the local descriptions.' It was dedicated to Morritt 'in token of sincere friendship,' and with the public intimation that the scene had been laid in his 'beautiful demesne.' A further proof of this friendship was shown when Morritt was entrusted with the secret of the authorship of 'Waverley.' Scott's visits were renewed in 1815, 1826, 1828, and in September 1831, on his last journey to London and Italy. Many letters which passed between them are included in Lockhart's 'Life of Scott,' which contained particulars by Morritt of his visit to Scott in 1808 and of the manner in which Scott was lionised by London society in 1809. Many more of their letters are contained in the 'Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott,' 1894. Morritt was also acquainted with Stewart Rose, Payne Knight, Sir Humphry Davy, and Southey, the latter of whom stopped at Rokeby in July 1812, and made a short call there in November 1829 (Southey, Life and Correspondence, iii. 345-8, iv. 8, vi. 77).
Morritt, on Scott's invitation, became an occasional contributor to the 'Quarterly Review,' and his poem on 'The Curse of Moy, a Highland Tale,' appeared in the 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border' (5th edit. iii. 451). He was elected a member of the Dilettanti Society on 2 June 1799, and his portrait as 'arch-master' of its ceremonies, in the long crimson taffety-tasselled robe of office, was painted by Sir Martin Archer Shee for the society in 1831-2. An essay by him on the 'History and Principles of Antient Sculpture' forms the introduction to the second volume of 'Specimens of Antient Sculpture preserved in Great Britain,' which was issued by the society in 1835. The minutes of the council on its selection and printing are inserted in the 'Historical Notices of the Society of Dilettanti,' pp. 56-9. A volume of 'Miscellaneous Translations and Imitations of the Minor Greek Poets' was published by him in 1802. He composed the poetical inscription on the monument in York Minster to William Burgh [q. v.], whose widow left him the fine miniature of Milton which had been painted by Cooper.
Morritt died at Rokeby Park, 12 July 1843, aged 71. He married, by special license, at the house of Colonel Stanley, M.P., in Pall Mall, on 19 Nov. 1803, Katharine (d. 1815), second daughter of the Rev. Thomas Stanley, rector of Winwick in Lancashire. He was buried by his wife's side in a vault under Rokeby Church, where a marble tablet, surmounted by a bust of him, was placed in their memory.
Morritt was one of the founders and a member of the first committee of the Travellers' Club in 1819. Scott calls him 'a man unequalled in the mixture of sound good sense, high literary cultivation, and the kindest and sweetest temper that ever graced a human bosom.' Wilberforce described him as 'full of anecdote,' and Sir William Fraser mentions him as a brilliant raconteur.
[Gent. Mag. 1791 pt. ii. pp. 780, 1156, 1803 pt. ii. p. 108-5, 1815 pt. ii. p. 637, 1843 pt. ii. pp. 547-8; Annual Keg. 1843, p. 281; Burke's Landed Gentry, 4th ed.. sub 'Peirse' and 'Stanley;' Foster's York Pedigrees, sub 'Peirse;' Whitaker's Richmondshire; Park's Parl. Rep. of Yorkshire, pp. 151, 246; Lockhart's Scott, passim; Scott's Journal, i. 270-2, ii. 162-4, 195-7, 215; Sir W. Fraser's Hic et Ubique, pp. 238-43; Smiles's John Murray, ii. 453; Davies's York Press, pp. 300-1; Wilberforce's Life, iii. 318, iv. 392, v. 241-3; Portraits of Dilettanti Soc. p. 7; Hist. Notices, Dilettanti Soc. pp. 77-8.]
MORS, RODERICK (d. 1546), Franciscan. [See Bristkelow, Henry.]
MORSE, HENRY (1595–1645), Jesuit, known also as Claxton (his mother's name) and Warde, was born in Norfolk in 1595, and studied law in one of the inns of court in London. Harbouring doubts concerning the protestant religion, he retired to the continent, and was reconciled to the Roman church at Douay. Afterwards he became an alumnus of the English College there. He entered the English College at Rome 27 Dec. 1618, and having completed his theological studies, and received holy orders, he was sent from Douay to the English mission 19 June 1624. He entered the Society of Jesus in the London novitiate in 1625, and was soon afterwards removed to the Durham district. Being apprehended, he was committed to York Castle, where he remained in confinement for three years. In 1632 he was at Watten, acting as prefect of health and consultor of the college. In 1633 he was minister and consultor at Liege College, and in the same year he became a missioner in the London district. He was again apprehended, committed to Newgate, tried and condemned to death in 1637, but the sentence was commuted to banishment at the intercession of Queen Henrietta Maria. In 1641-2 he was camp missioner to the English mission at Ghent. Two years later he had returned to England, and again appears as a missioner in the Durham district. He was arrested, carried in chains to London, tried, and, being condemned to death as a traitor on account of his sacerdotal character, was executed at Tyburn on 1 Feb. (N.S.) 1644-5.
In Father Ambrose Corbie's 'Certamen Triplex,' Antwerp, 1645, is an engraved por-
