(1771 - 1843), traveller and classical scholar, of Rokeby, Yorks, e. s. of John Sawrey Morritt; educ. Manchester GS and St John's Camb. 1789; MP 1799 - 1802, 1814 - 20; Dilettanti 1799; m. 1803 Katherine Stanley.
1795 - 6 [dep. England Mar. 1794; Constantinople, Greece] Otranto (Oct. 1795), Naples (Nov. 1795 - Mar. 1796), Rome (Mar. - Apr.), Ferrara, Padua (3 May), Venice (4 May - Jun.) [Yarmouth Jul. 1796]
An intelligent young man and an enterprising traveller, Morritt left England with his tutor, the Rev. Percival Stockdale, in March 1794. It was only after travelling across Europe to Constantinople and Greece that they came to Italy, as Morritt described in a series of lively and learned letters to his family.1
They landed at Otranto in October 1795 from Corfu and went via Brindisi to Naples, which seemed to Morritt to have 'more of the air of London' than any place he had previously visited: the Neapolitans dressed like Englishmen and 'English porter and English cooking' were again available (18 Nov. 1795). Among his compatriots he found the 4th Earl of Bristol (8 Mar. 1796), Admiral William Hotham and Mrs Newnham (29 Dec. 1795, 8 Mar. 1796), and Emma Hamilton, to whom he devoted several enthusiastic pages of his letters (18 Dec. 1795, 14 Feb. 1796). As for the King, 'no one', he wrote, 'could be more amiable or more free [he] never meets us without hollowing out a salutation' (23 Feb. 1796). Morritt went on to Rome for Holy Week, and told his sister 'of the lions to be hunted down at Rome. There are at least eighteen or twenty houses, of which each has a rich picture gallery, and many fine collections of statues; add to these the antiquities, and modern artists in all ways that deserve attention, and you will suppose how busy our mornings are. Our evenings are, on the whole, idle. There are no public amusements, and few English in the place' (1 Apr. 1796).
Morritt's subsequent movements were dictated by the progress of the French army. He abandoned the idea of Florence, and went instead to Venice 'a nice back door to creep out at' (8 May 1796). He was in Padua on 3 May and in Venice the following day.2 He was there for Ascension and waited, hoping a French reverse might enable him to see Florence. But when the French marched into Venetian territory in June Morritt immediately sailed for Trieste. He went on to Vienna and through Germany, finally landing at Yarmouth in July 1796.
Morritt (who is best remembered for the Velazquez Rokeby Venus which he acquired in London c.1814) bought coins and medals in Naples (1 - 6 Dec. 1795), 'a picture or two' in Rome and 'two most beautiful cameos' in Venice (8 May 1796). In 1835 he published through the Society of Dilettanti an essay on the History and Principles of Antient Sculpture.
1. Morritt Letters, 248 - 311 (dates of letters in brackets). 2. ASV is 783, 777.