Sparks says that there was a contract dated the loth of August, 1670, in wliich Richard i5 styled " a merchant in New York," and Lewis, his brother, "a mercJ)ant in Barbadoes."'* "It follows," remarks Dunlap, "that Richard was in Barbadoes in 1670, and contracted to come on to New York to ]nirchase this grant of Alorrisa/iia for himself and brother, Lewis, who was to follow and settle on it ; but that he did not come until the peace of 1674, when he found the son of his brother an orphan, took him under his protection, and built at JNIorrisania."'^

The Morris family are originally of Welch origin and of great antiquity, being lineally descended from " Rys, sometimes called Rice Fitzgerald, brother to Rhys Prince of Geventland, which Rys or Rice Fitzgerald was settled in Monmouthshire." "In 1171 Rice united -with Strongbow, Earl of Striquil and Pembroke, his neighbor, and landed at Waterford in Ireland, with two hundred Knights and one thousand archers, having been thereto authorized and encouraged by Henry II,, King of England and subdued the greatest part of that kingdom -- which extensive conquests occasioned the king to interfere and call them back, and gi'v^ng them some indemnification, appropriated their conquests to the English crown."

" For his warlike acliievments Rys, the companion of Strongbow, was for pre-eminence called Jllaur Rys, or Maiir Rice, i e, the great Rys or Rice. The word mawr or maur in Welch signifying great, ai\d his descendants dropping the name of Firzgerald for this, ever after thought it an honor to retain that addition j and thus the name became Mav.T Rj's, or Mauri'ie, and fmally Morris."