Family and Education

1st s. of Rowland Morgan of Machen by Blanche, da. of John Thomas of Llanarth. educ. M. Temple 1567. m. Elizabeth, da. of Roger Bodenham, 4s. 4da. suc. fa. 1577, cos. 1578.1

Offices Held

J.p. Mon. from c.1570, sheriff 1580-1, dep. lt. 1587; ?member, council in the marches of Wales 1590.2

Biography

Morgan belonged to a junior branch of a leading Monmouthshire family. The death of his cousin William Morgan I in 1569 without legitimate children led eventually to his inheriting Tredegar, long the seat of the senior line of the family. Even before his father’s death Morgan was active as a local magistrate, and as holder of Machen his position in the county was far from negligible. But his inheritance of Tredegar gave him recognized county standing. With the Herberts and the Somersets, his kinsmen, he could wield great influence not only in local government, but in the return of Members of Parliament. Thus he was able to secure his own election for the county in 1588. His parliamentary career was uneventful: he was appointed to one committee (12 Feb. 1589) concerning the privilege of Roger Puleston II, Member for Flintshire, and as first knight for the shire he would have been able to attend the subsidy committee on 11 Feb. He did not sit again himself, but his influence may have been helpful in securing the election of Henry Morgan II in 1601.3

Apart from his one appearance in Parliament, Morgan appears to have been occupied exclusively in local government, serving as a justice of the peace and deputy lieutenant until his death in 1603, when he was succeeded by his son Sir William Morgan.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Irene Cassidy

Notes

• 1. Clark, Limbus, 310, 311, 320; A. Morgan, Hist. Morgan Fam. 13-14, 14-15.
• 2. CPR, 1569-72, p. 77; W. J. Smith, Herbert Corresp. (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xxi), 60-1; APC, xxv. 18. Lansd. 63, f. 95 suggests he became a member of the council in the marches in 1590, but he does not appear in P. H. Williams’s list of members, Council in the Marches of Wales, app. iv. An undated entry in the Lansdowne mss (111, f. 43) has a Thomas Morgan of Tredegar as member of the council.
• 3. Clark, 311; G. B. Morgan, Mems. Morgan Fam. i. 112-21; ii. 65-7; D’Ewes, 431, 432.
• 4. APC, xxxi. 403; xxxii. 280; Herbert Corresp. 60-1.