sentences:  Birkbeck was born at Settle, England, the son of an influential Quaker also named Morris Birkbeck, and his wife Hannah Bradford.He is of the same Birkbeck family as George Birkbeck (1776-1841), doctor, educationalist, philanthropist, reformer, and founder of Birkbeck College, London, and the Mechanics' Institutes; and of John Birkbeck (1817-1890), a Yorkshire banker, alpinist, and pioneer potholer.By 1794, as leaseholder, Birkbeck was farming an estate of at Wanborough, Surrey, where he joined others in England and France who were experimenting with crossbreeding Merino sheep.