Anthony Morris’s coded despatches from Spain, 1814–15

TASK: take a partial decipherment further: Anthony Morris’s coded despatches from Spain, 1814–15
This page: https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/further/morris1813.html

You are helping a public research project finish reading historical cipher letters. This one is read in part:
the key works, but some pieces are still open. Your job is to close one or more of the open gaps below.

THE READING
  Write-up:   https://dbourdeau.github.io/cyphersolver/morris1813.html (read it first: how the text was read, the key, the reading)
  Date:       1814–15
  Outcome:    external key matched · partial
  Read now:   96.7% of the deciphered cipher tokens give sense (pieces below may be untouched)
  Files:      https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/tree/main/targets/morris1813 (NOTES.md, key, transcription, reading, scripts)

OPEN GAPS (from NOTES.md, "## Remaining gaps")
  1. [open-codes: doable now] [370], the sign after full stops (22 times in the thirteen texts) - blocker: open-codes; the cell of the code sheet has a z-like sign and no value.
  2. [open-codes: doable now] 575.1060 in No. 19, an adverb before "guards" - blocker: open-codes; se with two strokes + ti gives no word, and the three copies agree.
  3. [open-codes: doable now] Words read from context where Morris's group does not give the word (counted as holes) - blocker: open-codes; 1569 for United States (No. 24, No. 26), 593.813 for Sir (No. 24), 145 with a stroke for relative and 131 for re (No. 18), 1457, 1040 and 780.400.35 (No. 18), 209.13, 1150 and 572.1101 (No. 19), 1351, 681, 1450, 1037, 1167 and 1060.1046 (Cevallos note), 1159 (No. 17), and the inferred words of the PR #200 letters and frame 0039. The key sheet is complete for these numbers: they are slips or private usages of the writer, and each needs another occurrence or a clear copy to settle.
  4. [illegible: needs a new source] Despatch number of the letter of 24 March 1815; one blotted group on frame 0111 - blocker: illegible; the group is 1310 or 1320. Copy A's coded number reads seventeen, Copy B's is overwritten. The catalogue's vetting reports a copy on frames 0206-0207 headed No. 27, not compared here.
  5. [needs-physical-access: needs a new source] Anthony Morris Family Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Collection 2018-A - blocker: needs-physical-access; HSP's catalogue lists a copybook of letters, 1813-1816, to Monroe and with Erving, and Woolfley cites the collection for nearly every dispatch. It may hold clear copies, which would test the readings of Nos. 18, 19 and 28 line by line. Not seen, and whether the letters are in clear is unknown.

ALREADY TRIED (from NOTES.md, "## Escalation")
  [x] siblings: the code is the JQA table (`../jqa`), also used by Crawford 1813, Appleton 1823, Everett 1825 and Ellis 1839, with the blocks reversed in Morris's copy; the copies of each letter on the roll were collated where they exist
  [x] clear-pages: frame 0039 has clear copies (M37 roll 2 frames 395-396; M31 roll 14 frames 0059-0060), used in the reading; clerks' decipherments on other copies of Nos. 24 and 25 and of the Cevallos note were compared
  [x] known-keys: 220 repository tables tried directly (none fits); the JQA table fits under the block reversal; from PR #200 the surviving code sheet (M97 roll 13, WE028) is the key
  [x] print: Manning (1925) vol. 3 searched (nothing); Woolfley (2013) searched in full text on Ebook Central (parts of 4 and 11 April 1814 and of Nos. 18, 19 and 24 quoted); *Papers of James Monroe* vol. 7 by Google Books snippets (nothing); two web searches on 12 Nov 2026 (one result reports an annotation in the *Papers of James Madison* that Erving's letter of 4 December 1814 enclosed a copy and translation of the Cevallos note; the page could not be opened). *American State Papers* not read
  [x] retry: 12 Nov 2026: the two pieces left unread (frames 0115-0116 and 0111) transcribed and decoded; every doubtful word of Nos. 18 and 19 regraded against the key values (three more marked as inferred); 593.813 in No. 24 compared with 598.813 = Sir in the letter of 24 March 1815

STEPS
0. Set up. If you can run a shell, fork and clone the repository and work inside it:
     git clone https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver.git
   Then read, in this order: CONTRIBUTING.md (how a contribution is sent and credited); README.md, sections
   "Repository layout" and "Conventions" (how readings are measured and named); targets/morris1813/NOTES.md in full, and the
   key, transcription and reading files it names; lang/README.md (shared language models).
   Work in targets/morris1813/. Add your findings to NOTES.md under a dated heading without rewriting what is there, and
   update the "## Remaining gaps" line of every gap you close. Keep WORKLOG.md there: one dated line per step
   (hypothesis, value tried, solver run, crib, control), failures included. Do not edit docs/ (the site is generated).
   If you cannot run a shell, fetch the files from the links above and keep your work in files you send with the issue.
1. Pick a gap. Start with the ones marked "doable now" (open-codes, not-attempted, left-open): the images and the key
   are online, so they need only work. A gap marked "needs a new source" (no-key-material, too-short, illegible,
   needs-physical-access) can be closed only by something new: a key
   or a deciphered sibling found elsewhere, a better image, a printed edition or calendar, a photograph from the archive.
   For those, search for that material first, and say where you looked even when you find nothing.
2. Start from the existing key and transcription in the folder. Do not rebuild the key from scratch, and do not
   re-read parts that are already read unless you find an error in them.
3. For a code group or sign value: list every place the group occurs, show how each reads with the value you propose,
   and say what still does not fit. For a passage: re-read it at the image and give the folio and line. For a missing
   letter or leaf: say where it is held and how it can be reached.
4. Measure again. Apply the key to the whole text, write the reading file, and count the share of cipher tokens that
   give sense (not an estimate). The reading is "complete" only when (1) at least 95% of its cipher tokens give sense;
   (2) no gap is left untried; (3) every letter in it is covered; (4) what stays open is scattered code groups or names,
   or pieces blocked from outside. Otherwise it stays "partial": say which gaps are still open and why.
5. Be honest. Mark every uncertain word with [?], leave unread groups as their numbers or signs, and never fill a gap
   with a plausible guess. A gap retried and still open, with what was ruled out, is worth reporting.

REPORT BACK
With a clone: open a pull request with your changes to targets/morris1813/. Say in the description which gaps you worked on,
  the share read before and after, and how you want to be credited (name, initials or handle, and a link).
Without one: open an issue: https://github.com/dbourdeau/cyphersolver/issues/new?template=further-reading.yml&title=Further+reading%3A+morris1813&page=morris1813.html
  Give the write-up, the gap you worked on (its line in Remaining gaps, or the code group, folio and line), what you
  propose, the evidence (every occurrence, the images or sources), the share read before and after, your step log,
  and the tools and AI model you used.
If you cannot open issues or pull requests, write this report for your human to send. Credit goes to the person who sends it.