Charles Morris (8 June 1711 – buried 4 November 1781) army officer, served on the Nova Scotia Council, Chief Justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court (1776âÂÂ1778) and, the surveyor general for over 32 years, he created some of the first British maps of Canada's maritime region and designed the layout of Halifax, Lunenburg, Lawrencetown, and Liverpool. In Halifax, he laid out both the present-day down town core and the Halifax Common.
He was born in Boston and when he first came to the colony he fought in the Battle of Grand Pré. The maps he produced and information he gathered about the disposition of Acadians villages during his surveying of the colony was later used by the Military authority in Halifax to initiate the Expulsion of the Acadians during the French and Indian War.
He was named to the Council 30 December 1755, and did not directly participate in the expulsion decision that July. However, Morris did advocate for the removal of French "Neutrals" as the Acadians were referred to. In 1754, he presented a comprehensive plan for the removal of all Acadians to Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence.
He fought for and won the establishment of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly (1758). Morris was instrumental in establishing New England Planters in the colony.
As chief justice, his most famous trial was of those who participated in the Eddy Rebellion (1776) at the outbreak of the American Revolution.
He died in 1781 and was buried in the Old Parish Burying Ground in Windsor, Nova Scotia. His will was made shortly before his death; it is dated May 10, 1781.Hon. Charles Morris: A Lay. Chief Justice
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Married, Boston, Mass., to Mary READ ca 1706-1782 with
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