# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morris, James Nicoll

​MORRIS, Sir JAMES NICOLL (1763?–1830), vice-admiral, was the son of Captain John Morris, who, in command of the Bristol, was mortally wounded in the unsuccessful attack on Sullivan's Island on 28 June 1776 [see Parker, Sir Peter, 1721-1811], and died on 2 July (Beatson, Nav. and Mil. Memoirs, iv. 152; Ralfe, Nav. Biog. i. 116.) James is said to have entered the navy under the immediate command of his father (Marshall, ii. 489; Gent. Mag. 1830, i. 467). This seems doubtful, and in any case he was not with his father in the Bristol (Bristol's Pay-book). In 1778 and 1779 he was in the Prince of Wales, the flagship of Rear-admiral Samuel Barrington [q. v.] in the West Indies, and in her was present at the battles of St. Lucia and Grenada. He was promoted to be lieutenant on 14 April 1780, and was serving on board the Namur in the action off Dominica on 12 April 1782. He was again with Barrington in the Royal George during the Spanish armament in 1790, and by his interest was promoted to the rank of commander on 21 Sept. In 1791 he was appointed to the Pluto sloop on the Newfoundland station, where, on 25 July 1793, he captured the French sloop Lutine. On 7 Oct. 1793 he was posted to the Boston frigate, which he took to England and commanded for the next four years in the Channel, the Bay of Biscay, and the Spanish coast, cruising with good success against the enemy's merchant ships and privateers. Towards the end of 1797 he was moved into the Lively frigate, which was lost on Rota Point, near Cadiz, in the early part of 1798. In 1799 he was appointed to the Phaeton, in which in the autumn he carried Lord Elgin to Constantinople [see Bruce, Thomas, seventh Earl of Elgin]. In the following May the Phaeton was with the fleet off Genoa, and being detached to co-operate with the Austrians, inflicted severe loss on the retreating French at Loano and Alassio (Allardyce, Memoir of Viscount Keith, p. 206). In October she was off Malaga, and on the 28th her boats, under the command of Mr. Beaufort, her first lieutenant, captured and brought off a heavily armed polacca, which, with a French privateer schooner, was lying under the protection of a 5-gun battery [see Beaufort, Sir Francis]. During 1801 the Phaeton continued actively employed on the coast of Spain, and in the winter returned to England.
On the renewal of the war Morris was appointed to the Leopard, but was shortly afterwards moved into the Colossus, a new 74-gun ship, which, after some eighteen months off Brest, under Admiral Cornwallis, was, in October 1805, with Nelson off Cadiz, and on the 21st took part in the battle of Trafalgar. She was the sixth ship in the lee line, following Collingwood, and by the fortune of war sustained greater damage and heavier loss of men than any other ship in the fleet. Morris himself was severely wounded in the thigh, but the bleeding being stopped by a tourniquet, remained on deck till the close of the action. For the next three years he continued in command of the Colossus, on the home station or in the Mediterranean, and in 1810 commanded the Formidable of 98 guns. On 1 Aug. 1811 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and in 1812, at the special request of Sir James Saumarez, afterwards Lord de Saumarez [q. v.], was appointed third in command in the Baltic. On 2 Jan. 1815 he was nominated a K.C.B. He became a vice-admiral on 12 Aug. 1819, and died at his house at Marlow on 15 April 1830. He married, in October 1802, Margaretta Sarah, daughter of Thomas Somers Cocks, the well-known banker (1737-1796), and niece of Charles Somers Cocks, first lord Somers [q. v.]
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.), 488; Gent. Mag. 1830, pt. i. p. 467; James's Nav. Hist.; Nicolas's Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (see index).]
J. K. L.