Francis Moryson

Francis Moryson
10th Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses
In office 1656–1656
Preceded by	Edward Hill, Sr.
Succeeded by	John Smith
Personal details
Born	before 1628 England
Died	1680/81 England
Spouse(s)	Cecilia

Francis Moryson (bef. 1628–1680/81) was an English soldier and Virginia colonial official. He was a Royalist in the English Civil War.

Moryson was the son of Sir Richard Moryson and his wife Elizabeth Harrington daughter of Sir Henry Harrington.^[1]

Moryson emigrated to Virginia in 1649, surviving a shipwreck en route. He served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1656, and was on Governor Sir William Berkeley's Council 1660–63. He was named acting governor in Berkeley's absence 1661–62. He returned to his home in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire in 1663, acting as an English agent for the colony. His last trip to Virginia was in 1677, when he served on a royal commission investigating Bacon's Rebellion.^[2]

Notes

1. Lothrop Withington Virginia gleanings in England: abstracts of 17th and 18th-century English ...
2. Kukla, pp. 53-57

References

• Kukla, Jon (1981). Speakers and Clerks of the Virginia House of Burgesses, 1643–1776. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Library. ISBN 0-88490-075-4.