1) John Morton (c.1740—1794). From a variety of records, we know of the activity of a John Morton of Charles County (and then later of Prince George’s County) from about 1770 until his death in 1794. There is no direct evidence, but time and place support that this John Morton is the same son of Thomas Morton of Wood’s Joy to whom he made an indenture giving him two parcels “Wood’s Joy” and “Cross Gutt”, but only after Thomas’ decease. From that indenture, we can assume John was born c. 1740 and we know he was still alive when his father wrote his will in 1779. [N.B. There was another earlier John Morton, since the Charles Co. Orphan’s Court on 9 June 1778 mentions “the estate of Jno. Morton”. Also the 1783 land assessment for Charles County 3rd district where he lived mentions him (?) as “John Morton, Jr.”]
He had a special relationship with the Pittney family. In 1770, he was one of the witnesses of the will of William Pittney of Charles County, who left behind a son William and daughter Mary (John Morton would name a daughter Mary Pittney Morton). Pittney’s widow, Martha, petitioned Clement Smith of Calvert County to take the probate and was apparently a relative of Charles Somerset Smith, both cousins of Morton’s future wife. Martha Pittney then sold to Robert Dawson two tracts of land in Charles County: one 152 acres called #11, lying in Charles County, on the north side of Indian Creek next to Saint Clair, the other being 69 acres, part of Saint Clair. In 1777, Robert Dawson sold those same two tracts to John Morton for £500, so that he now held the Pittney properties. In 1780, Morton witnessed the will of Charles Somerset Smith.
The Assessment of 1783 in Charles County shows John Morton with 221 acres, the exact total of these two Pittney properties. His father had died in 1782, but we have no evidence that John Morton ever took possession of the parcels “Wood’s Joy” and “Cross Gutt”, mentioned above or sold them. Rather, John’s brother George had them by the end of his life.
He was very active in the Revolutionary cause. Together with his brothers Joseph and George, John Morton served as a private in the Maryland Militia, 12th Battalion, Capt. Peter Wood’s Company in 1777. John Morton appears in the 1778 census of Benedict Hundred, Charles County. In Feb. 1778, he was a deputy purchaser and purchased clothing from the inhabitants of Benedict Hundred. On 12 May, 1781, he appears as a member in the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Patuxent Associators held in Benedict.
In 1779, 1782, 1785 and 1786 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace in Charles County. He witnessed the Charles County land transactions of Morton-Miles (1781), Forbes-Sothoron (1784), Boone-Medley (1784), Wheatley-Anderson (1784), Anderson-Johnson (1788), Gates-Waters (1787), Ware-Waters/Gardiner (1788), Blandford-Waters (1789). On a personal level, he had received a disbursement in the account of the estate of John Waters of Charles Co. in 1777; he and John Moran were the appraisers of the estate of Vincent Oden in 1780; later Morton witnessed the will of John Moran, Sr. of Charles County (1788).
But in the 1790 census, he appears in Prince George’s County (as the only John Morton on the western shore of Maryland) with 2 boys under 16 and three white females (and 11 slaves), which fits well with his estate administration a few years later. His final action was the purchase by “John Morton of Prince George’s County” on Feb 25, 1793 from Hezekiah Billingsley for 23,050 lbs of tobacco, a tract of land in Charles County called Whitsun Monday Enlarged.
John Morton died intestate in 1794, but we have the detailed 14 July 1794 inventory (£986.15.4 with 15 slaves) and 7 Aug 1799 final accounts of his estate (£1528.16.8). The inventory filed in Prince George’s called him “late of Prince George’s County” and the final accounts “late of Charles County”. This cross-county identity befits someone who grew up in southeastern Prince George’s County, was professionally active nearby in northeastern Charles County, and perhaps inherited Prince George’s real estate at the end of his life.
We know that his wife Mary was the daughter of John Wheatley and Elizabeth Smith (who left her daughter “Margaret” one heifer in her 1786 will). Mary Morton’s sureties in administering her husband’s estate were her brothers Thomas Wheatley and Elias Wheatley, and Elias Wheatley’s 1816 will left his nieces Mary P. and Ann Morton $100 each. In John Morton’s final accounts in 1799, the ages of his five children then are given: Susannah (19), William (16), Mary (14), John (10), Ann (9).
It is not clear if there are any descendants of this family past 1900.
Children of John Morton (c.1740 – 1794) and Mary Wheatley
1.1) Susannah Morton (1780 – 1835) marr. Zachariah Sothoron
She married Zachariah Sothoron (1768/71 – 1825) and much about this generation of the Mortons can be found on the Sothoron website. She was married by 1818 when “Zachariah Sothoron of Charles Co. & Susan his wife” sold Charles Moran of Charles Co. for $300, property called Stony Hills, 96 acres, with her brother William Morton as one of the witnesses. In his 1825 will, Zachariah Sothoron bequeaths his wife Susanna several Negroes, plus one half of household furniture except for a plate inherited from relations, plus $200 annually for life, provided she relinquish her right of dower in real estate.
In the 1830 census, she was living in Georgetown, with just herself (modestly aged up to 39) and a young woman in her 20s in the house (and two slaves).
