William Morice (Secretary of State)

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Sir William Morice (6 November 1602 – 12 December 1676) was an English statesman of the 17th century and theologian. He served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and a Lord of the Treasury from June 1660 to September 1668.

Morice was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He was elected Member of Parliament for Devon to fill a vacancy in 1648, but was excluded in Pride's Purge in December of that year, probably before he had taken his seat. Nevertheless, he was appointed High Sheriff of Devon in 1651, and returned to Parliament as MP for Devon in the First Protectorate Parliament elected in 1654. He subsequently represented Devon again in the Second Protectorate Parliament, Newport (Cornwall) in the Third Protectorate Parliament.

A relation of General Monck, Morice assisted in the Restoration and was knighted in 1660. He was also made a Privy Counsellor and appointed Secretary of State for the Northern Department, an office he held until he resigned in 1668; he was apparently an undistinguished minister, but justified his tenure of office by his usefulness in the House of Commons. In the Convention Parliament of 1660 he was re-elected for Newport but was also elected for Plymouth, which he chose to represent, and was that city's MP until his death 16 years later.

In 1657, during the Commonwealth, he published a treatise on the administration of the sacrament to all church members.

Morice married Elizabeth Prideaux, and they had a number of children. His eldest son, William (c. 1628-1690), was created a baronet in 1661, and was later also a member of Parliament.

[edit] References

• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Sir George Clark, The Later Stuarts 1660-1714 (2nd edition - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955)
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
• Morice genealogy

Political offices
Preceded by New Office	Secretary of State for the Northern Department 1660–1668	Succeeded by Sir John Trevor