Neill Morrison

Neill Morrison (1728 - 9/1784) was one of the original signers of the Meckenburg Declaration of Independence. Neill, son of James Morrison, was born in Philadelphia and married Annabelle Johnston of New Castle, Delaware. Neill, Annabelle, and James moved to the Four-Mile Creek area of Mecklenburg County in Providence township.  

The couple had eight children. Annabelle provided in her will that all her grandchildren should get a pocket Bible, if she had not already given them one during her lifetime. Unlike many other probable signers, Neill's name does not appear on land transactions until 1779, four years after the Mecklenburg Declaration was supposedly written. During his lifetime, he served as magistrate for Mecklenburg County and in the military in campaigns against the Cherokee Indians. He became a doctor and served as a representative to the North Carolina Legislature in 1796.

His son, William, fought the British at Sullivan's Island and Camden, South Carolina, and was wounded but recovered.  Neill's daughter, Jane, signed a resolution like other women in Charlotte, that they would not speak to young men in town who did not volunteer for the military. Jane married Major Thomas Alexander, one of the last Revolutionary War veterans to attend a Mecklenburg Declaration celebration.

It is interesting to note that Henry Downs, one of the supposed signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, had two sons who witnessed Neill Morrison's will, and one of Neill's sons named a child after Henry Downs. Tradition has it that Neill Morrison was also friends with John Flennikin and that they served in the militia company with James Jack.

Documentation

(1) King, Victor C. Lives and Times of the 27 Signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of May 20, 1775. Charlotte, NC, 1956.