duced in evidence. The proceedings failed for want of proof, and he was ordered to be imprisoned until fresh evidence was brought from England. In May 1645 he petitioned for his release. After enduring a cruel confinement for about a year, he was again called before the court, formally fined 100l., and set at liberty. He retired to Acomenticus, where he died in poverty in 1646 (Winthrop, History of New England, ed. Savage, ii. 192).
Morton is author of 'New English Canaan, or New Canaan containing an Abstract of New England. Composed in three Bookes,' 4to, Amsterdam, 1637. His description of the natural features of the country and his account of the Indians are of interest and value, and he throws an amusing side-light upon the social history of the pilgrim and puritan colonies. Though printed in Holland in 1637, the book was entered in the 'Stationers' Register 'in London on 18 Nov. 1633, in the name of Charles Greene as publisher, and at least one copy is known bearing Greene's imprint, but without a date. It has been reprinted by Force in vol. ii. of his American tracts, and by the Prince Society, with an introduction and notes, by C. F. Adams, jun., 4to, Boston, 1883. Morton's career is the subject of John Lothrop Motley's novels, 'Morton's Hope,' 1839, and ' Merry Mount,' 1849, and of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, ' The Maypole of Merry Mount.'
[Adams's Introduction referred to; Savage's Genealogical Diet. iii. 245; Winsor's Hist, of America, vol. iii.; Nathaniel Morton's New England's Memorial; A Few Observations on the Prince Society's Edition of the New English Canaan, reprinted from the Churchman, New York, 1883.]
MORTON, THOMAS (1564–1659), bishop successively of Chester, of Lichfield, and of Durham, the sixth of the nineteen children of Richard Morton, mercer, of York, and alderman of that city, by his wife Elizabeth Leedale, was born in the parish of All Saints Pavement, York, on 20 March 1564. He received his early education at the grammar schools of York and Halifax; at the former the conspirator Guy Fawkes [q. v.] was his schoolfellow. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, as a pensioner in 1582, and was admitted scholar in 1584. He graduated B.A. in 1586, and M.A. in 1590. He was chosen fellow under Dr. Whitaker, 'against eight competitors well recommended and better befriended, purely for his learning and work' (Baker, Hist. of St. John's College, i. 184). Ordained deacon in 1592, and priest in 1594, he took the degree of B.D. in 1598, and that of D.D. 'with great distinction' in 1606. He was appointed university lecturer in logic, and continued his studies at Cambridge till 1598, when, through his father's influence, he was presented to the rectory of Long Marston, near York. Here he devoted himself assiduously to his spiritual duties, but was soon appointed chaplain to Lord Huntingdon, lord president of the north, and his parochial work was undertaken in his absence by 'a pious and learned assistant.' In 1602, when the plague was raging at York, he devoted himself to the inmates of the pest-house. To avoid spreading the infection he suffered no servants to attend him, and carried on the crupper of his saddle sacks containing the food and medicaments needed by the sufferers.
While in the north he acquired great reputation for the skill with which he conducted disputations with Roman catholics, who were numerous there; many of them, we are told, including 'some of considerable standing' Dr. Herbert Croft [q. v.], afterwards bishop of Hereford, being one he brought over to the church of England. In 1602 he was selected, with Richard Crakanthorpe [q.v.] as his colleague, to accompany Lord Eure when sent by Elizabeth as her ambassador extraordinary to the emperor of Germany and the king of Denmark. He took advantage of this opportunity to make the acquaintance of foreign scholars and theologians, including several learned Jesuits, and to collect books at Frankfort and elsewhere, thus laying in stores 'on which,' Fuller says, 'he built to his death.' Among others he fell in with the learned but hot-tempered Hugh Broughton [q. v.], then residing at Middleburg, to whom he proposed his scriptural difficulties (S. Clarke, Lives, 1683, pp. 5, 6). On the queen's death Morton returned to England, and became chaplain to Roger Manners, earl of Rutland. He thus had leisure for study and the preparation of theological works, while residence at Belvoir enabled him to consult the libraries of London. In 1605 he published the first part of his 'Apologia Catholica' on 'the marks of a true church,' a defence of the church of England against the calumnies of the Romanists, with a refutation of the Jesuits' doctrine of equivocation. This work, which evoked more than one reply, exhibits unusual familiarity with recent ultramontane polemics, and Morton is believed to have derived aid from his younger friend John Donne [q. v.], afterwards dean of St. Paul's (Sanderson, Works, iv. 328). These 'primitise,' as he calls them, were dedicated to Archbishop Bancroft, who, with a just discernment of his merits, had become his steady friend. Through Ban-
