Jeremiah Morton

Jeremiah Morton (September 3, 1799 – November 28, 1878) was a nineteenth-century politician and lawyer from Virginia. He was the younger brother of Florida senator Jackson Morton.

Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Morton attended a private school as a child and later went on to Washington College in 1814 and 1815 and graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1819. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing practice in Raccoon Ford, Virginia. Morton later left law due to illness and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was elected a Whig to the United States House of Representatives in 1848, serving from 1849 to 1851. After being unsuccessful for reelection in 1850, he returned to agricultural pursuits. An owner of several prosperous plantations, he gained an income of the "then-princely" $30,000 a year.^[1]

He was a prominent secessionist member of the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861 representing Orange and Greene Counties. He also became a trustee of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. Morton died at "Lessland" in Orange County, Virginia on November 28, 1878 and was interred at his old home, "Morton Hall" in Orange County.

Notes

1. Freehling, William W. and Craig M. Simpson, Showdown in Virginia: the 1861 Convention and the fate of the Union. 2010 ISBN 978-0-8139-2948-4, p. 3

External links

• United States Congress. "Jeremiah Morton (id: M001016)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.