Richard Valentine Morris

He was born on March 8, 1768, in Morrisania, then a town in Westchester County, which became in 1898 a neighborhood in the borough of the Bronx, New York City. He was one of ten children born to Lewis Morris (1726–1798), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Mary Walton (1727–1794), a member of a well-known merchant family.{{cite web|url=http://colonialhall.com/morris/morrisMary.php|title=Biography of Mary Walton Morris - Colonial Hall|website=colonialhall.com|access-date=August 15, 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Reynolds|first1=Cuyler|last2=Cutter|first2=William Richard|title=Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation {{!}} Vol. III|date=1914|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iNIUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1143|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}

His uncles included Staats Long Morris, Richard Morris, the Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court, and Gouverneur Morris, a United States Senator from New York. His grand-uncle was Robert Hunter Morris, a Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and his great-grandfather was Colonial Governor Lewis Morris. His aunt, Helena Magdalena Morris (1762–1840), was married to John Rutherfurd (1760–1840), a United States Senator from New Jersey who served from 1791 to 1798.

On June 7, 1798, he was appointed as Captain in command of {{USS|Adams|1799|2}}, during the Quasi-War with France and made several successful captures of French vessels. At the reduction of the US Navy after the war with France, Morris was retained as fifth in rank and recalled to command the Mediterranean Squadron in 1802 during the First Barbary War.{{cite book|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|title=The Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Early American Republic, 1783–1812: A Political, Social, and Military History [3 volumes]: A Political, Social, and Military History|date=2014|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781598841572|pages=432–433|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sApvBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA432|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}

In command of {{USS|Chesapeake|1799|2}}, Morris led an unsuccessful blockade of Tripoli, mostly remaining in Gibraltar for the better part of 1803.{{cite book|last1=Kilmeade|first1=Brian|last2=Yaeger|first2=Don|title=Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History|date=2015|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9780698197411|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7dtJBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT68|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}} Morris was relieved of duty and command of the squadron would turn over to Edward Preble in {{USS|Constitution||2}}. Recalled to the United States, Morris faced a court of inquiry which decided that he had not "discovered due diligence and activity in annoying the enemy".{{cite book|title=The Pictorial Field-book of the War of 1812: Or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the Last War for American Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=itN2AAAAMAAJ|year=1869|publisher=Harper & Brothers|page=[https://archive.org/details/cihm_24384/page/n130 119]|isbn = 9780659116796}}

On May 16, 1804, Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith, with the agreement of President Thomas Jefferson, revoked his captaincy in the U.S. Navy and dismissed him from the service.{{cite book|author=David Smethurst|title=Tripoli: The United States' First War on Terror|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NNUuSZlYigkC|year=2006|publisher=Random House Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-89141-859-7|page=180}}{{cite book|last1=Morris|first1=Richard Valentine|title=A Narrative of the Official Conduct of Valentine Morris: Late Captain ...|date=1787|url=https://archive.org/stream/anarrativeoffic00morrgoog#page/n4/mode/2up|access-date=15 August 2017}} Morris had brought his wife and young son on board with him and was accused of taking actions "more reflective of a concerned husband and father than a military commander in the midst of a war." In 1804, he published A Defence of the Conduct of Commodore Morris During His Command in the Mediterranean, as a defense to the actions he took while in command of the Mediterranean.{{cite book|last1=Morris|first1=Richard Valentine|title=A Defence of the Conduct of Commodore Morris During His Command in the Mediterranean: With Strictures on The Report of the Court of Enquiry Held at Washington|date=1804|publisher=I. Riley and Company|location=New-York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZQ0AQAAMAAJ|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}

From July 1, 1813 until June 30, 1814, Morris was a Federalist member of the New York State Assembly (Westchester Co.), serving in the 37th New York State Legislature.{{cite book|last1=Hough|first1=Franklin|title=The New York Civil List: Containing the names and origin of the civil divisions, and the names and dates of election or appointment of the principal state and county officers from the Revolution to the present time|date=1858|publisher=Weed, Parsons and Co.|url=https://archive.org/details/newyorkcivillis00houggoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/newyorkcivillis00houggoog/page/n148 122]|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}

On January 24, 1797, Morris was married to Anne Walton (1773–1858). Together, they were the parents of:{{cite book|last1=Bergen|first1=Tunis Garret|title=Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation|date=1915|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company|page=1144|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuwpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA1144|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}

• Lewis Morris (1797–1798), who died young.{{cite book|title=The American Historical Magazine|date=1906|publisher=Publishing Society of New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanhistoric1907publ/page/321 321]-328|url=https://archive.org/details/americanhistoric1907publ|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}
• Gerard Walton Morris (1799–1865), who married Martha Pine in 1827.
• Richard Valentin Morris, Jr. (1803–1843), who died unmarried.
• Henry Morris (1805–1854), who married Mary Natalie Spencer (1810–1886), daughter of John Canfield Spencer, in 1831.{{cite book|last1=Robison|first1=Jeannie Floyd Jones|last2=Bartlett|first2=Henrietta Collins|title=Genealogical Records: Manuscript Entries of Births, Deaths and Marriages Taken from Family Bibles, 1581-1917|date=1917|publisher=Colonial Dames of the State of New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qeZmAAAAMAAJ&pg=SL3-PA156|access-date=15 August 2017|language=en}}

Morris died in May 1815 in New York City.

;Notes

{{reflist|30em}}

;Sources

• {{cite book|title=History of the Navy of the United States of America|last=Cooper|first=James Fenimore|publisher=H & E Phinney|volume=I

|page=217|year=1847}}

• [https://archive.org/details/anarrativeoffic00morrgoog A Narrative of the Official Conduct of Valentine Morris, Esq.: Late Captain General, Governor in Chief of the Island of St. Vincent and its Dependencies] by Richard Valentine Morris
• [https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Defence_of_the_Conduct_of_Commodore_Mo.html?id=GZQ0AQAAMAAJ A Defence of the Conduct of Commodore Morris During His Command in the Mediterranean: With Strictures on The Report of the Court of Enquiry Held at Washington] by Richard Valentine Morris

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Category:1768 births

Category:1815 deaths

Category:Morris family (Morrisania and New Jersey)

Category:American politicians of Dutch descent

Category:United States Navy officers

Category:Continental Navy officers

Category:Members of the New York State Assembly

Category:New York (state) Federalists

Category:19th-century American naval officers

Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature