People Australia

James Morris, a private in the NSW Corps, arrived in Sydney in 1790 aboard the Surprize as part of the Second Fleet. By 1794 he had formed a partnership with Elizabeth Watts. The first of their 11 children was born in August of that year. In December Morris was granted 19 acres of land in the Petersham district which he soon sold.

Between 1799-1804 Morris served in William Paterson's detachment of the NSW Corps. He was discharged on 23 July 1804 and received a 160 acre grant of land on the banks of the Nepean River. He continued to work in Sydney where he kept a general store in Pitt Street and was a dealer and employed men to work on his farm, and leased parts of it to others. In 1809 he held a wine and spirit licence and operated a public house known as The Hope.

In 1809 Morris was granted 120 acres of land at Liberty Plains; he sold his Nepean farm in March 1812.  He died on 4 April 1813, his age recorded as 54. He was interred on 6 April in the Sydney Burial ground.

* information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), p 445