MORPETH, is the name of a market and borough town of England, in the county of Northumberland. The town is situated among woody undulating hills, on the great north road from Edinburgh to London, on the banks of the river \Vensbeck, which is crossed by a stone-bridge. It consists principally of one long street, which is spacious, and contains many well-built and neat houses. The principal buildings are the pa rish church, which is built on Kirk hilt, a quarter of a mile from the town ; a handsome town-house, built by the Earl of Carlisle in 1714, from a design of Van burgh ; the county gaol, which stands near the bridge, and is well built and well managed. The charitable establishments are a free school, founded by Edward VI. and an hospital for old persons. The principal piece ol antiquity here is the castle, which stands on an eminence above the town. A part of the gateway, tower, and fragments of the outward wall, only remain. On the north side of the castle is a round mound of earth, which was probably a malvoisin in some block ade. A fragment of tire door-way of the New Minster Abbey of White Monks still remains. Morpeth sends two members to parliament, and the right of election is vested in about 209 burgesses. The population of Mor petit, in 1611, was (Ronm•r). The life of an individual who, for a long period, held a prominent station in society, and rendered important services to this country, deserves particular notice in a work of this nature. The writer regrets that the short time allowed him to furnish it, will render the account brief.
Robert Morris was the son of a respectable merchant of Liverpool, England, who had for some years been ex tensively concerned in the American trade ; and while a boy, was brought by his father to this country, in which it appears he intended to settle. During the time that the subject of this sketch was pursuing his education in Philadelphia, he unfortunately lost his father, in conse quence of a wound received from the wad of a gun, which was discharged as a compliment by the captain of a ship consigned to him, that had just arrived at Oxford, the place of his residence, on the eastern shore of the Chesa peake Bay ; and was thus left an orphan at the age of fifteen years. In conformity to the intentions of his pa rent, he was bred to commerce, and served a regular apprenticeship in the counting-house of the late Mr. Charles Willing, at that time one of the first merchants of Philadelphia. A year or two after the expiration of the term for which he had engaged himself, he entered into partnership with Mr. Thomas Willing. This con nection, which was formed in 1754, continued for the long period of thirty-nine years, not having been dissolved until 1793. Previously to the commencement of the American war, it was, without doubt, more extensively engaged in commerce, than any other house in Phila delphia.
Of the events of his youth we know little. The fact just mentioned proves, that although early deprived of the benefit of parental counsel, he acted with fidelity, and gained the good will of a discerning master. The following anecdote will show his early activity in busi ness, and anxiety to promote the interests of his friend. During the absence of Mr. Willing at his country place near Frankford, a vessel arrived at Philadelphia, either consigned to him, or that brought letters, giving intelli gence of the sudden rise in the, price of flour at the port she left. Mr. Morris instantly engaged all that he could contract for, on account of Ali% Willing, who, on his re turn to the city next day, had to defend his young ft iend from the complaints of some merchants, that he had raised the twice of flour. An appeal, however, from Mr. Willing to their own probable line of conduct, in case of their having first received the news, silenced their complaints.
Few men in the American colonies were more alive to the gradual encroachment of the British government upon the liberties of the people, and none more ready to remonstrate against them, than Mr. Morris. His signa ture on the part of his mercantile-house firm to the non importation agreement, as repectcd England, which was entered into by the merchants of Philadelphia in the year 1765, while it evinced the consistency of his prin ciples and conduct, at the same time was expressive of a willingness to unite with them in showing their deter mination to prefer a sacrifice of private interest to the continuance of an intercourse, which would add to the re veuue of the government that oppressed them. The ex
tensive mercantile concerns with England of Mr. Mor ris's house, and the large importations of her manufactures and colonial produce by it, must have made this sacrifice considerable. Ills uniform conduct on the subject of the relative connexion between England and the Colonies, his high standing in society, and general intelligence, naturally pointed him out as a fit representative of Penn sylvania in the national councils, assembled on the ap proach of the political storm ; and he was accordingly appointed by the lcgistature of Pennsylvania, in Novem ber 1775, one of the delegates to the second congress that met at Philadelphia. A few weeks after he had taken his seat, he was added to the secret committee of that body, which had been formed by a resolve of the preceding congress (1775,) and whose duty it was " to contract for the importation of arms, ammunition, sul phur, and saltpetre, and to export produce on the public account to pay for the same." He was also appointed a member of the committee for fitting out a naval arma ment, and specially commissioned to negotiate bills of exchange for congress ; to borrow money for the marine committee, and to manage the fiscal concerns of congress upon other occasions. Independently of his enthusiastic zeal in the cause of his country, his capacity for business, and knowledge of the subjects committed to him, or his talents for managing concerns, he was par ticularly fitted for such services ; as the commercial credit lie had established among his fellow citizens pro bably stood higher than that of any other man in the community, and this he did not hesitate to avail him self of, whenever the public necessities required such an evidence of his patriotism. These occasions were neither few nor trifling. One of the few remaining prominent men of the resolution, and who filled an important and most confidential station in the department of war, bears testimony that Mr. Morris frequently obtained pecuniary and other supplies, which were most pressingly required for the service, on his own responsibility, and apparently upon his own account, when, from the known state of the public treasury, they could not have been procured for the government. Among other facts in point may be mentioned, the prompt and fortunate supply of cash which he was enabled to furnish the commander in chief, while he lay on the Delaware with the army, opposite to Trenton, (December, 17760 and which he had written for, as essentially necessary to enable him to obtain such intelligence of the movement and position of the enemy, as would authorize him to act offensively. The requisite sum was obtained from a member of the society of Friends, upon the written obligation of Mr. Morris ; and this timely compliance with the demand, enabled gene ral Washington to make the attack, and gain the signal victory at Trenton over the savage Hessians ; a victory which, exclusively of the benefits derived from its dimi nishing the numerical force of the enemy by nearly one thousand, was signally important in its influence, by en couraging the patriots, by checking the hopes of the enemies of our cause, and by destroying the impression which the reputed prowess of the conquered foe, and the experience of their ferocity over the unprotected and de fenceless, had made upon the people. Upon another occasion, he became responsible for a quantity of lead, which had been most urgently required far the army, and which most providentially arrived at the time when greatly wanted. At a more advanced stage of the war, when pressing distress in the army had driven con gress and the commander in chief almost to desperation, and a part of the troops to mutiny, he supplied the army with four or five thousand barrels of flour, upon his own private credit ; and, on a promise to that effect, per suaded a member to withdraw an intended motion to sanction a procedure which, although common in Europe, would have had a very injurious effect upon the cause of the country : this was no less than to authorize gene ral Washington to seize all the provision that could be found within a circle of twenty miles of his camp/ While financier, his notes constituted, for large transac tions, part of the circulating medium. Many other similar instances occurred of this patriotic interposition of his own personal responsibility for supplies, which could not otherwise have been obtained.