A SOLDIERS’ STORY: JOSEPH, HANNAH, AND JONATHAN FORD MORRIS
The next time you’re driving along Whippany Road and you approach the intersection with Hanover Avenue in Morristown, look to the north (across the street from Morristown Beard School) and you’ll see a colonial house tucked behind some trees at 376 Whippany Road. This house involves an interesting story of two Revolutionary War soldiers, and a wife and mother who provided patriotic service.
The story starts with Joseph Morris (DAR ancestor A080938), who was born in Whippany in 1732, and married Hannah Ford in 1759. Having already served in the French and Indian War and the Pennamite War (between Connecticut and Pennsylvania around Wyoming, PA), he was experienced in military service. He was elected Adjutant of the Morris County militia in 1775. When the Revolution broke out, he was quick to form the very first militia in Morris County (in Whippany) and take on the role of its Captain. He joined the Continental Army soon after, and fought in the northern campaign around Lake Champlain. He served as a captain in Colonel Daniel Morgan’s Rangers or Riflemen, was promoted to Major in early 1777, took part in the fighting at Saratoga, then moved to Pennsylvania with his unit.
Major Morris was a highly respected military commander. Col. James Wilkinson described his service at Saratoga as follows:
Major Morris was shot in the head at the battle of White Marsh (near Philadelphia) on 6 Dec 1777. The musket ball struck him in the mouth, breaking his teeth and lodging in the back of his throat. He was unable to speak or eat, but he was still alive. He was brought to Morristown, at which point the Marquis de Lafayette took a keen interest and tried to help. Lafayette wrote the following letter to Major Morris’ only child, son Jonathan Ford Morris:
Sir:
It is with the greatest concern that I have heard that Major Morris went from camp to Morristown without surgeon to attend him. I’ll be much obliged to you to let me know immediately if he is well provided for at this time because I should send to him a very good French surgeon belonging to Count de Pulaski whom the count has promised to me. I shall send in the same time a servant of mine, very attentive to take care of the Major as long as you will think him of some use. Be so good, sir as to let me know as soon as possible if these measures are to be taken and if I can serve your father in some other thing. I hope you will give me a very particular account of his present state.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient
the Marquis de Lafayette
George Washington was also keenly aware of Major Morris’ heroism and expressed deep concern about his injury. In a letter to Henry Laurens on 10 Dec he noted his concern about the injury of “Major Morris, a brave & gallant Officer.” On 27 Dec he wrote to Robert R. Livingston that Major Morris “so eminently distinguished [himself] in the Light Corps established this Campaign.”
Attended by Doctor Lews Dunham, surgeon of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment, Major Joseph Morris died of his wounds on 5 Jan 1778. He was buried with the “Honours of War” at the cemetery of the Presbyterian Church in Morristown. In his will, he left his house and property to his wife and son. Those of us who are fans of our chapter’s patriot Dr. Jabez Campfield will note that Dr. Campfield served as an executor for Joseph Morris’ will.
Lafayette continued to express concern for Major Morris’ family and try to help them. He wrote to Col. Morgan:
“I just now received your favor concerning our late friend, Major Morris, and I need not repeat to you how much I am concerned in the interests of his family. I spoke the other day to his Excellency on the subject, and I shall write to Congress a very particular letter, where you will be mentioned. I intend to speak as in your name, and that of all your corps, and as being myself honored with their confidence. It is my opinion that a decent estate might be given to the family as mark of gratefulness from their country, and that his son must be promoted as soon as possible. But, my dear sir, you know how long Congress waive any matter whatsoever before a decision, and, as Mrs. Morris may be in some want before that time, I am going to trouble you with a commission which I beg you will execute with the greatest secrecy. If she wanted to borrow any sum of money in expecting the arrangements of Congress, it would not become a stranger, unknown to her, to offer himself for that purpose. But you could (as from yourself) tell her that you had friends, who being in the army, don’t know what to do with their money, and as they are not in the mercantile or husbandry way, would willingly let her have one or many thousand dollars, which she might give again in three or four years, etc., etc.
