William Morice 1602-1676
From Book Owners Online
Sir William MORICE 1602-76
Biographical Note
Born in Exeter, son of Evan Morice, Chancellor of the diocese of Exeter. BA Exeter College, Oxford 1622, after which he returned to Devon where he was largely concerned with estate management. MP for Devon 1648, after which he was increasingly involved in political affairs; knighted in 1660, he was appointed Secretary of State, and held that post until he resigned in 1668.
Books
When he retired to his country seat in 1668, Morice “erected a fair library, valued at £1200, being choice books, richly bound” (John Prince, The worthies of Devon, 1701, quoted by Cliffe, see below). In his will, he bequeathed "all my library books globes mapps silver utensills and cabinets in my studies" to his son William.
Sources
- Will of Sir William Morice, The National Archives PROB 11/354/351.
- Cliffe, J. The world of the country house in seventeenth-century England, 1999, 168-9.
- Seaward, Paul. "Morice, Sir William (1602–1676), politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.