THOMAS

See also:

• MORTON, JAMES DOUGLAS, 4TH EARL OF (c. 1525-1581)
• MORTON, JOHN (c. 1420-1500)
• MORTON, JOHN MADDISON (1811-1891)
• MORTON, LEVI PARSONS (1824- )
• MORTON, OLIVER PERRY (1823-1877)
• THOMAS MORTON (1564-1659)
• MORTON, THOMAS (c. 1590-1646)

MORTON (1564-1659)  , English bishop, was born at York, and was educated at York and Halifax grammar-schools and St John's College, Cambridge, where he became fellow on taking his degree . He was ordained in 1592, and held the office of university lecturer in logic till in 1598 he was presented to the living of Long Marston, Yorkshire . He gained a considerable reputation as a Protestant controversialist, and published numerous works against Roman Catholicism, chief among them being the Apologia catholica (16o5) and A Catholicke Appeale (1609) . He held successively the deaneries of Gloucester (16o6), Winchester (16og), and a canonry at York (r61o) . In 1616 he became bishop of Chester, in 1618 bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and in 1632 bishop of Durham . On the abolition of the episcopate in 1646 he was assigned a pension, but it was never paid, and the remainder of his life was passed in retirement .