Francis, at the time of Sydney's birth, was the incumbent of the parish of St John's Church, Ladywood, Birmingham.
Francis was the son of Thomas Morse, of Flixton, near Lowestoft, and was born in 1819, and educated at Shrewsbury School and St John's College, Cambridge.
His firm was associated with many institutions themselves involved in new technologies, including forty or more tramway and electric lighting companies, through to gramophone manufacturers.
[7] Sydney also became known as a collector of art, including the portrait of Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Bt by William Holman Hunt.
At her sale, Christie's, 19 March 1937, it was bought by their son Leopold George Esmond Morse for presentation to the National Portrait Gallery in memory of his father.