Family and Education

b. (?2 Nov.) 1514, 1st s. of Edward Morgan of Chitterne by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Daccomb of Steepleton Iwerne, Dorset. m. by 1541, Elizabeth, at least 1da. suc. fa. 4 Apr. 1528.1

Offices Held

Biography

Peter Morgan appears in the records principally as a seller or mortgagor of land. According to his brother Philip, Morgan even disposed of a watermill and 20 acres in Marden, Wiltshire, which their father had set aside for Philip’s education and eventual ownership but which Morgan sold behind his brother’s back. It was from his ‘poor house at Chitterne’, that on 11 Aug. 1549 Morgan wrote to (Sir) John Thynne, to excuse himself from reporting for military service: in his place he sent one of his men. It may have been as sheriff of Somerset and Dorset that Thynne sent the summons, but what was left of Morgan’s lands in Wiltshire lay near enough to Longleat for him to have ranked as Thynne’s servant. It is unlikely, however, that he owed his election for Westbury to Thynne, who seems to have done little electioneering during Mary’s reign and who was on bad terms with Sir Henry Long, the leading figure at Westbury. Whoever his patron, Morgan may have wanted the seat as a protection against creditors, for he was in financial straits. In the months preceding his election he sold or mortgaged further Wiltshire property, yet by 1556 he was outlawed for non-appearance to answer claims by two London merchants, a situation which he remedied in December of that year by surrendering to the Fleet. Such indebtedness and his concurrent changes of domicile suggest that Morgan could have engaged in the cloth trade, perhaps in an effort to restore his fortunes. His suing out of a general pardon in 1559 is the last reference found to him.2

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from age at fa.’s i.p.m., C142/47/8. Vis. Som. ed. Weaver, 53; Hutchins, Dorset, i. 299; Wilts. N. and Q. iv. 243; Wilts. Vis. Peds. (Harl. Soc. cv, cvi), 134.
• 2. VCH Wilts. viii. 99, 104; Wilts. N. and Q. iii. 25, 86, 124-5; iv. 159, 243; viii. 62; LP Hen. VIII, xv; Bath mss, Thynne pprs. 2, ff. 119 and v; CPR, 1555-7, p. 340; 1558-60, p. 190.