Rt. Hon Humphry Morice

1723 - 18th Oct 1785


Biography

Admitted a fellow commoner of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 01/01/1740-1. "Doubtless 1st s. of Humphrey, Governor of the Bank of England. B. 1723. Matric. 1740-1. (Name off, 1743.) Second cousin to Sir William, of Warrington, Devon, Bart. Succeeded to his estates, 1750. MP for Launceston, 1754 and 1757. Clerk comptroller of the Household of George II, 1757. Went abroad, 1760. Privy Councillor, 1763. Lord Warden of the Stannaries, 1763. High Steward of the duchy of Cornwall, 1763. Recorder of Launceston, 1771-82. Ousted from the Stannaries, 1783. A distinguished politician and a friend of Horace Walpole. Became a confirmed valetudinarian. Died at Naples, Oct. 18, 1785."

In the ODNB as a "politician and art collector".

In his will, written in 1782 and with later codicils, he describes himself as "of the Grove, Chiswick" and mentions two annuities. One for £500 pa purchased on William Gray Esquire and charged upon his unnamed estates in Jamaica. This annuity was for the life of Humphry Morice and that of Richard Bull Esquire of Stratton Street, Piccadilly and he left the interest "and all other arrears" to Richard Bull. The second annuity, for £300 pa, was charged upon Thomas Davison's estate called Preston in Jamaica, for the life of Morice and for the lives of Ann Jane and Albina Reeve, daughters of Dame Jane Reeve of Holiport in Berkshire. This annuity he left to Dame Jane Reeve.


Sources

Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online].

A. F. Robbins, ‘Morice, Humphry (1723–1785)’, rev. Matthew Kilburn, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://0-www.oxforddnb.com.catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/view/article/19252, accessed 15/03/2016]

Sir Lewis Namier, 'Morice, Humphry (?1723-85)', History of Parliament online

PROB 11/1139/132.


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Children
d.s.p.
Oxford DNB Entry

Associated Estates (2)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
- 1785 [LA] → Annuitant
- 1785 [LA] → Annuitant

Legacies Summary

Cultural (1)

V & A: Prints, Drawings & Paintings
William Watts (1752-1851). Grove House, Chiswick. One of 14 sketches in a volume half-bound in red... 
notes →

Political (1)

MP
Whig 
election →
Launceston Cornwall
1750 - 1780

Relationships (3)

Annuitant → Grantor
Annuitant → Grantor
Testator → Legatee

Addresses (2)

Werrington, Devon, Devon & Cornwall, England
Grove House, Chiswick, London, Middlesex, London, England