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ham, N. H.; Mrs. Henty (great-granddaughter of Dea. Halbert Morison), of Acadian Mines, Londonderry, N. S.; Mrs. Nowell (great-granddaughter of Dea. Halbert Morison), of Goffstown, N. H.; and Mrs. Frances Terwilliger (great-great-granddaughter of Charter John Morison, and also of his sister Martha (Morison) Steele), of Belvidere, Ill., my thanks are due. By these, some of the early traditions of the family have been preserved, and the years between us, and the first generation of our race in America, have been bridged over. Without the aid which they have given, the history of the Morisons of Londonderry, N. H., could not have been so satisfactorily written, and much of the information it contains would have been irrecoverably lost.

To Judge Charles R. Morrison, of Manchester, N. H., for the history of Charter Samuel Morison's branch of the family, my thanks are due. To Rev. James Horace Morrison, D. D., of Cartersville, Cumberland Co., Va., and to his son, Rev. Wm. Foster Morrison, of Washington, D. C., I am under obligations for information of the Morrisons of Virginia. To Dr. Joseph B. Morrison, of Maryville, Mo., and Samuel Morrison, Esq., of Indianapolis, Ind., I am indebted for information of the Morisons of Pennsylvania; and to Rev. George Morrison, D. D., of Aberdeen, Md., for the history of the Morrisons of Delaware.

The author would express his thanks to the printers, Messrs. Huse, Goodwin & Co., of Lowell, Mass., for the accurate, faithful, and tasteful manner in which the mechanical execution of the work has been accomplished. The engraving of the Morrison Homestead, Windham, N. H., is from a photograph by C. A. Lawrence, of Lawrence, Mass. The albertype engrav

ings, and the map of Londonderry, N. H., are from the Forbes Lithographic Co., of Boston, Mass. Many of the steel plates were made by my order, by that gentlemanly and natural artist, J. A. J. Wilcox, of Boston.

The book has been open to all who were willing to contribute portraits of persons, or views of homesteads, to embellish its pages. My thanks are due to A. S. Morrison & Bros., of Brain

tree, Mass., for the portrait of their father, Hon. Alva Morrison; to Mrs. Horace Morison, of Portsmouth, N. H., for the engraving of the Morison Homestead in Peterborough, N. H.; to Geo. S. Morison, of New York, N. Y., for the portrait of his father, Rev. John H. Morison, D. D. To those also who aided in inserting the engraving of the Morrison Homestead in Windham, and to all those who have furnished portraits of themselves or others, I would render my grateful acknowledgments.

In conclusion, I can but express the hope that the perusal of these pages may afford others as much pleasure as their preparation and publication have afforded me. This work has been a "labor of love," as I never can receive pay for all my toil. It has afforded me a delightful occupation, for what without it would have been many weary hours; and among the sunny memories of my life will be the remembrance of many true and noble men and women whose acquaintance it has given me.

WINDHAM, N. H., Oct. 21, 1880.

LEONARD A. MORRISON.

HISTORY OF THE MORISONS.

CHAPTER I.

PROGENITOR OF THE CLAN, AND HISTORY OF LEWIS.-ORIGIN OF THE
FAMILY OF MORISON. ORTHOGRAPHY OF THE NAME. DERIVATION

OF THE NAME MORISON. COATS OF ARMS. - FIRST MORISONS IN
AMERICA.

PROGENITOR OF THE CLAN, AND HISTORY OF LEWIS. UNDER date of Feb. 9, 1879, Capt. F. W. L. Thomas, of the Royal Navy, and resident of Edinburgh, writes:

"The person from whom the Clan Morrison derives its name is unknown. Although the name is Gaelic, I do not doubt that he was a Gall-Gaël (Gall is a foreigner, stranger); that is, of mixed descent.

"I have proved by an exhaustive inquiry (Vol. XI, Pro. Soc. Antiq. Scotland) that all the principal and good farms in Lewis have Norse names; hence the people who gave these names spoke Norse or Icelandic. Lewis, as part of the Kingdom of Man, was under the dominion of Norway till it was ceded to Scotland in 1266; and I suppose the Gaelic language to have been general in the islands after that time."

Under date of April 6, 1879, he says:

"The history of the Hebrides, Western Isles, or Sudreyar, begins in 563, with the advent of St. Columba.

"In 795, the Danes and Norwegians began their devastations, and, I believe, exterminated or drove out the Celtic inhabitants. "From that time the islands appear to have been held by independent vikings, or pirates, till Harold Fairhair, King of Norway, made several expeditions against them; from which time the Orkneys were held by a Norwegian Earl, but the Western Isles continued in great confusion.

