The History of Anthony Morris

It is said that "Anthony" since at least the early 1600's was a distinguishing Christian name used in the Morris family---the family is thought to have come from Leicestershire of London.

Much of the following is quoted verbatim from the book"The American Heritage of James Norman Hall", by Robert Leland Johnson, 1968. A copy is in the Denver Public Library.

"During the reign of Queen Elizabeth in the year 1600 at Reading, in the county of Berkshire, England, a baby was born, later to be baptized Anthony Morris, the First known bearer of a name that would be carried down through the years and whose bearers would make monumental contributions to the foundations of a new republic to someday be known a s the United States of America.

When Anthony Morris was born on the banks of the Thames, below the juncture with the Kennet River, William Shakespeare was at the apogee of his playwright career and England enjoyed civil harmony under Queen Elizabeth, who had reigned since 1558. Protestantism, which the Queen espoused, had become the doctrinal basis of the Church of England and Parliament had enacted it into law be carious acts between 1559 and 1563. During the year 1588 the Spanish Armada was defeated off the coast of England, leaving England to replace Spain a The great colonizer of the New world and as the superior sea power of the world. With this new position as a colonial power, England took to the shores she colonized the religion of the Church of England.

One of the first to enter into the spirit of these exciting times was Anthony Morris--let me call him Anthony Morris I--who left his home in Reading and emigrated to Barbados, ion the West Indies. There he began the mercantile enterprises which were to occupy his family for generations".

In 1630 Anthony Morris I became the father on Anthony Morris II who became a mariner, dividing his time between residences in Barbados and London, carrying on the business begun by his father.