In her will of July 1835 (probated that same month), Susanna Sothoron of George Town asked that her body “be buried according to the rites of the Protestant Episcopal Church” and left various small charitable bequests. She gave instructions for “my plantation in Charles Co., Md., to be rented by my Executor. and rent proceeds to be divided, 1/2 to Isabella Morton, wife of my Exr., and residue in equal proportions to the daughters of Isabella Morton, for 5 years after my death; afterwards the plantation be forever the property of my nephew Lawrence M. Morton.” She also made her brother William Morton her executor and left him the residue of the estate.
1.2) William Morton (1782 – 1857/59) marr. Isabella Thomson
He married c. 1806/9 Isabella Thomson (1789-1870s), da. of George and Isabella Thomson of Scotland. George Thompson in 1806 was one of the incorporators of the Georgetown Presbyterian Church. By his Last Will and Testament, probated in June of 1810, George Thompson states he had “conveyed houses in trust to William Morton.” Morton was co-administrator and trustee for Thompson’s property. Morton’s mother-in-law’s passing was noted by the National Intelligencer: “Mrs. Isabella Thomson, a native of Morayshire, Scotland, but for 50 years a resident of this city, died in Georgetown, D.C., June 10, 1846 in the 86th year of her age.”
Morton probably met the Thompsons through family friend Clement Smith, who was also a son-in-law of Thompson. Smith was a native of Southern Maryland and relative of Martha Pittney, who became a Georgetown developer and later President of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank of Georgetown. The history of the Thomson-Morton families has been detailed by the Delta Phi Epsilon Foreign Service Fraternity, whose building sits on the lot at 34th and Prospect Street owned by the Thomsons and then Mortons from 1796 until 1864. The Mortons themselves lived on what is now P Street, east of Wisconsin Ave.
This William Morton was the beneficiary in 1815 of his uncle William Morton who left “William Morton son of John Morton” (presumably his godson and namesake) a negro slave named William. He was named the executor of the wills of his sisters Mary Pittney Morton (1831) and Susanna Morton Sothoron (1835).
He was one of the group of Georgetown citizens who met at the home of Mr. Thomas Corcoran on 10 November, 1818 to found Christ Episcopal Church (St. John’s had become too full). He appears in the Washington Directory of 1822 as living in Georgetown and working as a clerk in the 1st Auditor’s office of the Treasury Dept.
In the 1850 Georgetown census, he was aged 68 with $5000 of real estate and had in his household four daughters. He is still recorded in the land records on the last day of 1857, but he died before the 1860 census (in which Isabella’s brother James Thomson is living with them). In the 1870 census, Isabelle Morton is still alive keeping house, with real property valued at $20000, personal property at $2000, born in DC, both parents foreign born. In the 1880 census, there are only the four elderly maiden sisters: Marion, Adaline, Annie W., and Alice.
The names and dates of his children are known from the wills of their aunts, various census reports, and land records. All of the children were born in Georgetown. Because Cyprian A. Morton died intestate as owner of the Lot 31 on Prospect Street, and the sale of that property by his heirs in 1864 names only Laurence and his maiden sisters, we can assume the other siblings died without heirs.
Children of William Morton and Isabella Thomson:
- 1.2.1) Marion (1811/2- after 1880), single
- 1.2.2) Adeline (1813/5 – after 1880), unmarried.
- 1.2.3) William (c.1814– before 1857). “William Morton, Jr.” was old enough to be a surety for his father as executor of his aunt Mary’s estate in 1835. He was named in the will of aunt Susannah Sothoron but is not in household in the 1850 household.
- 1.2.5) Margaret Isabella (? – ?), named in aunt Mary Pittney Morton’s will 1831, but not in 1850 census.
- 1.2.4) Lawrence M. (1825- after 1865). Recorded in the 1850 census in a boarding house in Albany, NY; in the 1865 city directory as a “clerk Pay Dept” and living at his mother’s home.
- 1.2.6) Cyprian A. (1825 -1853/5). In the will of his aunt Susannah Sothoron; apparently the 24-year-old clerk at Georgetown College in 1850. d.s.p.
- 1.2.7) Anna Waring (b. 1826/7 – after 1880), named for William’s aunt
1.2.8) Elizabeth Lawrason (b. 1828/29)). In the will of aunt Susannah Sothoron as a twin of Alice E. but not in household in 1850. - 1.2.9) Alice Easton (b 1828/9 – after 1880), single.
1.3) Mary Pittney Morton (1786 – 1834), single
She was named as niece and beneficiary of Elias Wheatley in his will of 1816.
“Died on July 6 in Georgetown, Mary P. Morton of this District after a protracted and distressing illness. She died as she lived, a consistent and unwavering Christian.” {National Intelligencer 7/10/1834). In her will made out in 1831, she made various small charitable donations, and left the balance of her property to her brother and executor William.
1.4) John Morton, Jr. (1789- after 1835)
He was a witness to his uncle Elias Wheatley’s 1816 will. In the Washington City directory of 1822, he was dwelling in Georgetown between 17th and 18th streets and working as a clerk in the ordinance office on the 2nd floor of the War Department.
He apparently had financial difficulties and perhaps other problems. His sister Mary’s 1831 will leaves “to brother John Morton, $500, with deed of trust which he is about to make to me for all of his property”. His sister Susanna made a bequest “in trust to William Morton for use of my bro. John.”
1.5) Ann Morton (1790 –before 1830)
She was named as a niece and beneficiary of Elias Wheatley in his 1816 will. But she is not mentioned in the wills of her two sisters.