John Morritt
| John Bacon Sawrey Morritt | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | c. 1772 |
| Died | 12 July 1843 Rokeby Park |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation |
MP |
| Known for | Travellers' Club |
MP
John Bacon Sawrey Morritt (1772? – 1843) was an English traveller, politician and classical scholar.
Born about 1772, he was son and heir of John Sawrey Morritt, who died at Rokeby Park in Yorkshire on 3 August 1791, by his wife Anne (died 1809), daughter of Henry Peirse of Bedale., M.P. for Northallerton. Both parents were buried in a vault in Rokeby Church, where their son erected to their memory a monument with a poetic inscription.
Morritt, who had been in Paris during 1789, and was educated at St John's College, Cambridge where he was admitted later that year. He graduated B.A. 1794 and M.A. 1798. He inherited a large fortune, including the estate of Rokeby, which his father had purchased from Sir Thomas Robinson, 1st Baronet in 1769.
Early in 1794, Morritt set off east, and spent two years in travelling, mainly in Greece and Asia Minor. One consequence of his journeying was the wide adoption in English of the term Balkan Mountains by English speakers, in place of the classical name Haemus Mons. The use of Balkan peninsula for south-east Europe came a little later, with August Zeune (1808).
Morritt travelled from Vienna to Istanbul, where the embarrassed Robert Liston found the British embassy was in no state to lodge him. On a quest for Troy, he arrived, with James Dallaway and other Englishmen, from Lesbos on 6 November 1794, landing about twenty miles below Cape Lectum, in the Sinus Adramyttenus. There he made a survey of the supposed scene of the Iliad.
A conservative in politics, Morritt was returned to parliament by the borough of Beverley at a by-election in 1799. There he had the support of Lord Yarborough and Sir Christopher Sykes. He was defeated at the dissolution in 1802.
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