Thomas Morris (British Army officer)

[1] Born at Carlisle, where he was baptised on 22 April 1732, he was one of four sons of Captain Thomas Morris, soldier author of the popular song Kitty Crowder, who died about 1752.

[4] When Morris was sent off on 26 August, without an escort of soldiers, Bradstreet had been misinformed by Delaware Indians and Shawnees about the attitude of Native Americans to the west.

[5] Morris ascended the Maumee River, with the permission of the Miami Indians, carrying a message to the French at Fort de Chartres, and with a mission of pacification, directed to make peace with the Native American groups he met.

Morris wrote in a confident tone to Thomas Mante, then brigade-major with Bradstreet, of the results to be expected from Pontiac's co-operative attitude.

[4][9][10] Morris's own observation of the prevalent drapeau blanc in the village reflected the continuing influence of the idea that French power would return from its defeat.

Pacanne asserted authority there, over the counsel of two Kickapoo chiefs who warned Morris away from Fort Ouiatenon (near modern West Lafayette).

[5] On Morris's account, Bradstreet was at that point up the Sandusky River, and unaware of the threatening hostility of the Native Americans to the west.

On April 16, 1792, as a fundraiser for the RLF, Morris played the title role in Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Haymarket Theatre in London – the culmination of a life-long interest as theatre-goer, drama critic, actor, and playwright.

The best record of his experience in the drama is his ‘Letter to a Friend on the Poetical Elocution of the Theatre and the Manner of Acting Tragedy’, published in his ‘Miscellanies’ of 1791.

[27] Morris cut off his oldest child, Sophia, when she eloped at about the age of 15 and married her music teacher Martin Dingle (also Dengle).