Morton, Nathaniel

Morton, Nathaniel

(1613–85) Pilgrim chronicler; born in Leyden, Netherlands. Son of the Pilgrim leader, George Morton (1585–1624), he came to Plymouth in 1624 and entered the family of his uncle by marriage, William Bradford. Very close with Bradford for many years, Morton was secretary of the Plymouth Colony (1647–85). He drafted laws and copied notices and was active in the Plymouth leadership during King Philip's War. He prepared New England's Memoriall (1669), the major source for Pilgrim history until Bradford's History of Plimoth Plantation was recovered in 1855.