Nathan B. Morse (1799-1886) served as city treasurer of New York in 1829. Morse served as District Attorney from 1830-1833 and then 1839-1847 in Kings Country. He became an elected county judge in 1838.

In 1827, Nathan Brewster Morse married Eliza Tiffany, whose brother, Charles Tiffany, co-founded Tiffany and Company. Morse’s family included his wife, Eliza and his two children- Nathan Brewster Morse Jr. and Charlotte Tiffany (Morse) Dunham. Morse remarried in 1859 to Joanna Smith Handley after Eliza’s death. Their marriage produced no children.

Morse was on the Prison Discipline committee for the Prison Association of New York where he came in contact with Hopper. Hopper relied on Morse for character assessments, to secure employment for people who called on Hopper at the office, and to assist with pardons of innocent people. 

Judge Nathan B. Morse presided over the trial of Charles Sprague in Brooklyn, New York in 1849. The case is notable for addressing the insanity plea. Sprague, who had been hit in the head and had developed a penchant for stealing women’s shoes, was acquitted in the case after his attorneys proved that his habit of stealing women’s shoes “was a form of insanity.”

Sources:

Chester, Alden, ed. Legal and Judicial History of New York. 1911. Accessed

    February 18, 2019. https://archive.org/details/legaljudicialhis03ches/page/n187. 

Historical Society of the New York Courts editors. "Nathan B. Morse." Historical

    Society of the New York Courts. Accessed February 18, 2019. http://www.nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/legal-history-er….

Lawson, John D., ed., American State Trials American State Trials: A Collection of the Important and Interesting Criminal Trials which Have Taken Place in the United States from the Beginning of Our Government to the Present Day, Volume 4. St. Louis: F.H. Thomas Law Books, 1915.

Prison Association of New York, ed. First Report of the Prison Association of

    New York. Jared W. Bell, 1844. Accessed February 18, 2019.