from the Edisto Indians for a piece of cloth; beads; and hatchets. It is known that one Paul Grimball constructed a home at the Point of Pines and to this day its tabby foundation is intact. In 1682, the fifth colonial governor of Carolina. Joseph Morton, built his home on the Island. These were perilous times for settlers because of threats from Indians and Spaniards. In 1686, the Spaniards raided the Island; and burned Grimball's and Morton's houses. Their raid provided them with gold; silver and other valuables as well as their slaves.

His children with Elinor Blake: Florence Morton m John Beamor; Joseph Jr m Sarah Wilkinson; John m Dorothy Dry.

The curious Carolina nobility
A reflection on the 350th anniversary of the founding of Carolina
https://www.charlestonmercury.com/single-post/2020/04/01/the-curiou...

The First Charter of Carolina of 1663 created the only hereditary nobility in America and the framework of how the new land “not yet cultivated or planted” was to be settled and administered. The Charter gave the Lords Proprietors authority to create “Patronage, Jurisdictions and Privileges” in the new province.

First presented March 1, 1669, this governing document, The Fundamental Constitution of Carolina provided the normal authority to create laws, judges, magistrates, a militia, officers and land grants along with “Liberty of Conscience.” This unique provision provided a person to affirm first “That there is a God” and second “That God is pubickly to be Worshipped.”

Inheritance of land and titles by women for want of a male heir was uniquely provided. “No manor for want of male issue shall be divided amongst co-heirs; but the manor, if there be one, shall entirely descend to the eldest daughter and her heirs.” In the case of several manors, other daughters would have their choice in order of their ages.

An underclass of “leet-men” and leet-women, was created. This underclass their children and following generations, like the medieval serfs or tenant farmers, would be tied to the land forever: This class never materialized.

The province was to be divided into counties, with each county consisting of eight signories, (a French term for extensive land owned by one person), four baronies and four precincts.

Several titles of the new nobility created tied to the ownership of land and authority including the term “Palatine” or “Count of a Palace.” The palatine was “the title the eldest of the surviving Lords Proprietors with authority and privileges of vice-royalty.” “Landgrave,” a German title of nobility was connected to the ownership of an estate of 48,000 acres or more. Next were “cassique,” a title of dominion among the Mexican Indians, with 24,000 acres; “barony,” 12,000 acres and a “lord of the manor,” at 3,000 acres. Of the 1,364,000 acres of land available for grants less than 200,000 acres were claimed.

Beginning in 1670, the first title of landgrave appears, being given four baronies of 12,000 each. The titles were hereditary and renewable annually upon the payment of “a penny, lawful money of England for each acre.” Of the 60 titles of landgrave or cassique, four belonged to women, 56 to men. The last recorded title of landgrave was inherited in 1751. No barons or lords of the manor are listed. Some notable early Carolinians claiming these titles include Edmund Ballinger, Robert Daniell, Robert and John Gibbs, Seth Sothel, Joseph Morton I and II, Sir Nathaniel Johnson, James Moore I, Thomas Smith I and II, John Wyche and John Yeamans. John Locke, who did not venture to Carolina was made landgrave and had Locke’s Island, now Edisto Island, named for him.

References

1. WikiTree contributors, "Joseph Morton (abt.1630-1688)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Morton-13580 : accessed 24 July 2024). cites
   1. Valley, Seabrook Wilkinson. “The Parentage of Governor Morton.” The South Carolina Historical Magazine 74, no. 3 (1973): 164–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27567194
   2. Salley, A. S. “Governor Joseph Morton and Some of His Descendants.” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 5, no. 2 (1904): 108–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27575063
   3. Roper, L. H., “Morton, Joseph” SC Encylopedia https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/morton-joseph-sr/
   4. Withington, Lothrop. “South Carolina Gleanings in England (Continued).” The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 4, no. 4 (1903): 292. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27575041
2. Edisto Island: Home of the “Black Kings”
3. "Beamor Family Bible Excerpts" < FamilySearch >
4. Preservation Society of Charleston: Joseph Morton Alfred O. Halsey Map 1949.
5. Leach, Josiah Granville. Memoranda relating to the ancestry and family of Hon. Levi Parson Morton, vice-president of the United States. (1894). Page 10-12. < Archive.Org} > In conjunction with Landgrave Axtell, Mr. Morton was most instrumental in promoting emigration to the Colony, having in a single month induced some five hundred persons to settle there. Under the Carolina charter creating a nobility, Joseph Morton was made a landgrave, and so entitled to forty-eight thousand acres of land and the right to sit in the Upper House of the Colonial Parliament. ... . "Landgrave Morton died in September, 1721 [sic: mixed up with his son Joseph . . He married Elizabeth Blake, the sister or daughter of Governor Joseph Blake,* and had a son and a daughter. The son left no issue, but from the daughter. Governor Pickens, Paul Hayne the poet, and many of the best families of South Carolina, are said to be descended.