Pictured is the only known photo of Robert Morrison, probably taken about 1860.
(By Stephen Kelley from the People’s Defender 1983)
In 1864, Reverend David McDill published a 58 page booklet entitled, “The life and Character of the Honorable Robert Morrison”. McDill was then pastor of the Cherry Fork United Presbyterian (associate Reform) Church. Morrison had been one of the founders of that church and had served as an elder in the congregation for several years.
Robert Morrison, though a prominent individual in his own right, has in recent times received national attention as a result of being the great, great grandfather of the late actor John Wayne. Wayne’s actual name was Marion Michael Morrison.
Robert Morrison was born in November 1782 in Antrim County in Northern Ireland. His father John died when Robert was an infant. Robert’s mother, Nancy DeScrogges Morrison, assumed sole responsibility for raising her son and did not remarry. Both of Robert’s parents were of Scottish ancestry.
While yet in his teens, young Robert joined the militant organization known as the United Irishmen. This group was an alliance of Protestants and Catholics whose common goal was the independence of Northern Ireland from British control. Similar to the Irish Republican Army today, the United Irishmen used violent guerilla tactics in their vain attempt to oust the British from their section of the “Emerald Isle”.
In 1798, the rebellion of the United Irishmen was crushed. Traitors within the organization exposed the group’s plot to the British forces. Most of the United Irishmen’s leaders were imprisoned or executed and the alliance between the Catholics and Protestants and fell apart. Soon, it was the same tragic story that continues today, Irishman against Irishman, and the Irish against the British Crown.
It was only through the efforts of a sympathetic British officer, Lord Fitzgerald, that Robert Morrison managed to escape Ireland without being captured. He, with his mother and uncle, were permitted to leave Ireland and sail to America in 1801. Yeras after this great adventure, a much wiser Robert Morrison condemned the actions in which he and the United Irishmen had participated and declared it fortunate that his group had failed in splitting Northern Ireland from the British Commonwealth.
According to McDill, in Morrison’s later years, he would amuse his family and friends by telling of his experiences and mistakes after reaching America. McDill wrote, “… after sailing into New York… he and four other young Irishmen,.. took a stroll along the shore. before they proceeded very far, they came upon a large black snake.
They were very much startled. One of the number, a Roman Catholic, declared “the black baste” to be “the divil”, and they all took to their heels…
As they were making tracks as fast as they could, one of them, the same who declared the snake to be the “Divil” cried out, “rhun, boys, rhun , there it is after ye”.
Another of Morrison’s early experiences related by McDill was the young Irishman’s first encounter with lightening bugs. McDill stated, “He used to tell also how badly frightened he was the first time he saw fire-flies. He thought the lightning was flashing all around him, and immediately put back to the house from which he had set out.”
