Geoffrey de Morton

Geoffrey de Morton was a wealthy merchant and shipowner in fourteenth-century Dublin who served as Mayor of Dublin in 1303. He came from a prominent Anglo-Norman family in Dublin and made his wealth by trading with England, Scotland and France.

In 1303 he was chosen as Mayor, but controversy began almost immediately when he was accused of stealing the official seal of Dublin Corporation for his own use. He placed the blame on his wife, and the Corporation seems to have accepted this explanation. In 1305 he got into legal fight with Richard de Beresford, Lord Treasurer of Ireland and the Barons of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland), against whom he brought a series of lawsuits. The Barons made a series of counter-claims, and as a result Geoffrey was briefly imprisoned.

In 1308 he applied to King Edward II (r. 1307 – 1327) for a license to levy a toll for six years to pay for murage, the tax for the upkeep of the Dublin city walls, and of Isolde's Tower, the defensive tower situated at one end of Old Dublin Bridge which had been damaged by fire. Geoffrey’s duty was to repair the walls and the tower, but it seems that this part of the deal was not obliged. There were also complaints about his practice of exempting his own friends from paying the tax. In 1313, number of such accusations made Geoffrey to submit to the grace of the Mayor and Corporation of Dublin, promised to make amends for his trespasses, and bound himself and his family in the sum of 500 silver marks not to trouble the city any further.