Born about 1584, he was the youngest of the three sons of George Morton of Eshere in Chilham, Kent, by Mary, daughter of Robert Honywood of Charing in the same county.
In 1609 Morton returned to England, and in August 1613 he was talked of as minister to Savoy, but he met with a serious carriage accident in the same year, and he did not start until 12 May 1614.
He was knighted on 23 September 1617, and saw little enough of the electress: his brother, writing in October 1618, says that he had returned at that time and was ill, and under the care of an Italian doctor.
It was rumoured in April 1624 that he was to succeed Sir Edward Herbert as ambassador to France, and later that he had refused the appointment, which, Dudley Carleton wrote, was as strange as that it was offered to him.
[2] Early in 1625 Sir George Calvert gave up the secretaryship of state for a substantial consideration, and Morton was sworn in at Newmarket in his place.
Buckingham had written to the mayor of Rochester in his favour, and he chose to sit for Kent, but he died in November 1625, and was buried at Southampton, where he had property.