Francis Moryson

Who is Francis Moryson?

Francis Moryson was an English soldier and Virginia colonial official. He was a Royalist in the English Civil War.

Moryson was the son of Sir Richard Moryson and his wife Elizabeth Harrington daughter of Sir Henry Harrington.

Moryson emigrated to Virginia in 1649, surviving a shipwreck en route. He served as Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1656, and was on Governor Sir William Berkeley's Council 1660–63. He was named acting governor in Berkeley's absence 1661–62. He returned to his home in Bishop's Waltham, Hampshire in 1663, acting as an English agent for the colony. His last trip to Virginia was in 1677, when he served on a royal commission investigating Bacon's Rebellion.