Francis Orpen Morris

Rev. Francis Orpen Morris (25 March 1810 Cork - 10 February 1893), Irish ornithologist and entomologist, was notable as the author of many children's books and books on natural history and heritage buildings. He was the eldest son of the Royal Navy's Admiral Henry Gage Morris and Rebecca Orpen, youngest daughter of the Rev. Francis Orpen, vicar of Kilgarvan, co. Kerry. Francis Orpen Morris grew up on the western shores of Ireland where he developed an enduring love of the natural world. The whole family relocated to England in 1824. After living for some time in Worcester, they settled in Charmouth, Dorset in 1826.

In his years at Bromsgrove School his love of natural history grew and he started a collection of birds and insects. After school he spent a year with a private tutor, and then enrolled at Worcester College Oxford. Here he read Classics and was awarded a BA in 1833. One of the subjects in which he chose to be examined, was Pliny's Natural History. During this period he met the entomologist James Duncan (1804-1861), author of British Butterflies. Morris maintained his interest in natural history, and helped order the insect collection in the Ashmolean Museum.

At this stage in his life he entered the Church and became curate at Hanging Heaton, near Dewsbury. Then followed his ordaining as Deacon by the Archbishop of York in August 1834.

In January of the following year he married Anne Sanders, who was the second daughter of Charles Sanders of Bromsgrove, eventually raising a family of 3 sons and 6 daughters. In November 1844, he became vicar of Nafferton near Driffield in East Yorkshire, a parish he served for nine years. From all accounts he was irascible by nature, impatient with conservatism and imbued with the spirit of reform - this did not endear him to many people. In 1854 he moved to the Rectory of Nunburnholme, near Market Weighton in East Yorkshire. Here he had ample leisure to pursue his interests in natural history.

During his stay at Nafferton he acquired a reputation for writing popular essays on natural history and in particular on birds. His first book was an arrangement of British birds and was published in 1834. About this time he formed a close working association with Benjamin Fawcett (1808-1893), a local printer. This relationship would last nearly 50 years and have a profound effect on British ornithology. Benjamin Fawcett was arguably the most accomplished of nineteenth century woodblock colour printers.

Morris wrote the text for books which were financed and printed by Fawcett, and were illustrated by Alexander Francis Lydon (1836-1917). Colour printing showed an enormous improvement on the work of Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). At first wood-engraving illustrations were coloured by hand, but later a system of colouring from multiple wood blocks was used.

Morris' books were mostly published by Groombridge & Sons, of London. His first best-seller was A History of British Birds which was published from June 1850 in monthly parts over a period of some seven years. Each folio consisted of text and 4 hand-coloured plates. Initially only a thousand copies were printed, but surprising demand quickly forced Fawcett to move to larger premises at East Lodge in Driffield. A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds, A History of British Butterflies and A History of British Moths followed in rapid succession. The final work which Fawcett, Morris and Lydon would do together was The County Seats of the Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland. This appeared in six volumes, each with 40 coloured plates, and text as usual by Morris. Groombridge & Sons dissolved about 1880, with neither Fawcett nor Morris having profited much financially from their collaboration.

Morris had deep convictions on some matters: he was an anti-feminist, loathed fox hunting and any other destruction of wildlife, had an abiding abhorrence of evolution as expounded in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species and a fervent dislike of Thomas Huxley whom he saw as an enthusiastic vivisectionist.

Francis Orpen Morris died on 10 February 1893 and was buried at Nunburnholme. Benjamin Fawcett had died three weeks earlier.

References

• Biography
• Francis Orpen Morris: Ornithologist and Anti-Darwinist - Charles A. Kofoid

Bibliography

• 1834 Guide to an Arrangement of British Birds - 20 pp., Longmarts.
• 1849 A Bible Natural History. Groombridge.
• 1850 An Essay on the Eternal Duration of the Earth. 15 pp., Groombridge.
• 1850 An Essay on Scientific Nomenclature. 10 pp., Groombridge.
• 1850-1857. A Natural History of British Birds. 6 vols., 8vo, Groombridge.
• 1851-53 A Natural History of the Nests and Eggs of British Birds. 3 vols., Royal 8no, Groombridge.
• 1852 A Natural History of British Butterflies. Royal 8no, Groombridge.
• 1856 A Book of Natural History. Groombridge.
• 1859-70 A Natural History of British Moths. 4 vols., Royal 8no, Longmarts.
• 1860 Anecdotes of Natural History. Longroans.
• 1861 Records of Animal Sagacity and Character. Longroans.
• 1865 A Catalogue of British Insects in all the Orders. 125 pp., Longmarts.
• 1870 Dogs and their Doings. Partridge.