(c.1707 - 50) of Werrington, Devon, o. s. of Sir Nicholas Morice; Corpus Oxf. 1724; suc. fa. 1726 as 3rd Bt.; MP 1727 - 50; m. 1 1731 Ldy. Lucy Wharton, dau. of 1st M. of Wharton (div. 1738), 2 1741 Anna Bury.
1729 - 30 Rome (by 14 Jul. - Aug. 1729), Naples, Rome (Oct.), Florence, Venice (Nov. 1729 - Mar. 1730), Padua (6 Mar.)
Morice's visit to Italy in 1729 - 30 was made remarkable by his patronage of Venetian artists. He and 'Colonel Paget' [Captain Piaget] had arrived in Rome by 14 July 1729 and by 4 August Morice was talking with Jacobites, which was, said Stosch, largely Piaget's fault.1 They spent some weeks in Naples and had returned to Rome before October, when they were about to leave for Florence.2
Morice was expected in Venice in November, by which time, said Joseph Smith, he had 'bought all Swiny's monumental pieces, and was a fortunate hitt for him'.3 Smith was refering to those Allegorical Tomb paintings commissioned by Owen Swiney which had not been bought by the 2nd Duke of Richmond, see Swiney. Morice also bought two Canalettos (Christie's, 4 Jul. 1986) from Swiney, who mentioned them in a letter of 27 September 1730.4 Morice was still in Venice on 20 January 1730, intending to stay to the end of the Carnival with a group of English travellers (who included the 2nd Earl Cowper, George Lyttelton, Charles Wyndham, Lord Boyne and Edward Walpole),5 and it must have been at this time that he sat to Rosalba Carriera for the portrait dated 1730 at Pencarrow.6 Morice was in Padua with Captain 'P. Piaget' on 6 March 1730.7
On 24 August 1729 'Il Cav. Moris', possibly Morice, had sent from Leghorn two scagliola pictures, some vases and sculpture, a copy from Guido Reni, books and prints.8
1. SP 85/16, f.555, 569 (Walton, 14 Jul., 4 Aug.). 2. Ibid., f.596 (13 Oct. 1729). 3. Chaloner 1950, 162 (26 Nov. 1729). 4. Constable-Links, nos.89, 117. 5. SP 99/63, f.123 (Burges, 20 Jan. 1730). 6. F. Russell, Burl.Mag., 131[1989]:857. 7. Brown 1875. 8. Bertolotti, 4:78 - 9.