Francis Orpen Morris

Francis Orpen Morris (25 March 1810 – 10 February 1893) was an Anglo-Irish clergyman, notable as "parson-naturalist" (ornithologist and entomologist) and as the author of many children's books and books on natural history and heritage buildings. He was a pioneer of the movement to protect birds from the plume trade and was a co-founder of the Plumage League. He died on 10 February 1893 and was buried at Nunburnholme, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Early life Morris was the eldest son of the Royal Navy's Admiral Henry Gage Morris and Rebecca Orpen, youngest daughter of the Rev. Francis Orpen, vicar of Kilgarvan, County Kerry. Francis Orpen Morris grew up on the western shores of Ireland where he developed an enduring love of the natural world. The whole family relocated to England in 1824. After living for some time in Worcester, they settled in Charmouth, Dorset in 1826. Francis Orpen Morris' grandfather was Colonel Roger Morris, a member of the Governor's council of New York, who married George Washington's early love interest, Mary Philipse. Mary had inherited one third of a vast estate, the Philipse Patent, 160,000 acres on the Hudson River. Roger and Mary's land was confiscated following the Revolutionary War. Later, John Jacob Astor traced all living heirs of Roger and Mary Morris and bought out any claim they had to the land. Astor proved in court that the State had no legal right to confiscate the land in the first place. Mary had set up a trust for her unborn children two weeks before she married Roger, the Morris' had a legally binding life lease that was passed from generation to generation. Astor eventually sold it to the State of New York for a massive profit. Education At Bromsgrove School his love of natural history grew, and he started a collection of birds and insects. He left school in 1828, spent a year with a private tutor, and enrolled at Worcester College, Oxford. Here he read Classics and was awarded a BA in 1833. Among the subjects he studied was Pliny's Natural History. During this period he met the entomologist James Duncan (1804–1861), author of British Butterflies. As a student Morris maintained his interest in natural history, and helped organise the insect collection in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum.