Augustus Newbold Morris

Morris was born on June 3, 1838.[2] He was the son of William Henry Morris (1810–1896)[1] and Hannah Cornell Newbold (1816–1842). His brothers were James Staats Morris (1836–1875) and William H. Morris Jr. (1840–1882), both of whom died unmarried.[2] After his mother's early death in 1842, his father remarried to Caroline Halsted (1827–1848).[3] They did not have any children, however, his father had two daughters (his half-sisters) with his third wife, Ella Birckhead (1830–1881). They were: Augusta McEvers Morris (1851–1911),[4] who married Frederic J. De Peyster (1839–1905), and Juliet Birckhead Morris (1853–1908),[5] who married Philip Livingston (b. 1861)[6] in 1890.[7] His father was the sixth proprietor of Morissania, the family estate in what later became the Bronx.[6]

His paternal grandparents were Helen (née Van Cortlandt) Morris (1768–1812) and James Morris (1764–1827), High Sheriff of New York. His grandfather was a son, making Augustus a direct descendant of,[8] Lewis Morris (1726–1798), signor of the Declaration of Independence, from the prominent Colonial-era Morris family of the Morrisania section of the Bronx.[9] His maternal grandparents were Thomas Newbold (1773-1815) and Catherine Augusta LeRoy (1790-1835).[3]

Morris graduated from Columbia College in 1860, and later, Columbia Law School.[1]

Morris was considered a "man of leisure,"[1] but worked nevertheless. He was a manager of the Home for Incurables at Fordham, a director of the Zoological Society, and a vice-president of the Plaza Bank.[1]

While he did not hold office, he was considered an Independent Democrat.[1]

The 1885 Morris Residence in Ridgefield, Connecticut, designed by Charles Alling Gifford.

On December 10, 1862, Morris was married to Eleanor Colford Jones (1841–1906).[12] She was the daughter of General James I. Jones (1786–1858) and Elizabeth (née Schermerhorn) Jones (1817–1874), the older sister of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (1830–1908), also known as "The Mrs. Astor,"[13] Mrs. Charles Suydam, and Mrs. John Treat Irving.[12] Her father's country home became Jones's Wood.[12] Together, they were the parents of:[14]

• Eleanor Colford Morris (1863–1863), who died young.[2]
• Augustus Newbold Morris (1868–1928)[15] who married Helen Schermerhorn Kingsland (1876–1956), granddaughter of New York City Mayor Ambrose Kingsland.[16]
• Eva Van Cortlandt Morris (1869–1947),[17] who married Emile McDougall Hawkes (1862–1929),[18] an international lawyer, on June 4, 1908. They divorced in 1922.[19][20] She left her estate, valued at $2,790,065, to her three nephews, Morris' only grandchildren.[21]
• William Henry Morris (1871–1871), who also died young.[2]
• Lewis Morris (1873–1875), who also died young.[2]

His wife died at their home, 19 East 64th Street, in April 1906,[12] and Morris died shortly thereafter on September 1, 1906, at his country home in Ridgefield, Connecticut.[1]

• Augustus Newbold Morris at Find a Grave