MORGAN, Thomas (1664-1700), of Tredegar, Mon.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1689
1698 - 16 Dec. 1700

Family and Education

b. 7 Sept. 1664, 1st s. of William Morgan. educ. travelled abroad (France, Italy) 1682-4. m. 10 July 1680 (with £10,000), Martha, da. of Sir Edward Mansel, 4th Bt., of Margam Abbey, Glam., 1s. d.v.p. suc. fa. 1680.1

Offices Held

J.p. Mon. 1687-d., sheriff Nov. 1688-Mar. 1689; dep. lt. Mon. and Brec. 1689-d.; commr. for assessment, Mon., Brec., Brecon and Glam. 1689-90; custos rot. Mon. 1695-d., steward, duchy of Lancaster lands 1697-d.2

Biography

Morgan was granted a pass to France in 1682 with two companions and three servants. He ran up enormous debts of honour, and was ordered to return by privy seal two years later. He was added to the commission of the peace by order of the Privy Council in 1687, but the Thomas Morgan who replied in the negative to the lord lieutenant’s questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws probably came from another family. He was noted by Danby as hostile to James II, and in December 1688 was reported to have joined William of Orange. Morgan inherited a good interest in Breconshire from his maternal grandfather William Morgan of Dderw, who had been knight of the shire in the Long Parliament, and he was returned for the borough at the general election of 1689. He was clearly an inactive Member of the Convention, though in committee he cannot be distinguished from James Morgan. He may have been appointed to the committees to inquire into the authors and advisers of recent grievances, to regulate the oaths taken by army officers, to inquire into war expenditure and to consider the second mutiny bill. Though not listed as a supporter of the disabling clause, he sat as a court Whig for Monmouthshire under William III. He died of smallpox on 16 Dec. 1700, leaving an estate of £7,000 p.a. to his brother John, who was returned for Monmouth in January 1701 and for the county in November.3

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: John. P. Ferris

Notes

  • 1. G. T. Clark, Genealogies of Glam. 312; Cat. Penrice and Margam Mss, ser. 4, i. 33.
  • 2. Sir Robert Somerville, Duchy of Lancaster Official Lists, 229.
  • 3. NLW Jnl. xxi. 171; CSP Dom. 1682, p. 625; 1684-5, p. 174; NLW, Penrice and Margam mss, 162, 172, 206, 319; Tredegar mss, box 109, no. 28; Luttrell, iv. 719.