Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for George Morton --- Go to Genealogy Page for Julian Carpenter

Notes for George Morton and Julian Carpenter

"A sister of Alice Carpenter, q.v., Juliana married (1) George Morton, and arrived in Plymouth in 1623 on the Anne with him and their children. Following Morton's death she married (2) Manasseh Kempton, but had no children by him. Ann Cooper, the daughter of Juliana's sister Priscilla, married Juliana's son Ephraim Morton. Juliana died 19 February 1664/65, age eighty-one (PCR 8:25)." [1]

"In the Leiden record of his betrothal to Juliana Carpenter on 6 July 1612 (married 23 July 1612), George Morton is said to have come from York, England, and his brother Thomas Morton was one of the witnesses (Dexter, p. 626). There have been attempts to connect him with Morton families of Austerfield or Bawtry, but the evidence is insufficient. His brother Thomas may have been the Thomas Morton who arrived at Plymouth on the Fortune in 1621, and the Thomas Morton, Jr. who arrived at Plymouth on the Anne in 1623 may have been Thomas's son and George's nephew. There is no known or suspected relationship with Thomas Morton of Merrymount. George has been called the Mourt of Mourt's Relation (it having been common to cut off the end syllable of some names (e.g., Coop-Cooper, Hunt-Hunter), the name G. Mourt appearing at the end of the preface, and this is likely, but not proven. [p.330] However, Edward Winslow was the author of most of this work, with probably some part done by Bradford, and Mourt would have been the one who arranged publication in England. George Morton arrived in Plymouth in 1623, probably on the Anne, though Banks says on the Little James. He had been one of the most important of the Separatist leaders in Leiden, and he would have played a leading role in the development of Plymouth Colony, but he died in June 1624. His widow Juliana married Manasseh Kempton, and in the 1627 cattle division she and her second husband are in Bradford's company, along with her children by George Morton: Nathaniel, John, Ephraim, and Patience. Another daughter, Sarah Morton, was born in Leiden, and in 1627 she was in Francis Eaton's company. Moore Families, p. 391-98, gives a well documented account of his life. Some of his early descendants are given in John K. Allen, George Morton of Plymouth Colony and Some of his Descendants (privately printed, 1908), which contains errors, some of which are resolved by Plymouth Co. LR 12:72. MD 17:45 transcribes additional original documents concerning George Morton and his family." [2]

Research Notes:

The Great Migration reports [3]:

George Morton
Origin: Leiden
Migration: 1623 in Anne
First Residence: Plymouth
Occupation: Merchant.

Education: Considering his son's literary accomplishments, it is likely that George was literate as well.
Estate: In the 1623 Plymouth land division George Morton was paired with Experience Mitchell, as passengers in the Anne, in a grant of eight acres [PCR 12:6]. By the time of the 1627 Plymouth cattle division, George Morton's widow, Juliana, had married Manasseh Kempton, and she and four of her children, Nathaniel, John, Ephraim and Patience Morton, were included in the company of William Bradford [PCR 12:13]. A fifth child, Sarah Morton, was the eleventh person in the company of Francis Eaton [PCR 12:12].
George Morton received one share in the Dartmouth lands [MD 4:187]; as he was long dead when this division was made, the grant was presumably to his heirs.

Birth: By about 1587 based on date of marriage.
Death: Plymouth June 1624 [Prince 310].
Marriage: Leiden 22 July 1612 [NS] Juliana Carpenter, daughter of Alexander Carpenter [MD 11:193]. She married (2) by 1627 Manasseh Kempton and died at Plymouth 19 February 1664 "aged fourscore and one year" [PCR 8:25].

Children:
i Nathaniel, born say 1613; in the Plymouth tax lists of 25 March 1633 and 27 March 1634 assessed 9s. [PCR 1:11, 28]; m. Plymouth 25 December 1635 Lydia Cooper [PCR 1:35].
ii Patience, born about 1615 (d. Plymouth 16 August 1691 "being entered into the 77 year of her age" [MD 16:62; PVR 135]); m. by 1633 John FAUNCE.
iii John, born say 1617; m. by 1649 Lettice _____ (eldest child born Plymouth 11 December 1649 [PCR 8:8]). She m. (2) about 1674 Andrew Ring, son of Mary Ring [TAG 42:203].
iv Sarah, born say 1620; m. Plymouth 20 December 1644 George Bonham [PCR 2:79].
v Ephraim, by 1623; m. Plymouth 18 November 1644 Ann Cooper [PCR 2:79].

Associations: Through his marriage to Juliana Carpenter, George Morton was brother-in-law to Samuel Fuller, William Bradford and William Wright, and was uncle to Constant Southworth and Edward Southworth (see Priscilla Carpenter).
In 1957 John G. Hunt published a speculative piece suggesting a distant collateral connection between William Bradford and George Morton [NEHGR 111:68].

Comments: George Morton's son Nathaniel wrote a history of Plymouth Colony called New England's Memorial and says about the Anne:
Two of the principal passengers that came in this ship were Mr. Timothy Hatherly and Mr. George Morton.... The latter of the two forenamed, namely Mr. George Morton, was a pious, gracious, servant of God, and very faithful in whatsoever public employment he was betrusted withal, and an unfeigned well willer, and according to his sphere and condition, a suitable promoter of the common good and growth of the plantation of New Plimouth; laboring to still the discontents that sometimes would arise amongst some spirits by reason of the difficulties of these new beginnings but it pleased God to put a period to his days soon after his arrival in New England, not surviving a full year after his coming ashore. With much comfort and peace he fell asleep in the Lord, in the month of June, anno 1624 [Morton 63-64].


Footnotes:

[1] Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1986), 258, [GoogleBooks].

[2] Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City, UT: Ancestry Incorporated, 1986), 329-330, [GoogleBooks].

[3] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 1296, [AmericanAncestors].