Richard Morton - @Richard Morton's parents are unknown and are probably not George Morton and Phoebe Morton

Started by Allan Morton on Tuesday, January 9, 2018
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1/9/2018 at 9:07 AM

@ Richard Morton
Many sources try to link Richard Morton to George Morton who arrived in in 1623, but there appears to be no evidence supporting this connection. Currently Richard Morton's origins are unknown.
According to Gale Ion Harris in his article, "John Edwards of Wethersfield, Connecticut" New England Historical Genealogical Society Register, October 1991, page 317)

Little is known about Richard Morton: his affiliation with the Edwards family raises more questions than it answers. John Edwards's wife Dorothy was a Moulton, and her nephew Samuel Molton [sic] of Salem, Massachusetts died in Thomas Edwards's home at Hockanum in 1667. Jabez Colt married Mary Morton, daughter of William Morton of Hartford and Windsor, a creditor of Thomas Edwards's stepson John Loveland at Hockanum. It has been reasonably suggested by other authors that William and Richard Morton were brothers. Thomas Morton of Wethersfield, eldest son of Richard and Ruth Morton, signed his name on a petition in 1712 as Thomas Molton (Stiles, Wethersfield, 2:513). However, no specific evidence has been found to show that the Mortons, possibly brothers, were related to Dorothy Moulton and her nephew Samuel Molton except the circumstances encountered here which seem to imply some familial connection preceding Richard and Ruth's marriage.

In any case, Winthrop's notes prove that Ruth Edwards married Richard Morton, by several entries beginning with one dated 26 February 1665/6: "Morten [blank] his wife formerly Ruth Edwards paine in head. " JWJ Med. Rec., 629).

The only available Ruth Edwards appearing in that locality and time was John Edwards's daughter. Winthrop soon supplied Morton's given name when he saw, on 1 December 1666, "Richard, Mr. Willis his man," and on 29 March 1667, "Morton Richard at Hartford who lives near Mr. Willis." Moreover, on 15 April 1667, he saw "Morton Tho: 1/2 yr, son of Rich: Morton at Hartford" (ibid., 691, 715, 717). The boy Thomas, Winthrop's patient at Hartford five more times between 1667 and 6 April 1669, was obviously Richard and Ruth Morton's known first child, Thomas, who died at Wethersfield 1 May 1740 in his 75th year, having named his first daughter Ruth (Stiles, Wethersfield, 2 513). "Mr. Willis" was Gov. Wyllys's son Samuel whose affiliations with the Edwards family frequently appear in this article.

In another journal article, Gale Ion Harris (The American Genealogist, January 1992, page 44) speculates about a William Morton being the possible brother of Richard.

He states:

[William] Morton was in Hartford by 05 June 1656 when he, George
Graves, John Colt and John Adams were fined 5s. each "for playing at
cards and that at an unseasonable time of the night" (Part. Court
Recs. p. 169). About three years later, in March 1658/9, Winthrop
referred to him as "Morton William: at Mrs. Fitch," apparently Joseph
Fitch's wife Mary Stone at Hartford (Winthrop Med. Recs. p. 152;
Stiles' Windsor 2:261). His origins seem to be unknown (see Ulysses
G. and Addie L. Morton, William Morton of Windsor, Connecticut and
some of his Descendents who are also descendents of Thomas Burnham,
Fenton, Mich. 1950). However, he surely was closely related to Richard Morton who appeared about the same time at Hartford as servant to Mr. Samuel Wyllys and soon married (early 1665/6) Ruth Edwards, daughter of Wetherfield's John and Dorothy (Moulton) (Finch) Edwards (Winthrop Med. Recs. pp 629, 691, 715, 717). Richard's descendants appear in Lucius M. Boltwood, "Genealogies of Hadley Families."

1/9/2018 at 11:12 AM

Thank you for posting this. I’ve disconnected Richard as son of George Morton, II and added a curator note of “parents unknown.”

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