Sir John Morris, 1st Baronet
Sir John Morris, 1st Baronet (15 July 1745 – 25 June 1819), was a British industrialist, active in copper-smelting and coal-mining in Swansea, South Wales.
Biography
John Morris was born on 15 July 1745. He was the son of Robert Morris (d.1768) and Margaret Morris (née Parry). His father was a Shropshire entrepreneur who had come to Swansea in 1724 to supervise the Llangyfelach Copper Works, founded in 1717, and had taken control of the works when the owner, John Lane, was declared bankrupt in 1726. John Morris had three older siblings - Robert (1743 or 1744 - 1797?), Bridget and Margaret (d.1809).
The family expanded their copper-smelting and coal-mining interests in the Swansea valley throughout the remainder of the eighteenth century. John Morris initiated in 1768 the building of the planned village of Morris Town (today known as Morriston) to house the company's workers.
His father died in 1768. His older brother became a barrister and a supporter of the radical politician, John Wilkes. In 1774 John married Henrietta Musgrave. In 1776 his sister Margaret married the French immigrant, Noel Joseph Desenfans, and she and her husband and Francis Bourgeois would eventually build up an art collection which became the basis of the collection at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.
In 1806 he was created a baronet, of Clasemont in the County of Glamorgan. Clasemont was a house in Morriston, Swansea. He died on 25 June 1819.
References
- Morriston Camera Club
- GENUKI: Morriston in the Parish of Llangyfelach
- Sotheby's (New York): Sales of painting of GEORGE ROMNEY DALTON 1734 - 1802 KENDAL PORTRAIT OF MRS. HENRIETTA MORRIS (wife of Sir John) AND HER SON JOHN
- Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.
- Leigh Rayment's list of baronets