Author: MORRIS, Charles
Biography:
MORRIS, Charles (1745-1838: ODNB)
For one of the most popular song-writers and performers of his day, his life is surprisingly under-documented. He was the fourth son of Captain Thomas Morris (d c 1752) and his wife Mary (maiden name not known, d 1804); Thomas Morris (q.v.) was his eldest brother. He was probably born in Ireland but no birth record has been found; after his father died, his mother took the family to England, probably to a family property near Carlisle. Song-writing and the British Army were also in the family tradition: like his grandfather, father, and father before him, in 1764 Charles joined the 17th Regiment of Foot. He saw action in America and was promoted to Captain but chose to be transferred, on his return to Ireland, first to the Royal Irish Dragoons and then to the Life Guards. He settled in London and became a fixture in fashionable society, especially in Whig circles. On 8 Feb. 1773 he married Anne Hussey Delaval, widow of Sir William Stanhope, at Marylebone; they had a daughter, Georgiana, born in 1791. After the death of his wife in 1812 Morris is said to have married again and to have had another daughter but reliable evidence is lacking. Like Thomas Moore (q.v.) he performed his songs at both private and public gatherings. Many of them were bawdy; many were drinking songs; some were political. In his final, relatively respectable collection, Lyra Urbanica (1840), which was published posthumously in two volumes, he wrote engagingly of “the friendly and festive Societies in which I have passed almost the whole of my life” (1: xvi). It was a significant achievement for him to have been elected to the exclusive company of the Beefsteak Club in 1785—a fact that he makes much of on later title-pages. He remained a member until 1831 and they gave him a silver bowl for his ninetieth birthday in 1835. He died on 11 Jul. 1838 at Brockham Lodge near Dorking, Surrey, a country residence in which he had a life interest thanks to one of his patrons, the Duke of Norfolk. He was buried at St. Michael’s, Betchworth, on 18 Jul. The comment on his death in GM is apt: “many of his convivial songs will live, and much that he ought not to have written is already forgotten.” (ODNB 22 Feb. 2023; GM Oct. 1838, 453; ancestry.com 22 Feb. 2023; findmypast.com 22 Feb. 2023; O’Donoghue)
Other Names:
- Captain Morris