Alfred Morrison

Alfred Morrison (1821–1897) was an English collector, known for his interest in works of art, autographs and manuscripts.

Life

The second son of James Morrison (1790–1857) the businessman, he had from his father a large fortune. He went to the University of Edinburgh, and spent a student year at Trinity College, Cambridge, travelled, and later unsuccessfully stood for parliament.^[1][2]

Morrison was High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1857. He died at Fonthill Gifford, Wiltshire, on 22 December 1897, at the age of 76.^[3]

Works

Morrison's houses at Fonthill and on Carlton House Terrace, London, contained Persian carpets, Chinese porcelain, Greek gems and gold work, and miniatures. He employed craftsmen on cameo-cutting, inlaying of metals and enamelled glass.^[3]

Between 1860 and 1878 Morrison formed a collection of engravings, of which a part was described in a printed Annotated Catalogue and Index to Portraits by M. Holloway (1868). His paintings included Clouet and Goya. The main interest of his later life was in autographs and letters, catalogued as:^[3]

• Catalogue of the Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Documents formed between 1865 and 1882, compiled and annotated under the direction of A. W. Thibaudeau, printed for private circulation, 1883–92, 6 vols.
• Second series, 1882–93, 1893-6, A to D, 3 vols. This is without facsimiles but with a more of the text of the documents.
• The Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 1756-1815, 1893-4, 2 vols.
• The Blessington Papers, 1896.
• The Bulstrode Papers, vol. i., 1667-76 [London, 1897].

The correspondence between Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton was for the first time fully printed in his catalogue. The papers of Sir Richard Bulstrode, who died in 1711 at the age of 101, contain his newsletters which overlap with Pepys's Diary.^[3]

Family

Morrrison married, in 1860, Mabel, daughter of the Rev. R. S. C. Chermside, rector of Wilton, Wiltshire. His wife survived him with two sons, Hugh and James Archibald who were both Members of Parliament, and two daughters.^[3]

Notes

1. "Morrison, Alfred (MRY839A)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
2. Bell, Alan. "Morrison, Alfred". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19323. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
3.  Sidney Lee, ed. (1901). "Morrison, Alfred". Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​ 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Sidney Lee, ed. (1901). "Morrison, Alfred". Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement​ 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.