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Marcus Morton (judge) - Wikiwand Marcus Morton (April 8, 1819 – February 10, 1891), American lawyer and jurist who served as chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, was born in Taunton, the son of future Governor Marcus Morton and his wife Charlotte (née Hodges). Quick Facts Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Preceded by ... | Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court | During these years he was one of the original ten members of the state superior court, organized in 1859; Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts from April 15, 1869; and chief justice from January 16, 1882 to August 27, 1890, at which time he resigned because of ill health.

It is a familiar reflection, that, as some of the greatest forensic and judicial qualities are those which least attract the public notice, furnishing no title to fame or even to remembrance, the memory of great lawyers, and even of great judges, too often survives only in the fugitive traditions of the Bar. But Chief Justice Morton established in fifty volumes of our Reports a lasting monument to the fidelity and ability with which he served the State, and he bequeaths to us the memory and example of a citizen and magistrate on whom the Commonwealth leaned with a confidence which grew with the length of his judicial service, and whose only ambition was satisfied in the faithful discharge of a great trust. The members of the Suffolk bar hereby express their sense of the great loss which the Commonwealth has suffered in the death of the Honorable Marcus Morton, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, their high appreciation of his long and valuable judicial services, and their respect for his character.

When the Massachusetts legislature began to act on the pressing need for a new Suffolk County Court House, Chief Justice Marcus Morton headed the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He did not live to see the structure completed. Morton died in 1890 and was replaced by Walbridge Abner Field. The rest of the Supreme Judicial Court in 1893-1894