Pioneer of PM in Motherwell. He was manager of the Glasgow and Motherwell Iron Company, set up at Motherwell when the Carlisle to Glasgow railway line was built shortly after 1848. He encouraged PM iron workers to move from Staffordshire to Motherwell and thanks to him the company built them a chapel. He lent them his harmonium and later, with his support, a connexional chapel was built, with the first organ in the town. He became Provost of Motherwell as well a PM circuit steward. Joseph Ritson, who had been stationed at Motherwell and knew him, wrote: 'The position of a manager of a large works, and that of chief official in the church, most of the members of which were in his employ, was a difficult and delicate one; and if Mr. Morton did not always succeed in holding the balance between the Christian manager and the dominant church official, it is not surprising.' (Centenary of Glasgow Primitive Methodism (Leominster, 1926 p. 57)