Morson, Thomas Newborn Robert (1799-1874); Thomas Morson & Son Ltd

This is an artificial collection, comprising the surviving papers of T.N.R. Morson and his descendants, records of the firm they created and managed, and materials assembled by Anthony Morson for his research on T.N.R. Morson and his milieu. Coverage is patchy, some aspects, such as the collaboration with E Merck of Darmstadt during the1930s being well documented, other areas less so.

There is a small amount of original material relating to T.N.R. Morson himself, principally his Parisian journal, 1818 (SA/MOR/A), and a small quantity of personal correspondence, 1826-74 (SA/MOR/C1/1-37); the most frequent correspondent is Jacob Bell (1810-1859), founder of the Pharmaceutical Society. However the bulk of the documentation in the collection relating to T.N.R. Morson consists of later research material assembled by Anthony Morson (SA/MOR/R passim).

There are portrait photographs of T.N.R. Morson and members of his family, c.1850-1872 (SA/MOR/P1), and a series of carte de visite portraits of contemporary scientists, authors and others (SA/MOR/P2), including Thomas Bell FRS, William Thomas Brande, Thomas Graham, and Heinrich Rose. The records of the Morson company principally comprise legal papers and agreements, 1879-1963 (SA/MOR/D); business correspondence and papers, 1866-1970 (SA/MOR/E), including the Merck Darmstadt material noted above; accounts and other financial records, 1868-1979 (SA/MOR/F); recipes, sampling and production records, c.1848-1957 (SA/MOR/G), advertising records, 1821-c.1970 (SA/MOR/H); and records of premises and staff, c. 1870-1971, mainly photographs (SA/MOR/L-M): there are particularly fine series of photographs of the works at Hornsey Rise and Homerton, dating from the second half of the nineteenth century, the former by Henri Claudet (SA/MOR/L2/1-5 and L3/1-6). There are few records of sales, although there is an order book containing a record of orders placed by the Secretary of State for India, 1887-1947 (SA/MOR/J1).

The collection contains both personal papers and institutional records, although the bulk comprises business records of the firm of Thomas Morson & Son. Like most entrepreneurs, T.N.R. Morson did not distinguish clearly between his private and business affairs, and it is somewhat misleading to attempt to distinguish them. Nonetheless, the personal papers of T.N.R. Morson and other members of his family are largely subsumed under MOR/A-C and the business records under MOR/D-M; the company's filing arrangements for business correspondence have been preserved in MOR/E. MOR/N comprises historical publications from various sources, MOR/P portrait photographs mainly assembled by T.N.R. Morson, and MOR/Q miscellaneous publications, again deriving from a variety of sources. MOR/R are the files of modern research papers compiled by Anthony Morson, which contain no original personal or business records.

A full summary is as follows:

A. Journal, 1818;

B. Personal and professional papers, 1834-71;

C. Personal, family and other correspondence, 1826-1957;

D. Legal papers and agreements, 1879-1963;

E. Business correspondence and papers, 1866-1970;

F. Accounts and other financial records, 1868-1979;

G. Recipes, production and sampling records, c.1848-1957;

H. Advertising records, 1821-c.1970;

J. Sales records, 1887-1955;

K. Company scrapbooks and press cuttings, c.1906-1950;

L. Records of premises, c.1870-1965;

M. Staff records, 1878-1971;

N. Historical publications and company history, 1916-88;

P. Portrait photographs, c.1850-1938;

Q. Other publications, 1751-1957;

R. Historical research papers of Anthony Morson.

Thomas Newborn Robert Morson, pharmaceutical entrepreneur, was the founder of the firm of Thomas Morson & Son, of London, which became a leading manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer of pharmaceutical chemicals and proprietary medicines during the nineteenth century. After an apprenticeship to a surgeon-apothecary in London, T.N.R. Morson spent three years in Paris (1818-21) studying under the chemist Louis Antoine Planche; he was thus equipped to introduce French science into the traditional world of the British apothecary. He was also a man of wide scientific and cultural interests, with contacts and friendships throughout British and continental science, although relatively little remains of his private correspondence. He was prominent in the foundation of the Pharmaceutical Society, and was elected President in 1848.

