As Morris Dancers we are often asked the question; “What is Morris Dancing? What are its origins”?
For a long time now, within the Morris and “folk” circles, there has been much discussion and debate, even controversy, as to the origin of this style of dance. Unfortunately many arguments, especially through the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries have been clouded by how the presenter has wished the answer to be.
Of recent times research by Morris Dancers and academics have revealed a different conclusion than the earlier, and still quoted, romantic versions.
So where to begin?

The Devils Daunce
Philip Stubbs, campaigning in 1583 for a more godly and better ordered society, called it; “The Devils Daunce”.

“They bedeck themselves with scarves, ribbons and laces hanged all over with gold rings, precious stones and other jewels.
This done they tie about either leg 20 or 40 bells with rich handkerchiefs in their hands and sometimes laid across their shoulders and necks, borrowed for the most part of their Mopsies and loving Bessies, for bussying them in the dark.
These things set in order, they have their hobby horses, dragons and other antiques, together with their bawdy pipers piping, drummers thundering, their stumps dancing, their bells jingling, their handkerchiefs swinging about their heads like madmen, their hobby horses and other monsters skirmishing among the throng: and in this sort they go to the church, though the minister be at prayer or preaching, dancing and swinging their handkerchiefs over the heads, in the church, like devils incarnate”.

So by the age of Elizabeth 1 it was already a favourite dance of the English populace and remained so far into the nineteenth century.
In the first summer of her reign she commanded a personal performance of the Morris, which included –
A giant, drummers, the Nine Worthies of Christendom, including St George and the dragon, Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Little John, Friar Tuck and Morris Dancers.
Between 1740 and 1807 Francis Peck, Joseph Strutt and Francis Douce all agreed that the earliest records were from the 15th century, indicating that it was practiced in the royal and princely courts.
Francis Peck and Francis Douce putting forward the argument that it originated in Spain, derived from the word Moorish*, referring to the Arabs in Spain, as some dancers blackened their faces. 
Joseph Strutt argued that it evolved in England and held nothing in common with the dances of the Spanish Moors.
Those views where not taken up again until 1903 when Sir Edmund Chambers presented his very influential theory. Although a good archival scholar he ignored some evidence and declared that Morris had descended from an ancient folk rite to induce fertility.
The Peck and Douce view of the Moorish link and Chambers of an ancient fertility rite have equally held sway right up unto modern times.
Sir Edmund Chambers views gained further credibility by none other than Cecil Sharp, a major figure in the twentieth century revival of interest in folksong and dance.
How far back the dance did go has yet to be discovered, so far records of Morris Dance only go back to the 15th century. However, Sandra Billington suggests that Morris was a re-naming of the term routs and reyes, a dance form arguably Morris by description that can be traced back as far as 1130.
So when and how did it begin? That is a question still to be answered.
It can be assumed that the early records only show the involvement of Morris Dancing within the royal courts and establishments, later also from the records of guilds and societies and the upper classes showing records of payments for Morris Dancing. From Elizabethan time back little would be recorded of the leisure activities of the masses, hence it is still difficult for folk historians and antiquarians to take up the Sandra Billington theory.

