John Morton (1725 – April 1, 1777) was an American farmer, surveyor, and jurist from the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn, who received the land through a grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania was derived from ...

and a

Founding Father of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colon ...

. As a delegate to the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...

during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, he was a signatory to the

Continental Association The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the Thirteen Colonies, American colonies, adopted by the First Continental Congress, which met inside Carpenters' Hall in Phi ...

and

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

. Morton provided the swing vote that allowed Pennsylvania to vote in favor of the Declaration. Morton chaired the committee that wrote the

Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...

, though he died before signing.

Early life

Morton was born in Ridley, in Chester County, present-day

Delaware County, Pennsylvania Delaware County, colloquially referred to as Delco, is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. With a population of 576,830 as of the 2020 census, it is the List of counties in Pennsylv ...

, in 1725, the exact month is unknown. Morton's great-grandfather (, or ) was a Finn with roots in Rautalampi,

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. In 1653, Marttinen emigrated from the Swedish land of

—then a constituent part of the

Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire or the Great Power era () was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden became a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic regi ...

—bringing son Martti Jr. to the Swedish colony of

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

. The younger Marttinen's son Johan

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

his name to become John Morton Sr., who died in 1724—shortly before the birth of his only son and namesake who would become the famed Finnish American statesman John Morton. His mother, Mary Archer, was also of Finnish descent. When Morton was around seven years old, his mother married John Sketchley, a farmer of English ancestry, who raised Morton.

Political career

Morton was elected to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly in 1756. The following year he was also appointed justice of the peace, an office he held until 1764. He served as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. He resigned from the Assembly in 1766 to serve as sheriff of Chester County. He returned to the Assembly in 1769 and was elected speaker in 1775. Meanwhile, his judicial career reached its pinnacle with his appointment as an associate justice of the

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania is the highest court in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Judiciary of Pennsylvania, Unified Judicial System. It began in 1684 as the Provincial Court, and casual references to it as ...

in 1774. Morton was elected to the

First Continental Congress The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies held from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia at the beginning of the American Revolution. The meeting was organized b ...

in 1774 and the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, which established American independence ...

in 1775. He cautiously helped move Pennsylvania towards independence, though he opposed the radical Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776. When in June 1776 Congress began the debate on a resolution of independence, the Pennsylvania delegation was split, with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

and James Wilson in favor of declaring independence, and

John Dickinson John Dickinson (November 13, O.S. November 2">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. November 21732Various sources indicate a birth date of November 8, 12 or 13, but his most recent biographer ...

, Robert Morris, Charles Humphreys and Thomas Willing opposed. Morton was uncommitted until July 1, when he sided with Franklin and Wilson. When the final vote was taken on July 2, Dickinson and Morris absented themselves, allowing the Pennsylvania delegation to support the resolution of independence. Morton signed the Declaration on August 2 with most of the other delegates. Morton was chairman of the committee that wrote the

, although he died, probably from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

, before the Articles were ratified. He was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence (and writer of the Articles of Confederation) to die, barely nine months after the Declaration's signing on July 4, 1776.

Legacy

Morton was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence to die and was buried in Old St. Paul's Church Burial Ground (also known as the Old Swedish Burial Ground) in

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the Philadelphia metropolitan area (also known as the Delaware Valley) on the western bank of the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. ...

. Morton's grave remained unmarked until October 1845, when the present-day 11-foot marble obelisk was erected by his descendants. The inscription on the west side of the memorial reads: The inscription of the east side of the memorial reads: The inscription on the south side of the memorial reads: The inscription on the north side of the memorial reads: John Morton's participation in the signing of the Declaration of Independence has been important in terms of the identity of Finnish Americans. In the early decades of the 20th century, Finnish immigrants had to face the question of who were "real Americans". They claimed to belong, through Delaware and Morton, to the "founding nationalities" of American history. An important role in the dissemination of information was played by amateur historian Reverend Salomon Ilmonen, who researched Delaware and John Morton for Delaware's 300th anniversary. Thanks to the Delaware colony and John Morton, American Finns' self-esteem rose and they celebrated the history of the Delaware colony spectacularly both in 1938 and in 1988. 50 John Morton researchers from around the world arrived in Rautalampi in June 2010 to research Morton's family roots. They got to know, among other things, the Delaware monument in the town. According to DNA research, Morton has a 99.56% probability of Finnish descent. His family roots from Savonia have also been confirmed by research. In July 2010, a restaurant Konttiravintola Morton, which was named after him, was opened in Rautalampi. In 2013 University of Turku established the John Morton Center for North American Studies, after it was concluded that the field of studies regarding North America was fragmented and a national institute was needed.

Personal life

Morton married Ann Justis of Chester County, and together they had three sons and five daughters; Aaron, Sketchley, John, Mary, Sarah, Lydia, Ann and Elizabeth. Morton's second son, Sketchley, was a major in the Pennsylvania Militia of the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. Morton was an active member of the

Anglican Church Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

in Chester County.

Notes

References

*Purcell, L. Edward. ''Who Was Who in the American Revolution''. New York: Facts on File, 1993. . * Warden, Rosemary. "Morton, John". '' American National Biography Online'', February 2000.

External links

Historical Marker and Biography

by Dr. Peter Stebbins Craig
John Morton Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morton, John 1725 births 1777 deaths People from Ridley Township, Pennsylvania American Anglicans American people of Finnish descent Members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly Continental Congressmen from Pennsylvania Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Surveyors from the Thirteen Colonies People from colonial Pennsylvania Politicians from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Patriots in the American Revolution Signers of the Continental Association 18th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Pennsylvania Founding Fathers of the United States Speakers of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly