Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morse, Robert
MORSE, ROBERT (1743–1818), general, colonel commandant royal engineers, inspector-general of fortifications, second son of Thomas Morse, rector of Langatt, Somerset, was born on 29 Feb. 1743. He entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich on 1 Feb. 1756, and while still a cadet received a commission as ensign in the 12th foot on 24 Sept. 1757. He was permitted to continue his studies at the Royal Military Academy, and on 8 Feb. 1758 was gazetted practitioner engineer. In May he joined the expedition under the Duke of Marlborough destined for the capture and destruction of St. Malo. The troops were landed at Cancale on 5 June, and the engineers covered the place with strong lines of trenches, but with the exception of the destruction of shipping and of some magazines nothing was done, and the troops re-embarked, and after demonstrations at Cherbourg and Havre returned home. Morse then joined the expedition under General Bligh directed against Cherbourg. The troops disembarked without resistance on 6 Aug., and, the French having abandoned the forts, the engineers demolished the defences and the wharves and docks. The expedition sailed for England again on 18 Aug. Morse again accompanied Bligh the following month, when another attempt was made on St. Malo. The troops landed in St. Lunaire Bay on 4 Sept., but were unable to make any impression on the place. Morse took part in the skirmishes at Plancoet on the 8th and Mantignon on the 9th. On the llth the expedition hastily retreated to their ships, and embarked under heavy fire from the French, when over eight hundred were killed, drowned, or made prisoners. Morse was slightly wounded.
Soon after his return to England he was placed on the staff of the expedition, under General Hobson, for the reduction of the French islands of the Caribbean Sea. The expedition sailed for Barbados on 12 Nov., and disembarked without loss in Martinique on 14 Jan. 1759. Shortly after the troops were re-embarked and carried to Guadeloupe. Basseterre, the capital, was taken, and the whole island reduced, the French evacuating it by the capitulation of 1 May. Morse was promoted lieutenant and sub-engineer on 10 Sept. 1759, and on his return to England at the end of the year was employed on the coast defences of Sussex.
In 1761 Morse served in the expedition against Belleisle, off the coast of Brittany, under General Hodgson. The force, which was strong in engineers, arrived off the island on 7 April, but an attempted disembarkation failed, with a loss of five hundred men. Bad weather prevented another attempt until 21 April, when a landing was effected, and the enemy driven into the citadel of Palais, a work of considerable strength, requiring a regular siege. There is a journal of the siege in the royal artillery library at Woolwich, 'by an officer who was present at the siege.' A practicable breach was established in June, and on the 7th of that month the garrison capitulated, and the fort and island were occupied by the British. Morse was employed in repairing and restoring the fortifications, and returned to England with General Hodgson.
Morse served with the British forces in Germany, under John Manners, marquis of Granby [q. v.], in 1762 and 1763, and acted as aide-de-camp to Granby, in addition to carrying out his duties as engineer. He was also assistant quartermaster-general. He was present at the various actions of the Westphalian campaign, in which the British force took part. At the close of the war he was one of the officers sent to Holland to make a convention with the States-General for the passage of the British troops through their country, and he attended the embarkation of the army. He was promoted captain-lieutenant and engineer-extraordinary on 6 May 1763.
On his return to England, through the good offices of Colonel George Morrison [q.v.], quartermaster-general of the forces, Morse was appointed assistant quartermaster-general at headquarters, an office which he held simultaneously with the engineer charge of the Medway division until 1766, and afterwards with that of the Tilbury division until 1769. In 1773 he was appointed commanding royal engineer of the West India islands of Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago, which had been ceded to Great Britain by France at the conclusion of the seven years' war. Morse was promoted captain and engineer in ordinary on 30 Oct. 1775. He returned to England in 1779, and on 20 Aug. was placed on the staff and employed first on the defences of the Sussex coast, and later at Plymouth and Falmouth.
In June 1782 Morse accompanied Sir Guy Carleton [q. v.] to New York as chief engineer in North America. On 1 Jan. 1783 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel. On his return home he was employed at headquarters in London. He was promoted colonel on 6 June 1788, and in the summer of 1791 was sent to Gibraltar as commanding royal engineer. He was promoted major-general on 20 Dec. 1793. He remained five years at Gibraltar, when he was brought home by the Duke of Richmond to assist in the duties of the board of ordnance. On 10 March 1797 Morse was temporarily appointed chief engineer of Great Britain during the absence on leave of Sir William Green. He was promoted lieutenant-general on 26 June 1799. On 21 April 1802 the title of inspector-general of fortifications was substituted for that of chief engineer of Great Britain, and on 1 May Morse became the first incumbent of the new office, and was made a colonel commandant of royal engineers.
Morse held the post of inspector-general of fortifications for nine years, during which considerable works of defence were constructed on the coasts of Kent and Sussex against the threatened invasion by the French. He was promoted general on 25 April 1808. Owing to ill-health he resigned his appointment on 22 July 1811, and was granted by the Prince Regent an extra pension of twenty-five shillings a day for his good services. He died on 28 Jan. 1818 at his house in Devonshire Place, London, and was buried in Marylebone Church, where there is a tablet to his memory. He married, on 20 April 1785, Sophia, youngest daughter of Stephen Godin, esq., and left an only daughter, Harriet, who was married to Major-general Sir James Carmichael-Smyth, bart.
Morse was the author of 'A General Description of the Province of Nova Scotia, and a Report of the Present State of the Defences, with Observations leading to the further Growth and Security of this Colony, done by Lieutenant-Colonel Morse, Chief Engineer in America, upon a Tour of the Province in the Autumn of the Year 1783 and the Summer of 1784, under the Orders and Instructions of H.E. Sir Guy Carleton, General and Commander-in-Chief of H.M. Forces in North America. Given at Headquarters at New York, 28 July 1783,' 1 vol. text, 1 vol. plans, MSS. fol. (Brit. Mus.)
The following plans drawn by Morse are in the war office: 1. Town and River of Annapolis, 1784. 2. Fort Annapolis, with Projects for its Reform, 1784. 3. Cumberland Fort, Nova Scotia, 1784. 4. Town of Shelbourne, with Harbour, and Roseneath Island, 1784. The following are in the archives of the government of the Dominion of Canada: 1. Town and Harbour of St. John, New Brunswick, 1784. 2. Quebec, Cape Diamond, Proposed Barracks.
[Royal Engineers' Corps Records; War Office and Ordnance Records; Despatches.]