David Richard Morier

David Richard Morier (1784–1877) was an English diplomat and author.

Life The third son of Isaac Morier, Consul-General to the Turkey Company at Constantinople, he was born in Smyrna on 8 January 1784 and educated at Harrow School before entering the diplomatic service. In January 1804, at the age of 20, he was appointed secretary to a political mission sent by the British government to Ali Pasha and the Turkish governors of the Morea and other provinces, with a view to counteracting the influence of France in south-east Europe. In May 1807 he was ordered to take entire charge of the mission, but the continuing rupture of diplomatic relations between England and the Ottoman Empire defeated his negotiations.

Morier was shortly transferred to Sir Arthur Paget's mission, at the Dardanelles. He was despatched on special service to Egypt, where he was instructed to negotiate for the release of the British prisoners captured by Muhammad Ali during the Alexandria expedition of 1807. In the summer of 1808 he was attached to Robert Adair's embassy, and with Stratford Canning, assisted in negotiations which resulted in the Treaty of the Dardanelles of 5 January 1809. Back in Constantinople, with the exception of a mission to Tabriz from October 1809 to the following summer, he remained at the embassy, first under Adair, and then (1810–12) as secretary of legation under his successor, Stratford Canning. His only son was Sir Robert Burnett David Morier.