William Morgan Family | ||
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Introduction
When you pose the question, "where did we come from" it is impossible to know where the string will take you. A few years ago I asked Brinley where his family came from and he said, "Wales, of course". After some investigation: talking to family, gathering pictures and certificates of birth, marriage and death, and visiting county record offices in Gwent and Glamorgan, we began to unravel the ball of string called the Morgan family. There is much more to learn. Each new bit of information answers some questions and poses others. Such is the way of family research.
| Perhaps we wouldn't have begun to research the family if Brinley's sister Lesley hadn't found the article in the Echo about The Morgan Society. We decided to join the society and realised just how little we actually knew about the family. And so the search began. This story is just the beginning. We hope to add more as time and travels permit. |
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Morgan Roots in Monmouthshire |
We began by asking where different family members came from and learned that Henry Morgan was born in Merryland, Trelleck, Monmouthshire. So we visited the Cwmbran County Record Office and searched the Parish Records for Trelleck. We didn't actually find Henry's baptism record but we did find that of his wife, Clara Crum Morgan. We also found many Morgans and Crums living in the Trelleck (Merryland, Mannaside) area. They were mainly illiterate wood colliers, firemen and labourers. The Crums were all masons. They lived primarily in The Narth, Llandogo
and Maryland.
Henry and Clara were married in the Trelleck Parish Church on 26 July 1869. The lived in the Weslyan Chapel at Narth in 1861 and in Merryland. During the 1880's Henry and Clara Morgan moved to Whitebrook. Henry was a tin worker, probably at the Redwood Tin works while Clara raised a family of 4 boys: Ernest, William James (Brinley's grandfather), Harry and George. These could be the fighting Morgan's of family lore.
The Morgan family tree: | ||||
Monmouthshire |
Monmouthshire
is an ancient border county of Wales and England. This is near by to Offa's Dyke which traditionally separated the two countries. Along the banks of the River Wye on the A466 just north of Tintern Abbey is Llandogo and Whitebrook
while inland is the village of Trelleck and town of Monmouth. This is the region of the Morgan's of Monmouthshire.
This map shows the region of Monmouthshire where the Morgan ancestors lived. They are north of Cardiff between Chepstow and Monmouth.
Remembering the River WyeThe River Wye borders Monmouthshire and has links with many generations of Morgans. Did they walk along its shores or take a Trow to Bristol? Did they fish along the banks. Or just savour the Nature as did, William Wordsworth who came at least twice to the River Wye near Llandogo and penned some verse in 1798. Could some Morgan ancestors have met with Wordsworth (doubtful) or drank with him?(more promising) Certainly they shared the same views and perhaps some of the same sentiments. | ||||
Places in Monmouthshire |
Llanfihangel-tor-y-mynyddLlanfihangel-tor-y-mynydd, meaning "the Church of St Michael in the Belly of the Mountain", lies about 500 feet above sea level. It is on the road from Chepstow to Raglan, six and a half miles northeast of Usk. The church of St Michael, restored in 1860, is an ancient structure in the Early English style built some 800 years ago. At the turn of the century there were 35 inhabited houses, and a population of 127. Today the Church holds services every first Sunday of the month. Just one bell is still working and is pulled by hand by a parishoner at the back of the Church. Although small, the congregation is quite lively. The church is well loved and supported by the Parish at village raffles, carol services and fetes (mostly held at the nearby Star Inn). The Star Inn has been in existence since at least the 15th century. It is situated on the old coaching route between Chepstow and Raglan where the two coaches, Nimrod and Fusilier, would stop to change horses. There is a story that an apparition of a coach and horses passes along this road but the present residents have not seen it. We first visited the Star Inn in October 1997 when we found our cottage in Raglan. It is a wonderful family owned country pub much loved by the community. Two large inglenook fireplaces are always burning to welcome and cheer you as you enter the door. Two large dogs will greet you and enjoy being petted. Their is always laughter and singing and, of course, great food to be had. John Wesley, the Methodist minister, stayed at the Star Inn and described it as 'a good small inn'. Brinley and I can recommend it as still a 'good small inn'. The Morgan line in Llanfihangel-tor-y-mynydd can be traced back six generations (from Brinley Morgan b.1935) to before 1795 when William Morgan, a labourer, was born. It was here on 5 December 1819 that a William Morgan was born to William and Hannah Morgan. Prior to 1844 (when he married), William left Llanfihangel-tor-y-mynydd.
