The Port Folio. BY OLIVER OLDSCHOOL. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ROBERT MORRIS. BY JAMES MEASE, M. D. A life of the distinguished individual, whose name appears at the head of this article, has already been published in the Port Folio; but as it was both imperfect and brief, we avail ourselves of the permission of the proprietors of the Philadelphia edition of the Edinburgh Encyclopedia to transfer from their columns, a memoir which has been prepared with better means of information. ROBERT MORRIS was the son of a respectable merchant of Liverpool, who had for some years been extensively concerned in the American trade; and while a boy, he was brought by his father to this country, in which it appears he intended to settle. During the time that he was pursuing his education in Philadelphia, he unfortunately lost his father, in consequence of a wound received from the wad of a gun, which was discharged as a compliment by the captain of a ship consigned to him, that had just arrived at Oxford, the place of his residence, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay; and he was thus left an orphan at the age of fifteen years. In conformity with the intentions of his parent, he was bred to commerce, and served a regular apprenticeship in the counting-house of the late Mr. Charles Willing, at that time one of the first merchants of Philadelphia. A year or two after the expiration of the term for which he had engaged himself, he entered into partnership with Mr. Thomas Willing. This connection, which was formed in 1754, contiMARCH. 1823.-No. 251. 23 |