Geoffrey de Morton

Geoffrey de Morton (died c.1317) was a wealthy merchant and shipowner in early fourteenth-century Dublin who served as Mayor of Dublin in 1303. He acquired an unsavoury reputation for unscrupulous business methods and corruption: in particular, he was responsible for the murage controversy of 1308-1313.

Early career

According to Elrington Ball, Geoffrey de Morton came from a prominent Anglo-Norman family which had settled in Dublin. He made his fortune by trading with England, Scotland and France.[1] Presumably his wealth was the main reason he was chosen as Mayor of Dublin, but he was plunged into controversy almost immediately after his election, when he was accused of stealing the official seal of Dublin Corporation for his own private use. Geoffrey insisted that it was not he but his wife Maud who had taken the seal, and the Corporation seem to have accepted this rather implausible explanation, although what motive his wife might have had for the theft was unclear.

In 1305 he brought a series of lawsuits against Richard de Beresford, the Lord Treasurer of Ireland, and the Barons of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland), all of which failed. The Barons brought a series of counter-claims which were successful, and as a result Geoffrey was briefly imprisoned.

The murage scandal

Geoffrey was apparently undeterred by this setback to his career, and in 1308 he applied to King Edward II for a licence to levy a toll for six years to pay for murage, which was the tax for the upkeep of the Dublin city walls, and was also intended for the repair of Isolde's Tower, the defensive tower situated at one end of Old Dublin Bridge (now Father Mathew Bridge), which had been damaged by fire.[2] Geoffrey neglected to mention that as he himself was the tenant of Isolde's tower, he was legally obliged to keep it in good repair at his own expense. The licence was granted, and led to a flood of complaints about Geoffrey's corrupt management of the tolls, and in particular his practice of exempting his own friends from paying them. In addition it appears that none of the money was actually spent on the upkeep of the walls, a failure which might have had disastrous consequences during the Bruce campaign in Ireland in 1315-18. Geoffrey also built several houses on the bridge, which it was alleged seriously disrupted the flow of traffic.[3]

In 1309 Richard le Blond, the King's Serjeant, made the first official complaint concerning Geoffrey's maladministration. The case was heard by Piers Gaveston, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland: the inquiry appears to have ended inconclusively. [4]

Disgrace

By 1311 the complaints about Geoffrey's misgovernment had become so vociferous that the King ordered a full inquiry, which upheld all the complaints of fraud and neglect of official duty against him. John Wogan, the Justiciar of Ireland, was ordered to revoke the licence for murage and to audit Geoffrey's accounts.[5] In 1312 the King reprimanded Wogan for failing to carry out these orders. Finally in 1313 Geoffrey admitted defeat and submitted to the grace and mercy of the Mayor and Corporation of Dublin. He promised to make amends for his trespasses, and gave a bond on behalf of himself and his family in the sum of 500 silver marks, as a pledge that he would not trouble the city any further.[6] He did not however demolish the houses on Dublin Bridge: in 1317, shortly after his death, his widow, daughter and son-in-law came to an agreement with the Corporation concerning them. His son-in-law John de Grauntsete rebuilt Isolde's Tower and added another tower at the other end of the bridge, and later endowed a chapel on the bridge. [7]

Family

Geoffrey married Maud de Bree. They had two daughters: Maud, and Alice who married the High Court judge John de Grauntsete. Alice died c.1335.[8]

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References
  1. Ball, F. Elrington The Judges in Ireland 1221-1921 John Murray London 1926 Vol.1 p.27
  2. Gilbert, John Thomas Historic and Municipal Documents of Ireland 1172-1320 Reprinted Cambridge Library Collection 2012 p. lxv
  3. Gilbert p.lxv
  4. Gilbert p. lxv
  5. Gilbert p.lxv
  6. Gilbert p.lxv
  7. Ball p.28
  8. Ball p.27
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