Lewis Morris (1671-1746) was an American colonial official. Chief justice of New York, he later became royal governor of New Jersey.

The son of a Barbadian merchant, Lewis Morris was born on Oct. 15, 1671, on the 500-acre estate his father and uncle had purchased in New York. His parents died the following year, and the uncle became Morris's guardian, trying to raise his ward with Quaker discipline. A headstrong boy, Lewis improved sufficiently so that, when his guardian died in 1691, he inherited the quadrupled Bronx estate and 3,500 acres in Monmouth County, N.J.

Morris married Isabella Graham, daughter of New York's attorney general, on Nov. 3, 1691, establishing his home in Monmouth County. Quickly he became a lesser judge in East Jersey and member of Governor Andrew Hamilton's council. Morris visited England in 1702 to promote transfer of the colony from the proprietors to the Crown, hoping to be appointed first royal...