James Morrison (1755–1823), soldier, merchant, and public official, was a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. He served as an ensign in the Continental army, 1778–81. Morrison then settled briefly in Pittsburgh, where he was sheriff of Allegheny County. By 1792 he relocated to Lexington, Kentucky, and began a mercantile business. Governor Isaac Shelby appointed him a state land commissioner in 1795. Morrison was elected to represent Fayette County in the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1797, and in the same year President John Adams appointed him federal supervisor of the revenue for the district of Kentucky. TJ subsequently named him a bankruptcy commissioner for the state in 1802, James Madison appointed him as a navy agent in 1809, and by the following year he was an army quartermaster. Morrison later served as president of the Lexington branch of the Bank of the Untited States, and he chaired the Transylvania University Board of Trustees, leaving that institution a large bequest. Henry Clay was a longtime friend and an executor of Morrison’s estate. Morrison died in Washington, D.C., shortly after successfully petitioning Congress for compensation related to expenses incurred during his time as quartermaster (Horace Holley, A Discourse occasioned by the death of Col: James Morrison, delivered in the Episcopal Church, Lexington, Kentucky, May 19th, 1823 [Lexington, 1823]; Heitman, Continental Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, April, 1775, to December, 1783, rev. ed., 1914, repr. 1967 description ends , 403; Washington National Intelligencer, 11 June 1802; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 1:247, 2:120 [26, 27 June 1797, 7 Mar. 1809]; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States description ends [1820–21 sess.], 181–2 [30 Jan. 1821]; Clay, Papers description begins James F. Hopkins and others, eds., The Papers of Henry Clay, 1959–92, 11 vols. description ends ; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 45 vols. description ends , 37:402, 710, 40:654; Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. (All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. Citations given below are to the edition mounted on the Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation website of the Library of Congress and give the date of the debate as well as page numbers.) description ends , 17th Cong., 2d sess., 255–6 [19 Feb. 1823]; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 24 Apr., 16 July 1823; Frankfort Argus of Western America, 14 May 1823).