Governor Lewis Morris of Shrewsbury Township

At his death in 1691, Colonel Lewis Morris bequeathed his vast Tinton Manor to his brother Richard’s son, also named Lewis Morris. The Colonel had taken care of his nephew since his parents died in July 1672 when young Lewis was only a year old. The arrangement worked well for many years until the Colonel married his former servant named Mary. She seems to have caused difficulty for nephew Lewis, so much so that he ran away when he was 17, first to Bermuda, then to Jamaica.

Summoned back to Morrisania in the Bronx to see his dying uncle in February 1691, nephew Lewis was surprised to find he was no longer named sole executor in the Colonel’s Last Will and Testament. The will gave these causes: “his many and great miscarryages and disobedience toward me and my wife, and his causless absenting himself from my house, and adhering to and advizeing with those of bad life and conversation, contrary to my directions and example unto him, and for other reasons best known to my selfe.” Nonetheless, nephew Lewis was given the estate and slaves at Tinton in Shrewsbury and other land in Oyster Bay, Long Island.

Despite this largess, Lewis Morris contested his uncle’s will, charging that Mary Morris and another servant had altered it to deprive him of his just inheritance. Showing some of the legal expertise that would serve him well in the future, Lewis prevailed in a probate hearing before the governor and council of New York and was named administrator of the Colonel’s estate.

By the time he was 21 Lewis Morris was living at Tinton Manor and was a member of the Court of Common Right and of the governing council of East New Jersey. He became an accomplished lawyer, judge, and a high government official, emulating his uncle. He also married well, taking for his bride the eighteen year old Isabella Graham, daughter of the Attorney General and Speaker of the Assembly of the Province of New York.

The Tinton Manor plantation and other land holdings in Monmouth County provided the Morris family with wealth and prestige. As the Morris children married, they were each given 300 acre tracts of the Manor south of the Swimming River.

Judge Morris was chiefly responsible for bringing about the separation of New York and New Jersey. In 1738, capping a remarkable career, the former rebellious young man was appointed the first Royal Governor of Colonial New Jersey. He served in this capacity until his death in 1746. Although most associated with New Jersey and the family estate in Monmouth County, Lewis Morris was interred at Morrisania. His remains are today in the Morris family crypt at St. Ann’s Church Complex in the Bronx.