After unsuccessfully attempting to become a lawyer, Thomas Morton turned to writing plays instead, authoring some two dozen overall. His first play was Columbus, or A World Discovered (1792), based on Les Incas, ou la destruction de l'empire du Pérou (1777) by Marmontel. Morton’s most successful plays include The Way to Get Married (1796), The Cure for the Heart Ache (1797), Speed the Plough (1798), and The School of Reform, or, How to Rule a Husband (1805).