MORRIS. Not exactly a name that makes you think: Dutch. But Lewis Morris’ mother was Katrijn Staats from Amsterdam. There’s a neighborhood in the Bronx, on Long Island, called Morrisania. Doesn’t amount to much today, but in the eighteenth century it was a two thousand-acre estate, and Lewis owned half.
Katrijn gave another son her maiden name as a first name, Staats Morris. He became a general in the English army. Lewis fought on the other side, for America’s independence. One day they brought him 26 sheets of Dutch paper, manufactured in Egmond and Zaandam. Thomas Jefferson had written the Declaration of Independence on those, an original and 25 copies, largely translated from the text of the Union of Utrecht and the Hague Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, both Dutch independence documents when they broke away from Spain in the 16th century. If Lewis Morris would be kind enough to sign it.
Brother Staats said: don’t do it, think of the consequences. To which Lewis Morris spoke the memorable words, “Damn the consequences. Give me the pen.”
MORRISANIA was promptly plundered by English soldiers and completely destroyed. But America was henceforth independent, and Lewis did not allow himself to be driven away from Jonas Bronck’s neighborhood, the Bronx. Staats did, though. He owned the other half of the estate, got rid of it, and disappeared with his tail between his legs.
But the real winner: Katrijn. Still today, fathers and mothers Staats name their daughters Catherine, Katherine or Cathy, in New York, Virginia, New Jersey, West Virginia, Oregon, Ohio – everywhere.
