Charles Morton, M.D., was born in Westmoreland in 1716, and educated at Leyden. He was entered on the physic line there 18th September, 1736; settled in the first place at Kendal in his native county, and practised there for a short time with much reputation.Returning to Leyden, he graduated doctor of medicine there 30th August, 1748 (D.M.I. de Tussi,) and was admitted an Extra-Licentiate of the College of Physicians 6th September, 1748. Shortly after this he removed to London; was elected physician to the Middlesex hospital 19th April, 1750; and admitted a Licentiate of the College 1st April, 1751. He was appointed physician to the Foundling hospital in 1754. On the establishment of the British Museum in 1756, Dr. Morton was appointed under-librarian of the manuscript and medal department; and on the death of Dr. Maty, in 1776, he succeeded to the office of principal librarian. He had been admitted a fellow of the Royal Society in 1752, and was elected secretary in 1759, an office he continued to hold for fourteen years. Dr. Morton, who is represented as a person of great uprightness and integrity, and was much admired as a scholar, died at his apartments in the British Museum 10th February, 1799, aged eighty-three, and was buried at Twickenham on the 18th. He was thrice married: 1. In 1744 to Miss Mary Berkeley, a niece of lady Betty Germaine, by whom he had an only daughter; 2. In 1772 to lady Savile, who died 10th February, 1791; and lastly, towards the close of 1791, to Elizabeth Pratt, a near relative of his second wife. Dr. Morton’s only medical effort was a paper on muscular motion, in the "Philosophical Transactions." In 1759 he published an improved edition of Dr. Bernard’s engraved Table of Alphabets, and in 1772 Bulstrode Whitelock’s "Account of the Swedish Embassy in 1653 and 1654," 2 vols. 4to. In 1768 he was appointed, jointly with Mr. Farley, to superintend the publication of Domesday, but this task he soon relinquished.

William Munk