Marcus Morton

Who was Marcus Morton?

Marcus Morton, American lawyer and jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, was born in Taunton, the son of future Governor Marcus Morton and his wife Charlotte. He attended Bristol County Academy, was graduated from Brown University in 1838, and from Harvard Law School in 1840. After one year in the Boston office of Judge Peleg Sprague, he was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1841 and practised in Boston for seventeen years. His first appearance in a public position was as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1853, in which he sat for Andover, his home from 1850. In 1858 he served in the state House of Representatives, where he was chairman of the committee on elections and rendered reports on important questions regarding election law, which the House came to follow.

His judicial service began with his appointment in 1858 to the superior court of Suffolk County and continued unbroken for over thirty-two years.