Birkbeck, Morris
traveler, author, purchased 16,000 acres of land in Illinois, founded the town of New Albion, and resided there. When the state was organized in 1818 he opposed the introduction of slavery into it. He was the author of Notes on a Journey Through France; and Notes on a Journey in America, in which he gave sanguine accounts of Illinois; and of Letters from Illinois. He was drowned while returning from a visit to Robert Owen at New Harmony, Ind. He died in 1825.