Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/178

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Morysine
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Moryson

presented that county in the parliaments of May 1322, December 1326, December 1332, March 1336, and March 1340. On some of these occasions he was associated with Thomas Studley, who was afterwards his attorney in England. There was also a John Morice or Moriz who represented the borough of Cambridge in the parliaments of December 1326, April 1328, September 1337, February 1338 (Return of Members of Parliament, i. 64-130). Morys was commissioner of array for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire in 1322 and 1324 (Parliamentary Writs, iv. 1195). On 6 March 1327 he was placed on the commission of oyer and terminer for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire to inquire into the taking of prises by members of the royal household, and on 8 March 1327 he was placed on the commission of peace for Bedfordshire. On 8 July 1328 he was going to Ireland, and had letters nominating attorneys to act for him during two years. On 13 March 1329 he had protection for one year again when going to Ireland on the royal service, and on 11 April 1329 had leave to nominate attorneys as before (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward III, 1327-30). In May 1341 (Chart. St. Mary's, Dublin, ii. 382), when he was styled knight, he was said to be acting as deputy in Ireland for Sir John D'Arcy. In this capacity he held a parliament at Dublin in October 1341, when he had to enforce ordinances annulling royal grants made in the king's reign, and acquittances from crown debts, unless granted under the English seal. These measures were unpopular with the Anglo-Irish nobles, who perhaps also despised Morys as a man of small political or social importance. An opposition parliament was accordingly held under the Earl of Desmond at Kilkenny in November 1341, and an appeal made to the king against the abuses of the Irish administration. Morys was soon after displaced by Ralph Ufford. But in April 1346 he procured his own reappointment, and on the news of Ufford's death a few days after was ordered to proceed to Ireland (Gilbert, Viceroys, p. 541). There he arrived on 15 May, and at once released the Earl of Kildare, whom Ufford had imprisoned; but on the great massacre of the English in Ulster during June, Morys was once more displaced, and after this he seems to disappear from history.

[Chartulary of S. Mary's, Dublin (Rolls Ser.); Gilbert's Viceroys of Ireland; Leland's Hist, of Ireland; authorities quoted.]

C. L. K.


MORYSINE, Sir RICHARD (d. 1556), diplomatist. [See Morison.]

MORYSON, FYNES (1566–1630), traveller, born in 1566, was younger son of Thomas Moryson (d. 1591) of Cadeby, Lincolnshire, clerk of the pipe, and M.P. for Great Grimsby in 1572, 1584, 1586, and 1588–9 (Harl. MS. 1550, f. 50b; cf. Itinerary, pt. i. p. 19). His mother, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Moigne of Willingham, Lincolnshire, died in 1587 (ib.). He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, 18 May 1580, and, graduating B.A. (M.A. 1587), obtained a fellowship about 1584. The college allowed him to study civil law; but, ‘from his tender youth, he had a great desire to see foreign countries’ (ib. p. 197), and in 1589 he obtained a license to travel. Two years he spent either in London or on visits to friends in the country, preparing himself for his expedition, and on 22 March 1590–1 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford. On 1 May 1591 he took ship at Leigh, near Southend, and for the greater part of the six years following wandered about Europe.

At the end of 1591 he reached Prague, where he dreamt of his father's death on the day of the event (ib. p. 19). The news was confirmed at Nuremberg, and after a year's leisurely tour through Germany he retraced his steps to the Low Countries in order to dispose of his modest patrimony. On 7 Jan. 1593 he entered himself as a student at Leyden University (Peacock, Index, p. 65). He subsequently passed through Denmark and Poland to Vienna, and thence by way of Pontena and Chiusa into Italy in October 1593 (Itinerary, pt. i. p. 68). After visiting Naples, he thoroughly explored Rome, where he paid visits to Cardinals Allen (ib. p. 121) and Bellarmine (p. 142). The former gave him every facility for viewing the antiquities. The cities of North Italy occupied him from April 1594 to the beginning of 1595. In the early spring of 1595 he had an interview with Theodore Beza at Geneva, and journeying hurriedly through France, caught a glimpse of Henri IV at Fontainebleau (ib. p. 195), and landed at Dover 13 May 1595.

On 8 Dec. of the same year Moryson started on a second journey, setting sail for Flushing. A younger brother, Henry, bore him company. Passing through Germany to Venice, they went, at the end of April 1596, by sea to Joppa, spent the first fortnight of June at Jerusalem, and thence went by Tripoli and Aleppo to Antioch. At Beilan, a neighbouring village, Henry Moryson died on 4 July 1596 (ib. p. 249); he was in his twenty-seventh year. Fynes afterwards made for Constantinople, where the English ambassador, Edward Barton