Morsons was particularly notable for the manufacture and sale of the new vegetable alkaloids which were identified in the early part of the nineteenth century in France, and indeed was the first British producer, from 1821, of quinine sulphate and morphine. At this date the business was operated from 65 Fleet Market. From 1824 Bloomsbury was the main locus of activity, with laboratory, factory and retail shop being maintained at 19, Southampton Row. Later the company shifted manufacturing into the suburbs, to Hornsey, Homerton, and by the turn of the century, Ponders End, Enfield, at which time the retail side of the business was wound up. By the 1860s Morsons was producing over five hundred different chemical substances, mainly of medicinal application. By the end of the century the firm had a world-wide export business, especially to India. In 1915 the company was incorporated as Thomas Morson & Son Ltd. The peak of production was reached in about 1930, at which time the firm entered into cooperation with the German chemical company, E. Merck of Darmstadt, for the manufacture of sodium glycerophosphate (a substance included in tonic formulations). This development presaged the eventual takeover of Morsons by the American pharmaceutical corporation, Merck Sharp and Dohme, in 1957.

An outline chronology follows:

8 November 1799 T.N.R. Morson born at Stratford, Essex

c. 1814 apprenticed to Charles Dunn, surgeon-apothecary, 65 Fleet Market, London

From 1815 attends chemical and clinical lectures at Guy's Hospital

September 1818-1821 studies chemistry in Paris under L.A. Planche

1821 sets up in business as an apothecary at 65 Fleet Market

November 1822 marries Charlotte Elizabeth Pegram (b. 20 Dec. 1797)

April 1824 moves to 19 Southampton Row

1825 birth of Thomas Morson junior (son)

1828 birth of Isabelle Morson (daughter)

1834 purchases house at Hornsey Rise , Middlesex, as a country home and chemical factory

1848 elected President of the Pharmaceutical Society

1850 moves to 38 Queen Square, Bloomsbury

1852 birth of Thomas Pierre Morson (grandson)

1863 death of Charlotte Morson (wife)

From 1869 develops Works at Homerton, Middlesex

4 March 1874 T.N.R. Morson dies at Queen Square; buried in Highgate cemetery

c. 1875 sale of the Hornsey premises and transfer of all production to Homerton

1879 T.P. Morson made a partner, aged 27

1900 closure of the Southampton Row retail pharmacy

From May 1901 purchase of a site at Ponders End, Middlesex, and transfer of production from Homerton

1915 incorporation of Thomas Morson & Son Ltd

1957 purchase of the firm by Merck Sharp & Dohme of Philadelphia

At Wellcome Collection:

Correspondence between T. Morson & Son Ltd and Joseph Lister relating to antiseptic substances held as MS.6975/7-8.

In other repositories:

The Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, holds correspondence between T. Morson & Son Ltd and Joseph Lister relating to antiseptic substances.

Index to individuals represented in the collection:

Abraham (John) pharmacist. Letter, 1874 C2/5

Ainger (Alfred) writer. Letter, n.d. C2/9

Andrews (H J) of Bristol. Letter, 1874 C2/12

Atkinson (James). Photograph, 19th century P2/1

Bagnold (W E) brother of Capt. Thomas Bagnold. Letter, 1848 C1/15

Bell (Jacob) founder of the Pharmaceutical Society. Notes and sketches, c. 1830-1859 B5/1-8; letters, 1841-59 and n.d. C1/7, 9, 13-14, 17-27, 33-35, 46-48

Bell (Thomas) FRS. Photograph, 19th century P2/2

Bentley (Robert) professor of Botany, King's College London. Photograph, 19th century P2/3

