Thomas Morton 1564-1659

Thomas MORTON 1564-1659

Biographical Note

Born at York, son of Richard Morton, mercer there. BA St John's College, Cambridge 1587, MA 1590, fellow 1592, BD 1598, DD 1606, Master 1612. Chaplain to Henry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon 1595; rector of Long Marston, Yorkshire 1598; travelled in Europe as chaplain to Ralph Eure, Baron Eure. Dean of Gloucester 1607, of Winchester 1609; fellow of Chelsea College 1610. Bishop of Chester 1616, of Coventry and Lichfield 1619, of Durham 1632; after impeachment in 1641 and house arrest in London, he spent his last decade of life with Sir Christopher Yelverton in his house at Easton Maudit, Northamptonshire. Morton published numerous works of doctrinal and controversial theology, seeking to defend his brand of Anglican Calvinism from both Roman Catholic and more extreme protestant positions.

Books

Morton was a generous benefactor to the Library of St John's during the 1620s and 30s, giving both books of his own and money to buy them. There are 500-600 books in the Library today marked as his gifts. In his will, be bequeathed "my books in my chamber" to his chaplain John Barwick; we do not know how many books he had with him then.

Characteristic Markings

Many of the books in St John's carry a printed donation label, and/or have one of several gilt armorial stamps on their covers.

Sources

• Armorials database.
• Jayne, S., Library catalogues of the English renaissance, 2nd edn, Godalming, 1983, p.149, 169.
• Quintrell, Brian. '"Morton, Thomas (bap. 1564, d. 1659), bishop of Durham."' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Thomas Morton in St John's, Cambridge.