MORRISON, George (brother of the preceding). b. 1835; ed. at Eton and Balliol coll. Oxf.; rowed No. 5 in the Oxford boat against Cambridge 1859–61; was umpire at the University boat race 1869–70; purchased Hampworth lodge, Downton near Salisbury from Robert Shafto 1867; sheriff of Wiltshire 1881. d. 4 April 1884.
MORRISON, George Staunton (son of Robert Morrison, oriental scholar 1782–1834). Student interpreter in China 30 June 1847; secretary and registrar at Hong Kong 10 Dec. 1857; consul at Nagasaki in Japan 21 Dec. 1858, retired on a pension 1 Jany. 1864; severely wounded in an attack made on the British legation at Yedo by an armed band of Japanese 5 July 1861. d. Nice 20 Aug. 1893. I.L.N. xxxix 427 (1861) portrait.
MORRISON, James (son of Joseph Morrison who d. 1804). b. Hampshire 1790; partner in general drapery business of Joseph Todd in Fore st. city of London, the firm became known as Morrison, Dillon and co., and was converted into the Fore st. company, limited; made a large fortune; bought land in Berkshire, Bucks, Kent, Wiltshire, Yorkshire and Islay, Argyleshire; M.P. St. Ives, Cornwall 1830; M.P. Ipswich 12 Dec. 1832 to 1835; contested Ipswich 8 Jany. 1835; M.P. Ipswich 19 June 1835 to 1837; M.P. Inverness burghs 1840–7; made a large collection of pictures of the old masters, Italian and Dutch and of English pictures; author of Rail roads, speech in the House of Commons 1836; Observations illustrative of the defects of the English system of railway legislation 1846; The influence of English railway legislation on trade and industry 1848. d. Basildon park near Reading 30 Oct. 1857, leaving between three and four millions. Puseley’s Commercial companies (1858) p. 146; Waagen’s Cabinets of art (1857) 105–13; Waagen’s Galleries of art (1857) 300–312; Waagen’s Treasures of art ii 260–63 (1854); The Town ii 795 (1839).
MORRISON, Sir James William (only son of James Morrison, deputy master and worker of the Mint). b. London 1774; ed. at Loughborough house school and Yverdun in Switzerland; clerk in royal mint 1792; deputy master and worker 1803 to March 1851; knighted at Buckingham palace 3 Feb. 1851. d. the hermitage, Snaresbrook, Essex 27 June 1856.
MORRISON, Peter. Merchant at 11 Virginia terrace, Dover road, London 1840–1; resident director of Britannia Life assurance co. 1 Prince’s st. City of London 1842–51; founded the Bank of Deposit at 7 St. Martin’s place May 1844, managing director there 1853–4 and at 3 Pall Mall east 1854–62, there were branches in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Birmingham, Brighton, Lewes, and Dublin; proprietor of the Atlas newspaper April or May 1859, lost £2,480 over it in 2½ years; resided at 44 Porchester sq. Hyde park 1855–62; adjudicated bankrupt 27 Nov. 1861; proclaimed an outlaw 15 Feb. 1862. Gazette of bankruptcy 1 Jany. 1862 pp. 4–5, 19 Feb. p. 184.