Cecil Sharp and Mary Neal
As we arrive into the modern age we come to the momentous meeting of Cecil Sharp with the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers in 1899, which led to resurgence of interest and revival of Morris Dancing.
Cecil Sharp was staying with his Mother-in-Law at Headington and it so happened on Boxing Day that the local group of Morris Dancers visited the house to give a display and make an honest penny in those hard times. From this first encounter with Morris, over the next 20 years, he collected over 150 examples of Morris Dancing.
At the request of Mary Neal, who ran a club for young ladies, he set about documenting and reviving the Morris. At first they were partners in teaching Morris but in 1909 they quarrelled, Neal arguing for the development of Morris, Sharp to conserve its purity. He used that concept as a weapon in his feud with Mary Neal.
The quarrel continued until by 1914 he had gained the upper hand and became the leader of the new folk dance movement. Mary Neal even believing that Morris was an ancient all male preserve.
For the next 60 years the origins of Morris put forward by Sir Edmund Chambers and Cecil Sharp held sway in the folk movement. During this time although a lot of research was carried out into the recent history of Morris it was always interpreted in the way to preserve the definition given by Cecil Sharp.
After the death of Cecil Sharp in 1924 the English Folk Dance & Song Society set up a board of artistic control to vet all new research into Morris. To maintain the purity of Morris, as set out by Cecil Sharp, it became effectively closed to women, over the next 20 years becoming the preserve of men, but taught to children of both sexes.
Throughout the early part of the 20th century prejudices by many leading figures in the folk movement, including Cecil Sharp, suppressed the knowledge that women danced the Morris in past times.
One of Sharps disciples, Rolf Gardiner advocated that Morris was the dance of men and it was due to his influence that for the first time dancers become known as Morris Men.
Under the regime of vetting all new research, some activists still actively pursued their ideas on the Morris, to the extent that in the early 1950’s William Everett was able to pass off some dances he devised himself as being traditional Lichfield. Eventually, in 1956 Douglas Kennedy, a follower of Cecil Sharp, stopped the vetting of dances and allowed them to evolve.

To summarize: -
Before the medieval period it is difficult to identify references to Morris Dancing in any form.
Through to the seventeenth century it was well recorded through the Courts, Guilds, Churches, etc.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was just danced by the poorer rural working classes, declining even in this social environment at the end of the nineteenth century.
So, it could be concluded that the Morris Dance of England is one of evolution and adaptation, depending on period, region and class. It is almost impossible to argue that it possessed neither an authentic form, nor that the Moorish link is proven and it is definitely not an unchanging ancient rite.
So what is the answer to the question; “What is Morris Dancing? What are its origins”?
It would seem that Morris is no more than a style of dance that by its versatility has triumphed over the centuries. It has survived attempted suppression, ridicule and some lack of interest by the “sophisticated” but still continues to flourish where other dance forms  sometimes fade.  
 
* Moorish. The term Negro was not a term used to describe a black man in those early days, a black man was known as a black-a-moor, hence the term Moorish. People blacking their faces probably for disguise and dancing could well have brought about the connection between the Moors (Black-a-moor), Moorish to describe Morris.

1596
At the leaving party for Sir George Carey, “ye chiefe youth of ye yoemanrye danced ye Morreyce”.

Queen Victoria
At some time during her time on the Island there is a record of a stable boy dancing a Bacca Pipes Jig for the Queen at Osborne.

1836
Ventnor Mercury of the 20th August 1890 quotes an old resident giving the following account.
He remembered back to his youth of the Newport Hiring Fair in September 1836. After the young farm hands and dairymaids had spent the day trying to get work for the next year they would go to a public house for the evening. The most noted was the Bell in St James’ Square, which had a room for dance.
He said that: “ The dances consisted mainly of four or six hand reels and were remarkable for the heavy stamping on the floor by the performers in their endeavour to keep time to the scraping of a groggy fiddler, also for the attitudes displayed by the dancers, their arms swinging about like vanes of a windmill and their bodies bent forward”.
The arm movements in particular do indicate Morris Dancing!

This is probably from the time of the revival in interest of the folk traditions of England, an accompanying ‘photo showed children maypole dancing at Bonchurch School. This activity in the Ventnor area could well have continued into the 20th century leading to the annual McNaughton Festival started in 1956, which continued for 50 years.

1900 to 1950
Through this period the Island Churches and Schools, i.e. Arch Bishop King, encouraged and taught children to dance Morris, Country Maypole & Sword dances. These would be displayed at Fetes, especially on May Day, dancing to the May King and Queen, the Ryde Music Festival plus school events in general. A great many children through that era would have been taught the  traditional dances

1951 to 2000
Through the early part of this period a lot of people would have known the following characters: - Kitty Wadham, Miss Howe, Sister Bernadette and many more like them. Besides their efforts in Churches and Schools their input into the likes of the Ryde Music Festival, McNaughton Festival and the Schools non-competitive Country Dance Festival was huge.
As with the previous period Morris Dancing was kept going by the likes of those doughty ladies.

Some notable dates: