In the fall of 1672, both Richard and Sarah died, leaving only the infant Lewis, barely a year old, as the lord of the manor.

Col. Lewis made great pains to secure his nephew's lost property, including a few slaves that had been captured and resold.

The first time, in September 1704, Morris apologized to the governor and was reinstated, but in December 1704 Cornbury suspended him.

Sir William Cosby, who served as governor of New York and New Jersey (as did all governors beginning with Viscount Cornbury), showed little interest in New Jersey politics, started a feud with Morris because of a decision of the New York Supreme Court.

Morris was Chief Justice, and wrote a dissenting minority opinion which Cosby found deeply offensive.

When William Cosby was appointed Governor of New York and New Jersey in 1732, his opponents were called "Morrisites" as Lewis Morris was a prominent critic.

Morris complied with the Governor, but also had the opinion printed for public distribution, along with an explanatory letter stating, If judges are to be intimidated so as not to dare to give any opinion, but what is pleasing to the Governor, and agreeable to his private views, the people of this province who are very much concerned both with respect to their lives and fortunes in the freedom and independency of those who are to judge them, may possibly not think themselves so secure in either of them as the laws of his Majesty intended they should be.

His dismissal led directly to the John Peter Zenger trial affirming freedom of speech in the United States.