"From about 980 to 1064, the Western Isles were held by the Earl of Orkney; but after that time (1064), they formed part of the Kingdom of Man; until, in 1266, they were ceded by treaty to Scotland. Thus the Western Isles were under Scandinavian rule for four hundred and seventy-one years. They were after

wards held by the Lords of the Isles (Macdonalds), under the Scottish crown, till they forfeited in 1493. From that time the different chiefs of the Isles held their lands direct from the Crown, and their history is a continual narrative of turbulence and disorder. Such is their history, which would form material for several volumes; and after all, there is not sufficient detail to make it generally interesting. For hundreds of years we have to be content with a meagre notice, from which the narrative must be deduced by inference, for want of direct record or information." *

From the pen of Mac Fhearghuis (Charles Fergurson), I take this account of the Morrisons. It was printed early in the year 1879, in "The Highlander," a paper published at Inverness, Scotland, by John Murdoch.

"MORRISON.—I am afraid that 'Steorn-a-bhaigh' overrates my abilities if he expects me to give the origin and history of this ancient clan,-the clan Mac Ghille-Mhuire, whose origin, and most part of whose history as a clan, may be said to end about 1600, a date at which many of our most noted clans are only too proud to begin their history. The name, derived from GilleMhuire, gille or servant of Mary,' most likely from their being at some early period connected with some church or church lands dedicated to the Virgin Mary. From time immemorial the Morrisons were possessed of the extreme northern point of the island of Lewis; and their chief, Morrison of Habost, for many generations held the honorable position of hereditary breitheamh, or judge, of the whole island of Lewis, down to the year 1613. They have two tartans, -a beautiful red clan tartan, and a green hunting tartan. Their crest is: Two arms, dexter and sinister in fesse, couped, holding a two-handed sword, in pale. Motto, Marte et mari faventibus,' - War and the sea favoring. Like most clans nowadays, the Morrisons have had many a fancy origin ascribed to them by that class of writers who would like to give every clan and family in the Highlands a foreign origin, and who would like to deprive the Highlander of even the privilege of being a native of his own country, following, as is too common in many other things, the example of the Sassenach, who take a pride in a Norman, or, in fact, any foreign descent. However, such are the simple historical facts about the Morrisons."

The following article was printed March 2, 1878, in "The Highlander," and is from a correspondent, "Mac-a-Bhreitheamh."

*The island of Lewis contains at present 21,000 inhabitants. Stornoway is its chief city, having a population of 3,000. In the months of May and June of each year, some seven hundred boats visit the city from the west coast of Scotland, engaged in the herring fisheries. The inhabitants of Lewis are Protestants. Macaulay, the historian, was descended from the Macaulays of this island. An interesting description of Lewis and the other Western Islands will be found in the story of "Sheila. A Princess of Thule," by William Black.

"THE MORRISONS.-In answer to Lomach's inquiry as to the origin and clanship of the Morrisons, I may state, by the help of some notes on the subject which I found among a parcel of papers belonging to an old friend of mine, one of the name, that they came across from Norway or Denmark, as the Lewis was at that period occupied by that race. The Morrisons resided in the district of Ness, near the Butt of Lewis. They chose or elected a judge, or breitheamh, to settle any disputes among them, and to enact laws as to their respective rights of possession in the different parts of the district. This chief, or breitheamh's name was Muire, or Mori, hence his progeny of Morison, who to this day occupy Ness. His descendants are distinguished from the other branches, by the old men of the island, as 'Clann a' Breitheamh.' This breitheamh had a domestic servant, or scallag, of another name; but who, on being taken into the service of breitheamh, changed his name to that of his master, and his descendants are distinguished from the others, as, 'Clann MhicIlle Mhuire.' Doubtless there were others who came across the North Sea at the same time, as the breitheamh, but are known by no such distinction such as the other branches; but those and 'Clann a' Bhreitheamh' are one of the same stem, whereas 'Clann Mhic-Ille Mhuire' are only, as it were, engrafted into the clan. I cannot say whether they are a clan or not, but at that time they were very clannish in their ways, as they used very often to make raids into the Uig district and carry away booty in the shape of cattle from the Macaulays of Uig. There are still in Ness old men who in their dress and stature greatly resemble the Norwegians, so I have heard. Their coat of arms is three Saracens' heads and a serpent."

ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY OF MORISON.

The family of Morison is very numerous in Scotland, and the name has been a fixed surname there and in the adjacent Island of Lewis for many centuries, probably for a thousand years. It is an old name in the counties of Lincoln, Hertfordshire, and Lancashire, England, where persons of the name, several centuries ago, were knighted and received coats of arms. The family has spread over England, Ireland, and America. It appears to be evident that all of the name spring from the same stock, and have a common origin.

The Island of Lewis, on the west coast of Scotland,* is undoubtedly the place where the family originated, though its founder was probably of Norwegian origin.

In regard to the origin of the family, the following evidence is presented. In Captain Thomas's "Traditions of the Morrisons," an extract is made from a "Description of the Lewis by John Morisone, Indweller there," written presumably between 1678 and 1688, wherein he says, "The first and most ancient inhabitants of

*See Map of Scotland.

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