the king at the high table. The university of Oxford early in 1495 made him its chancellor, in succession to Bishop Russell, though he gave fair warning that he could not attend to the duties. He also refused to take the customary oath, alleging that his graduation oath was sufficient. He must have been very old, but his strength was maintained, and he opened the parliament of 1496 with a long speech. He cannot have been sent in 1499 as ambassador to Maximilian, though a suggestion to that effect is found in the 'Venetian Calendar' (1202–1509, 796, 799). He died of a quartan ague on 12 Oct. 1500 at Knowle in Kent. He was buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. According to Wood (Annals, i. 642) the tomb became cracked, and the bones disappeared slowly till only the skull was left, and that Ralph Sheldon begged of his brother the archbishop in 1670.
Bacon says of Morton that 'he was a wise man and an eloquent, but in his nature harsh and haughty, much accepted by the king, but envied by the nobility, and hated of the people.' This unfavourable view of his character is not so trustworthy as the opinion of More, who knew him intimately, and gave a very sympathetic description of him in his 'Utopia' (ed. Arber, p. 36). According to More, 'his conversation was easy, but serious and grave. He spoke both gracefully and weightily. He was eminently skilled in the law, had a vast understanding and a prodigious memory; and those excellent talents with which nature had furnished him were improved by study and experience.'
Morton was a great builder. He received a patent on 26 July 1493 empowering him to impress workmen to repair the houses of his province in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex (Letters, &c., ii. 374; Chronicles of the White Rose, p. 198). At Ely his memory is preserved by Morton's Dyke, a great drainage trench which he cut through the fens from Peterborough to Wisbech. He repaired the episcopal palace at Hatfield and the castle at Wisbech; his arms are on the church tower of Wisbech. At Oxford he repaired the school of Canon Law and helped to rebuild St. Mary's Church. To literature he extended some patronage. Thomas More he took into his household, and foretold a great career for him.
The 'History of Richard III,' usually ascribed to Sir Thomas More [q. v.], and printed in the collected editions of More's English and Latin works, was probably originally written in Latin by Morton (cf. Walpole, Historic Doubts in Works, ii. iii; Bridgett, Sir Thomas More, p. 79). It is clearly the work of a Lancastrian and a contemporary of Edward IV, which More was not, and it is assigned to Morton by Sir John Harington and by Sir George Buc. More's connection with the work seems to have been confined to translating it into English and to amplifying it in the English version (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. i. 105). The 'Chronicle' of Hall probably owed something to Morton's suggestions.
[Authorities quoted; Chronicles of Hall and Fabyan; Hook's Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, v. 387 et seq.; Continuator of Croyland in ‘Rerum Anglic. Script.’ (Fell and Fulman), p. 566; Hutchins's Dorset, i. 104, 154, 158, ii. 594; Basin's Hist. des regnes de Charles VII et Louis XI, ed. Quicherat (Soc. de l'Hist. de France), iii. 137; Mémoires de Ph. de Commynes, ed. Dupont (Soc. de l'Hist. de France), i. 352, ii. 166; Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner; Clermont's Life of Fortescue; Bates's Border Strongholds of Northumberland, i. 254 et seq.; Campbell's Materials for the Hist. of Henry VII; Bentham's Ely, p. 179 et seq.; Hasted's Kent, ii. 19, 95, 99, 694; Baker's Chron. pp. 228–37; Newcome's St. Albans, p. 403; T. Mozley's Henry VII, Prince Arthur, and Cardinal Morton; arts. Edward, Prince of Wales, 1453–1471, and Margaret of Anjou.]
MORTON, JOHN (1671?–1726), naturalist, was born between 18 July 1670 and 18 July 1671. He matriculated at Cambridge on 17 Dec. 1688, graduated B.A. from Emmanuel College in 1691; took an ad eundem degree at Oxford in 1694, and proceeded M.A. in 1695. In 1701 Morton became curate of Great Oxendon, Northamptonshire, and in 1703 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. His first letter to Sloane (Sloane MS. 4053, f. 329) is dated 7 Feb. 1703, and alludes to his acquaintance with Captain Hatton, his recent election into the Royal Society, and his 'Natural History of Northamptonshire, then in progress.' In a letter to Dr. Richard Richardson [q.v.] of North Bierley (Richardson Correspondence, p. 85), dated 9 Nov. 1704, he writes: 'My acquaintance with Mr. Ray initiated me early in the search and study of plants : from the reading of Dr. Lister's books, became an inquirer after fossil shells; and my correspondence with Dr. Woodward, Dr. Sloane, and Mr. Lhwyd, has supported my curiosity.' Sloane appears to have visited him at Oxendon between May 1705 and April 1706; and in the latter year Morton was instituted as rector of that place. In the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1706 (No. 305, xxv. 2210) appeared ' A Letter from the Rev. Mr. Morton, A.M. and S.R.S., to Dr. Hans Sloane, S.R. Seer., containing a Relation of river and other Shells digg'd up, together with.
