Martin Morrison was the Beaumonts’ Chief Steward, based in their Newcastle office between 1807-1827. He was baptised 6 August 1766 in Sunderland – son of John & Jane Morrison and
married Sarah (possibly Sarah Bedson) at St Katherine Creechurch London, 7th June 1796. An uncle, James Morrison, mentioned Martin’s mother, Jane, in his will dated 12 Jan 1797, when she was living –a widow- at White House, Co Durham. As Martin’s brother Shaftoe, was born at White House in 1781, it would suggest the family lived there for some time.
At the time of his death on 12th November 1827 Morrison was living at 7 Charlotte Square in Newcastle, possibly the same house occupied in the 1790s by one of his predecessors John Erasmus Blackett. The Newcastle Courant obituary of Morrison’s wife Sarah, however, who had died in nearly a year earlier, in January, indicated that her home was at Hampton Common in London.
Morrison named the following siblings in his will of 4th November 1824: brothers John (deceased), James (deceased), Shaftoe (baptised Chester le Street 3 April 1781) and William, and sisters Jane (wife of Rev John Hampson) & Catherine. Cousins included James William Morrison (son of Martin Morrison’s uncle James), who succeeded his father as Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in 1801 until 1850, and was knighted in 1851, and William Morrison, farmer of New Bewick.
No children are mentioned in the will.
Jane Hughes
Sources:
Parish registers
Newcastle Courant 3 Feb 1827
Newcastle Courant 17 Nov 1827
Aberdeen Journal 12 Feb 1851
London Standard 18 Oct 1855
Martin Morrison’s will – TNA_PROB11/1734 – included in ‘Dukesfield Documents’
James Morrison’s will – TNA_PROB11/1389
