Family and Education

b. 1576, 1st s. of Edward Morgan of Golden Grove by Catherine, da. of John Davies of Gwysaney, Mold. educ. prob. Christ Church, Oxf. 1593-6; I. Temple 1594. m. Ann, da. of John Conway II, s.p. ?2da. illegit. suc. fa. 1612.

Offices Held

Sheriff, Flints. 1620-1.

Biography

The family of Morgan of Gwylgre, Goldgreave or Golden Grove was descended, like so many of the leading gentry of North Wales (including the Tudors of Penmynydd), from Ednyfed Fychan, seneschal to Llywelyn the Great. Morgan’s father made a fortunate marriage which brought him additional lands in Flintshire, and had a successful law practice among North Wales families like the Wynns of Gwydir. Thus he was able to build or rebuild the family mansion about 1578. Parts of his work survive in the modernised structure of today. In assessments for subsidy the estate ranked second in the hundred of Prestatyn, ranging from £4 in 1581 to £7 in 1601.1

Edward Morgan junior, the 1597 MP, was thus both well-to-do and connected with the chief established families of the shire. His mother was a Davies of Gwysaney, and he was doubly linked with the powerful Conways of Bodrhyddan-through his wife (who belonged on her mother’s side to the Mostyns of Talacre, the wealthiest landowners of Prestatyn hundred) and through his sister, who married into the next generation of Conways. His Membership for the Boroughs, when he was barely of age, was his first taste of public affairs. As a Welsh constituency MP he could have served on a committee concerning Newport bridge on 29 Nov. 1597. An anonymous Welsh narrative ‘carol’ written in his honour in 1627 traces his later career. He travelled widely in Europe and Ireland, acquiring a competent knowledge of French and Italian, but a promising career was cut short when, in 1608, he killed John Egerton of Egerton, Cheshire, in a duel. His childless marriage was dissolved, and some time before 1627, and probably after his turn as sheriff he made over the bulk of his estates—including the capital messuage of Golden Grove—to his brother Robert, and retired to live at Weppre, in Northop parish.2

In retirement he invested some of his fortune in attempts to develop the neighbouring coal mines of Bagillt, but the work was still in the speculative stage when he died. In his will, dated 12 May 1638 and proved on 31 Mar. 1641, he appointed Captain William Morgan as executor; the ‘two loving girls’, whom he commends to the executor for legacies should the coal venture succeed, were probably illegitimate daughters. The line was carried on through the children of his brother Robert, who died in the same year; some of them fought for Charles I.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: A.H.D.

Notes

• 1. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 297; NLW Jnl. vi. 237; Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd, ed. Thomas (1883), pp. 32, 194, 199; UCNW, Gwysaney ms 7; Cal. Wynn Pprs. pp. 23, 29; RCAM Flints. 51; Proc. Llandudno Field Club, xxvi. 28-9; E179/221/217; 221/225.
• 2. NLW Jnl. vi. 236-9; D’Ewes, 565; Ormerod, Cheshire, ii. 629; NLW Peniarth ms 287, p. 164; E179/221/228.
• 3. Y Cwtta Cyfarwydd, 194; NLW Jnl. vi. 238-9; Proc. Llandudno Field Club, xxvi. 36-41.