Call Number:

MC.975.03.065

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

0.1 linear ft. (1 volume)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Morris family commonplace book (HC.MC.975.03.065), Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

Undated.

Creator:

Morris family and Morris, Margaret Hill

Form:

Commonplace books, Diaries, and Correspondence

Abstract:

The commonplace book of the Morris family includes copied extracts from the journals of Margaret Morris, which include a description of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793, as well as copied poems, letters written by Mary Morris and Richard Hill Morris, and a clipped illustration depicting early settlers.

Margaret Hill Morris (1737-1816) was born in 1737, in South River, near Annapolis, Maryland. Her parents, Richard and Deborah (Moore) Hill, moved to the island of Madeira when she was young, and Morris was raised by her aunt and uncle in Philadelphia. Margaret Hill Morris married William Morris, a Quaker merchant and early contributor to the Pennsylvania Hospital, in 1758. The couple had four children, three were born before William's death in 1766, and one born after. In 1770, the family moved to the vicinity of Burlington, New Jersey, and established a home there, called "Green Bank." Morris was recognized as a skillful doctor and she regularly treated the ill and injured during the American Revolutionary War. Morris died on October 10, 1816, of a stroke at the age of 79.

This collection is comprised of a single volume commonplace book of the Morris family. It includes copied extracts from the journals of Margaret Morris, which include a description of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793, as well as copied poems, letters written by Mary Morris and Richard Hill Morris, and a clipped illustration depicting early settlers.