act comic drama played at the Olympic 'Judith of Geneva,' a three-act melodrama, is assigned him in Buncombe's collection, and 'Sink or Swim,' a two-act comedy, in that of Lacy. In addition to these works the following plays in one act are assigned Morton in various collections: 'Angel of the Attic,' a serio-comic drama; 'Another Glass,' a one-act drama; 'Dance of the Shirt, or the Sempstress's Ball,' comic drama; 'Go to Bed, Tom,' a farce; 'Great Russian Bear, or Another Retreat from Moscow;' 'Pretty Piece of Business,' comedy; and 'Seeing Warren,' a farce. Morton died on 28 March 1838, leaving a widow and three children, his second son being the farce writer, John Maddison Morton. He was a man of reputable life and regular habits, who enjoyed, two years before his death, the rarely accorded honour of being elected (8 May 1837) an honorary member of the Garrick Club. He was very fond of cricket, and became the senior member of Lord's. For many years he resided at Pangbourne, on the Thames.
His portrait, painted by Sir Martin Archer Shee, originally placed in the Vernon Gallery, has been engraved by T. W. Hunt.
[Lincoln's Inn Registers (unprinted); Gent. Mag. 1838, pt. i.; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. iv. 432; Allibone's Dictionary; Baker, Reed, and Jones's Biographia Dramatica; Genest's Account of the English Stage; Georgian Era; Era Almanack, various years.]
MORTON, THOMAS (1813–1849), surgeon, born 20 March 1813 in the parish of St. Andrew, Newcastle-on-Tyne, was youngest son of Joseph Morton, a master mariner, and brother of Andrew Morton [q. v.] the portrait painter. Thomas was apprenticed to James Church, house-surgeon to the Newcastle-on-Tyne Infirmary, and, on the completion of his preliminary education there in 1832, entered at University College, London, to finish his medical education. Admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 24 July 1835, he was appointed house-surgeon at the North London (now University College) Hospital under Samuel Cooper, whose only daughter he afterwards married. He enjoyed the singular honour of being reappointed when his year of office had expired. In 1836 he was made demonstrator of anatomy conjointly with Mr. Ellis, a post he held for nine years. In 1842 he became assistant surgeon to the hospital, and he was thus the first student of the college to be placed upon the staff of the newly founded hospital. In 1848 he was appointed full surgeon to the hospital upon the resignation of Syme. He was also surgeon to the Queen's Bench prison in succession to Cooper, his father-in-law. Morton was a candidate for the professorship of surgery at University College when Arnott was appointed. He died very unexpectedly, by his own hand, on 29 Oct. 1849, at his house in Woburn Place, London.
Morton was one of the ablest of the younger surgeons whose sound work raised the medical school attached to University College to the high position it now holds. His death was a great blow to the prestige of the college, coming as it did so soon after the deaths of Potter, Liston, and Cooper, and the resignation of Syme. Morton was an excellent teacher of anatomy, and a sound clinical surgeon. He was dark-complexioned and sallow, and of a retiring, shy, and sensitive nature, which betokened a melancholy disposition, leading him to take too gloomy a view of his prospects in life.
His works are: 1. 'Surgical Anatomy of the Perinseum,' London, 1838. 2. 'Surgical Anatomy of the Groin,' London, 1839. 3. 'Surgical Anatomy of Inguinal Herniæ,' London, 1841. 4. 'Anatomical Engravings,' London, 1845. 5. 'Surgical Anatomy, with Introduction by Mr. W. Cadge,' London, 1850. All these works are remarkable, because they are illustrated by his brother, Andrew Morton, and mark the revival of an artistic representation of anatomical details. A life-size portrait, three-quarter length, by Andrew Morton, executed in oils, is now in the secretary's office at the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.
[Obituary notices in the Lancet, vol. ii. 1849, Gent. Mag. 1849, pt. ii. p. 658, Times, 30 Oct. and 2 Nov. 1849, p. 5; additional facts kindly given to the writer by Mr. Eric Erichsen, Mr. Cadge, and Dr. Embleton.]
MORTON, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1672), judge, was the son of James Morton of Clifton, Worcestershire, by his wife Jane, daughter of William Cook of Shillwood, Worcestershire, and great-grandson to Sir Rowland Morton of Massington, Herefordshire, a master of requests in the time of Henry VIII. He became a member of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1622 and M.A. in 1625 : and, having been a student of the Inner Temple concurrently since 24 Oct. 1622, he was called to the bar on 28 Nov. 1630. His name first appears in the 'Reports' in 1639, and shortly after that he took arms on the royal side, fought and was wounded in several actions. He was knighted, served as lieutenant-colonel in Lord Chandos's horse, and was governor of Lord Chandos's castle at Sudeley, Gloucestershire, when it surrendered in June 1644 to General Waller.
