I have a colonial NJ brick wall Morrison, the same age as yours, so you have my sympathy. Perhaps we are cousins.
If you have a pension record that says POB New Jersey, confirm by seeing what the 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830 census records say for POB. All NJ? There's something in the bio now that says also Pennsylvania...
Born in NJ but served in Virginia as a young adult? Extremely unlikely he went there by himself as a minor. I would work on identifying his kin that moved with him to Virginia. Look into the FAN method--basically you have to understand his community to break a brick wall. Look at all other Morrisons in his town and county--wills, deeds, etc. The land where he lived--when was it acquired? Did he inherit it from a family member? What religion did he practice? Look at his will and the wills of his children. Are other family like cousins and aunts/uncles identified? Where were they born and when? If you really want to have fun, go page by page looking at the census records for his town, are there other New Jersey-born neighbors? Can you figure out where they came from in NJ--maybe they have a more rare surname?
