During the later years of his public life, Morris speculated wildly, often on overextended credit, in lands in the West and at the site of Washington, D.C. To compound his difficulties, in 1794 he began constructing on Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street a palatial townhouse designed by Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant. Not long thereafter, Morris attempted to escape creditors by retreating to The Hills, the country estate along the Schuylkill River on the edge of Philadelphia that he had acquired in 1770.
Arrested at the behest of creditors in 1798 and forced to abandon completion of the townhouse, henceforth known in its unfinished state as “Morris’ Folly,” Morris was thrown into the Philadelphia debtors’ prison, where he was well treated. Nevertheless, by the time he was released in 1801, under a Federal bankruptcy law, his property and fortune had vanished, his health deteriorated, and his spirit been broken. He lingered on amid poverty and obscurity, living in a simple Philadelphia home on an annuity Gouverneur Morris had obtained for his wife. He died in 1806 in his 72d year. He was buried in the yard of Christ Church.
John Morton
PENNSYLVANIA
John Morton, one of the nine signers from Pennsylvania, is better known there than in the Nation, but he rendered meritorious service to both. He cast the decisive ballot that swung his State over to an affirmative vote for independence in the Continental Congress. He was the first signer to die.
Morton was born of Finnish-Swedish descent in 1725, shortly after the death of his father, on a farm in Ridley Township, Chester (present Delaware) County. John Sketchley, an Englishman who subsequently married the widowed mother of the youth, reared and educated him. Their relationship was apparently close, for Morton later named his eldest son Sketchley. The stepfather, learned in mathematics, taught the boy the three R’s as well as surveying. He practiced that profession on and off all his life, as well as farming, politics, and jurisprudence. He married in his early 20’s, in 1748 or 1749, and fathered five daughters and four sons.
At the age of 30, Morton entered politics, which from then on absorbed most of his energies. From 1756 until a few months before he died in 1777, he served 18 terms in the colonial/State legislature (1756–66 and 1769–76), which he presided over during the last year and a half. In 1774 he won appointment as an associate justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Meantime, despite his rise in State circles, Morton had always maintained strong ties with his own county. He resided there all his life, remained active in civic and church affairs, and stayed close to the people. Between terms of office as county justice of the peace (1757–64 and 1770–74), he worked in a tour as sheriff (1766–69).