One other way could be to let her believe that you have got or borrowed the money from any town or body you will be pleased to mention, or it would be needless to mention where it comes from.
In a word, my dear sir, if with the greatest secrecy, and the most minute regard for that lady’s delicacy, you may find a manner of being useful to her, I beg you would communicate to me immediately.
I shall as soon as possible, let you know the answer of Congress, whenever an answer will be got, and in expecting the pleasure to hear from you…”
Joseph’s wife, Hannah Ford Morris, continued to provide patriotic service even after her husband’s death. There are records that she housed officers in her home in 1780, provided cords of wood to the soldiers at Jockey Hollow, and kept an army horse on her property. She died of consumption five years after her husband, on 12 Oct 1783, and is buried next to her husband.
The Morris house shows up on a map drawn by Washington’s cartographer, Robert Erskine, where it is labelled as a tavern owned by Jonathan Morris, Joseph’s son. It would have been a great spot for a tavern to cater to travelers, situated along the Whippany Road, at the intersection of the “Road to Hanover” (now Hanover Avenue) and the “Road to Hibernia” (now what appears to be Route 24). Nearby are two different roads labelled “Road to Bottle Hill”, another called the “road to Boon Town” (now Rt. 287), and yet another called the “Post Road to New York” (King’s Highway, now Columbia Turnpike). Indeed, today that intersection is still incredibly busy.
The young son, Jonathan Ford Morris (DAR ancestor 080933), is an interesting story as well. He was born in Hanover in 1760, and at the age of 15 he enlisted in the army as a very young Ensign serving in his father’s company. Young men were not supposed to enlist until they were at least 16, so it is particularly astonishing that he was an under-age officer. He was soon promoted to Lieutenant in Proctor’s Artillery of the Continental Army. Lieutenant Morris was so young that the other soldiers he commanded did not appreciate taking orders from such a young man. Abraham Fairchild would testify that “I will recollect the fact that many of this company whom I knew well were dissatisfied + shared their dissatisfaction plainly, that so young a man should be placed over them.”
After serving in a number of notable battles including the Canada Expedition, Brandywine, and Monmouth, Jonathan Ford Morris resigned from the army in November 1778 at the request of his widowed mother. Perhaps she could not bear the thought of losing her only son after the devastating loss of her husband, or perhaps he took a break to help his mother establish the tavern business. He re-enlisted in March 1780 in a new role that was a bit further from the action, serving as a Surgeon’s Mate reporting directly to the Army’s Surgeon General, Dr. William Shippen until June 1782. He and Dr. Shippen remained close friends after the war, and Jonathan Ford Morris followed Shippen’s lead to become a doctor.
Jonathan Ford Morris married Margaret Smith Ewing/Ewen in 1784 and moved to Somerset County, where he set up his medical practice. Jonathan and Margaret raised a large family of nine children. He died in Somerset Co NJ on 13 Apr 1810 and is buried at the Old Presbyterian Graveyard in Bound Brook.
Image of the Morris house at 376 Whippany Road, street view from Google Maps
Excerpt from map by Robert Erskine, No. 47 “Road to Morristown by Mr. Lott’s”; full map available online at https://digitalcollections.nyhistory.org/islandora/object/nyhs%3A243261
Sources
New Jersey Office of Cultural and Environmental Services, Historic Sites Inventory No. 1412-008
Olsen, Eric (Morristown National Historical Park), Morris Family of Hanover, NJ, unpublished research notes
Pension of Jonathan Ford Morris, W135, National Archives and Records Administration, M804, RG 15
Washington, George to Henry Laurens, 10 Dec 1777, online at https://founders.archives.gov
Washington, George to Robert R. Livingston, 27 Dec 1777, online at https://founders.archives.gov
Will of Joseph Morris, New Jersey Archives, 1st Series, Vol. XXXIV, Abstracts of Wills, Vol. V of Calendar of Wills, 1771-1780, pg. 358