Blomfield (Charles James) Bishop of London. Letter, 1842 C1/8

Bowcher (J) of Bristol. Letter,1874 C2/13

Bowerbank (John Scott) geologist and zoologist. Letter, 1872 C1/45

Brande (William Thomas) chemist. Photograph, 19th century P2/5

Bywater (John) of Liverpool. Letter, 1829 C1/4

Cruikshank (Eliza) wife of the following. Letter, n.d. C2/10

Cruikshank (George) artist. Letters, 1864-68 C1/30-37, 39; photograph, 19th century P2/6

Curtis and Co. pharmaceutical chemists. Printed circular, 1867 C5/6

Deane (H). Photograph, 19th century P2/7

Dickens (Charles) novelist. Letter, 1843 C5/2

Dorvault (François Laurent Marie) pharmacist. Photograph, 19th century P2/8

Elmore (Alfred) artist. Photograph, 19th century P2/21

Faraday (Michael). Letter, 1843 C1/12; photograph, n.d. P2/9

Filkin (Thomas) of Chichester. Letters, 1826 and n.d. C1/1-3

Forbes (Edward) naturalist. Photograph, 19th century P2/10

Gassiot (John Peter) scientific writer. Photograph, 19th century P2/11

Graham (Margaret) sister of Thomas Graham. Letter. n.d. C2/1

Graham (Thomas) chemist. Letter, n.d. C2/11; photographs, n.d. P2/12-14

Gray (John Edward) naturalist. Letter, 1871 C1/41; photograph, n.d. P2/15

Gray (Maria Emma) conchologist; wife of JE Gray. Letter, 1872 C1/44; photograph, n.d. P2/15

Hanbury (Daniel) pharmacist. Letters, 1872 and n.d. C1/43, 49

Henderson (John). Photograph, 19th century P2/16

Henfrey (Arthur) botanist. Photograph, 19th century P2/17

Henslow (John Stevens) botanist. Photograph, 19th century P2/18

Hills (Thomas Hyde) pharmacist. Letters, 1859, 1874 C1/28, C2/6; photographs, 19th century P2/19-21

Jones (John Winter) librarian. Letter, 1871 C1/42

Kemble (Charles) actor. Letter, 1845 C5/3

London, Bishop of, See Blomfield

Lundgren (C) Swedish artist. Letter, 1868 C1/40; photograph, n.d. P2/21

Mackay (John) manufacturing chemist. Photograph, 19th century P2/22

Masson (Elizabeth). Letters, 1861 C2/7-8

Meadows (Drinkwater) actor. Letter from Charles Dickens,1843 C5/2

Morson (Robert) brother of Thomas Morson junior. Letters, 1868 and n.d. C2/2-4

Odling (William) chemist. Photograph, 19th century P2/23

Owen (Sir Richard) naturalist. Photograph, 19th century P2/24

Palmerston Viscount, See Temple

Roots (Henry S) physician. Letter, n.d.C1/50

Rose (Heinrich) chemist. Letter, 1833 German C1/5; photograph, c. 1850 P2/25

Rose (Louisa). Photograph, 1862 P2/26

Rose (Wilhelm) of Berlin. Letter, French C1/25; photographs, 1862-64 P2/27-29

Savory (-). Letter from Charles Kemble, 1845 C5/3

Schweitzer (George) of Brighton. Letter, c.1848 C1/16

Simpson (Sir James Young) physician. Photograph, 19th century P2/30

Squire (Peter) chemist. Letter, 1866 facsimile copy C5/5

Stanford (Edward C C ). Photograph, 19th century P2/31

Stanley (Arthur Penrhyn) Dean of Westminster. Letter, 1876 C5/6

Taylor (John Edward). Photograph, 19th century P2/32

Temple (Henry John) 3rd Viscount Palmerston. Correspondence, 1843 C1/10-11

Tennant (James) mineralogist. Letter, 1869 C1/28

Ure (Andrew) chemist. Letter, 1852 C5/4

Varley (Cornelius) artist. Photograph, 1866 P2/33

Witt (Nikolai) of St Petersburg. Letter, 1840 C1/6

Wollaston (William Hyde). Letter, early 19th century. C5/1

Wyburd (Francis). Letter, 1868 C1/38