MORRISON, Richard James, known as Zadkiel (son of Richard Caleb Morrison, gentleman pensioner under George III., who d. 1808). b. London 15 June 1795; entered navy 1806, saw much boat service in the Adriatic, lieut. 3 March 1815; served in the coastguard April 1827 to Oct. 1829, when placed on h.p.; presented to the admiralty a plan for registering merchant seamen 22 April 1824, since adopted in principle, also suggested a plan for providing seamen 6 March 1835; brought out The herald of astrology for the years 1831–34 by Zadkiel the Seer, London 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, four volumes, continued as The astronomical almanac for 1835 by Zadkiel 1834, one volume, continued as Zadkiel’s almanac and herald of astrology for 1836. 1835 and went on to his death; brought an action for libel against sir Edward Belcher in the Queen’s Bench, when he got a verdict with 20/-damages 29 June 1863; author under his own name of Narrative of the loss of the Rothsay Castle in Beaumaris bay, 4 ed. 1831; Observations on Dr. Halley’s great comet, 2 ed. 1835; The solar system as it is and not as it is represented 1857; Explanation of the bell buoy invented by lieut. Morrison 1858; Astronomy in a nutshell 1860; The comet, a map on the course of Encke’s comet 1860; The New Principia or true system of astronomy 1868, 2 ed. 1872; King David triumphant, a letter to the astronomer of Benares 1871; under the name of Zadkiel he also edited The horoscope, a weekly miscellany Liverpool 1834, nineteen numbers; The horoscope, a monthly magazine London 1 vol. 1841; The voice of the stars No. 1 1862; and was author of Zadkiel’s magazine or record of astrology, 2 numbers Jany. and Feb. 1849; The grammar of astrology 1840. 3 ed. 1849; Zadkiel’s legacy, also essays on Hindu astrology and the nativity of the prince of Wales 1842; An essay on love and matrimony 1851; The hand-book of astrology 2 vols 1861–2; On the great first cause, his existence and attributes 1867; Zadkiel’s astronomical ephemeris for 1849 etc., 1848 etc. d. Sunnyside, Knight’s park, Kingston-on-Thames 5 Feb. 1874. Companion to Zadkiel’s Almanac for 1855 with a portrait; A. Steinmetz’s Manual of weather casts (1866) 33; C. Cooke’s Curiosities of occult literature (1863) 4–9, 242; A. D. Morgan’s Budget of paradoxes (1872) 195, 277, 472; British almanac and companion (1867) 119–22; Horace Welby’s Predictions realised (1862) 37–8; A. J. Pearce’s Text book of astrology i 27–8, 207–8, ii 30 etc. (1879–89); Mercurius’s Predicting almanack for 1876 pp. 40–6 portrait; Athenæum vol. i 630, 666, 701 (1874).
Note.—He predicted the death of the Prince Consort in Zadkiel’s Almanac for 1861 thus “The position of Saturn in May will be evil for all persons born upon or near the 26 Aug., among the sufferers I regret to see the worthy prince consort of these realms.” The prince was b. 26 Aug. 1819 and d. at Windsor 14 Dec. 1861.
MORRISON, Robert. b. parish of Moy, Invernessshire 14 Feb. 1822; manager of works of Messrs. Hawthorn at Newcastle 1844–53; manufacturer of engines at Ouseburn from 1853; invented and patented an improved steam hammer, which gained first prize at Exhibition of 1862; made a hammer of 40 tons for Russia 1863; M.I.C.E. 28 May 1861. d. 20 Dec. 1869. Minutes of proc. of Instit. of C.E. xxxi 220–22 (1871).
MORRISSEY, John. b. Templemore, Tipperary 5 Feb. 1831; taken to Lower Canada 1836 and to Troy, New York 3 months later; apprenticed to an iron moulder at Troy; bar-tender at Aleck Hamilton’s house, Troy; an emigrant runner in New York 1849; fought George Thompson on Mare Island 31 Aug. 1852 for 2,000 dollars a side and championship of California and won in 9 rounds; fought Yankee Sullivan at Boston Four-corners, 100 miles from New York 5 Oct. 1853 for 2,000 dollars a side and won in 37 rounds; badly beaten by Wm. Poole in New York 26 July 1854. Poole was killed by Morrissey’s friends 24 Feb. 1855; fought J. C. Heenan at Long Point Island in lake Erie 10 Oct. 1858 for 5,000 dollars a side and the championship of America and won in 11 rounds lasting 21 minutes; kept a gambling house where he lost 124,000 dollars in one night to Benjamin Wood 1867; opened a large gambling house in Saratoga 1869, made Saratoga a famous summer resort; member of Congress 6 Nov. 1866 to death. d. Saratoga, New York county 1 May 1878. bur. St. Peter’s cemetery, Troy 4 May. W. E. Harding’s John Morrissey, his life, battles and wrangles (1880) portrait; Nation 9 May 1878 pp. 304–5.
MORRITT, William John Sawrey (son of rev. Robert Morritt). b. 12 Sep. 1813; ensign 37 foot 15 March 1831, lieut. 15 March 1833; lieut. 77 foot Feb. 1834, sold out 26 Dec. 1834; came into Rokeby estate, Yorkshire on death of his uncle 1843; started the Four in hand driving club April 1856; crippled by a dog cart accident; M.P. north riding of Yorkshire 1862–5; one of the best coachmen of his day. d. Brighton 13 April 1874. Baily’s mag. xxv 249–54 (1874) portrait.