Presumably from the fief of St.Maurice in Normandy. The families of this name were numerous. “Morris Court in Bapchild,” Kent, took its name from one of them, and was long their residence. They were extinct there before the end of Henry IV.’s reign.—Hasted's Kent. John Morice, Moricz, Moriz or Moryce, Knight or Banneret, was a man of note and influence in the reign of Edward II. He was knight of the shire for Bedford in 1322 and 1327; twice also Conservator of the peace for the county; summoned to attend the great Council at Westminster in 1324; and the same year appointed one of the Commissioners of array for Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, “empowered to raise and march certain detachments of hobelers and archers for service in Gascony.”—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs. We there meet with two more John Morices who were his contemporaries; John Morice of Cambridge, a burgess for Cambridge in 1307, 1324, and 1327; and John Morice, who served as knight of the shire for Huntingdon in 1319 and 1322. He was probably the ancestor of the John Morys whose name appears on the list of the Gentry of Huntingdon in 1433.

A Norman name: From the Domesday Book, Mauric. Marais, local name