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The Morton Family of Colonial Virginia

At the end of the period of turmoil associated with the Protestant Reformation in England, the English people became free to turn their attention to other matters and to seek new opportunities outside their tiny island. Internal stability under Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and an expanding economy combined with a bold intellectual ferment to produce a soaring self-confidence.

Ireland experienced the first impact: by the beginning of the 17th century it had been wholly subjugated by the English. Scottish and English Protestants were dispatched to “colonize” the northern provinces. Then, entrepreneurs began to look to North America, claimed by England on the basis of John Cabot's voyages of discovery (1497-99).

In 1606, the London Company, established to exploit North American resources, sent settlers to what in 1607 became Jamestown, the first permanent English colony in the New World. Sir George Yeardley, governor of the colony inaugurated the House of Burgesses in 1619, the first representative assembly in any English colony. The colonists suffered extreme hardships, and by 1622, of the more than 10,000 who had immigrated, only 2,000 remained alive.

In 1624 control of the failing company passed to the crown, making Virginia a royal colony. Soon the tobacco trade was flourishing, the death rate had fallen, and with a legislature and an abundance of land, the colony entered a period of prosperity. Individual farms, available at low cost, were worked primarily by white indentured servants (laborers who were bound to work for a number of years to pay for their passage before receiving full freedom).

Charles II was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1660 to 1685 during which time he granted a large tract of land in the Northern Neck of Virginia to Sir William Morton, Knight. Sir William sent to America his son John Morton who represented his father's interests. In 1694, a John Morton is found living in Northumberland County, Virginia.

The settlement of Middle Plantation (later to become Williamsburg) served as the colony's center of government during the rebuilding of Jamestown in 1698. Jamestown, never a satisfactory site for a town, soon lost its preeminence to Williamsburg, to which the capital was shifted in 1699. Williamsburg was the colony's political and cultural center and was the scene of dramatic events in the American independence movement.

During these years the House of Burgesses recorded in Journals any legal transactions of the colonists. The following transactions involving Joseph Morton appear in the Journals of 1752 through 1758:

Related: Descendants of Sir William Morton

Contributed by Kitt Heuer

Updated August 2, 2017