LlanishenThere is a story that in 1870 the then vicar, James Oakley, took the 1620 Welsh bible from the church and buried it in his garden as he did not know what else to do with it, Welsh no longer being the language used in the church. It was the teaching of Welsh in order to read the scriptures that brought the first schools into Llanishen. Today, however the children must travel into Trelleck for school. The journey from Llanishen to Trelleck goes past a field known locally as the Bloody Fields, so named after a battle fought between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. The horses were said to be up to their fetlocks in blood, which flowed out onto the road! Llanishen now has only one public house, The Carpenter's Arms, which was built in 1700, a bog on this site having been drained. A green corrugated iron parish hall was built on the site of an old quarry as a First World War memorial for the three parishes of Llanishen, Llanfihangel-tor-y-mynydd and Trellech Grange.
TrelleckAs you approach Trellech, the first sign of the village is the tall, slender spire of St Nicholas's church. Although unusually large for a village this size, in the Middle Ages Trellech Town was one of the most important towns in South Wales,holding borough status with its own mayor, charter and town seal. Gradually, over a long period of time and after suffering from the Great Plague, and a number of local wars, including the savagery of Owain Glyndwr, the town became the small a peaceful village that it is today. In the churchyard is a sundial dating from 1689 depicting three historic monuments of Trellech. The first of these is known as Tump Terrett, situated behind the church and generally believed to be the remains of a very early motte and bailey castle. The second site is the Three Stones, known as Harold's Stones and believed to be the site of a battle where King Harold was the victor. The third side of the sundial shows the Virtuous Well, at one time known at St. Anne's Well and famous for its healing powers. It used to be the custom to 'rope' the bride and groom after the wedding ceremony. As the happy couple drove slowly along the church path to the road, boys and girls held a rope across their path to impede their progress and refused to move until the bridegroom threw out a handful of coins as a ransom. How many Morgan's and Crum's reached into their pockets for pennies, threepenny bits and sixpences to win their bride? The Trellech Society, 'for all those interested in ancient places, their environment, their history, their rural life and the preservation of the ancient features of Trellech', holds regular meetings and arranges an annual three day festival of music and flowers. William Morgan owned freehold lands in Maryland. He worked these lands as a wood collier. Possibly supplying wood for the paper mills in Whitebrook just down the road. He is also listed as a fireman (on the wedding certificate for his son, Henry) He lived in Maryland, Mannaside (a few houses just West of Maryland) and The Narth. All these places were within a few miles of each other.
The provenance of William Morgan is as follows: William Morgan died aged 78 years in 1897. He lies buried in the churchyard in the Parish Church of Trelleck. He has a headstone placed in his memory by his family. The Maryland of today is little changed from 150 years ago. The Weslyan Chapel closed in the '60's and is now a residence. The few homes are surrounded by small gardens and land-holdings. Most of the area is forest. The road past Maryland trails off into the Forest of Wye becoming potholed and impassible. It is a quiet, peaceful area. Mannaside doesn't even exist today. It is indistinguishable from the infrequent homes on the road from Trelleck to The Narth.
LlandogoThe village of Llandogo derives its name from the founder of the church of St Ondoceus, who was the third Bishop of Llandaff in the 6th century. The present church was built on the same site. Coming to live here in his retirement, the saint founded a monastery and is alleged to have ended his days as a hermit at Cleddon Falls. St Ondoceus is depicted on the pulpit of the local church in the act of saving a stag from hunts men and hounds in the nearby forest. Llandogo was a port before Chepstow, and many of the local men were barge builders. In those far off days the village was open to much water traffic and had been so for centuries. The flat-bottomed Trow travelled the high seas then, carrying cargoes of bark and hazel hoops as far afield as Italy, and bringing back barrels of sherry. The Llandogo Trow is immortalised by the name of a pub in Bristol to this day. The railway station which opened in 1886, created great excitement and replaced some of the ponies and traps. It was closed in the next century. There are many exciting and interesting walks in the vicinity of Llandogo, and the zig-zag walk from the stream on the Cleddon Road uphill to Cleddon shoots is quite spectacular. This area is a site of special scientific interest, grade one, and is in the care of the Gwent Conservation Trust. The small hamlet of Cleddon lies at the top, and it was in Cleddon Hall that Bertrand Russell was born. His parents Lord and Lady Amberley used to drive down the zig-zag path in a pony and trap to visit their friends at the house then known as The Falls (now the Priory Nursing Home). Llandogo was once an important docking point for small sailing vessels which worked between South Wales and Bristol. In Llandogo there's a splendid pub called 'The Sloop', and on the other side of the Bristol Channel at Bristol Docks there's a very historic pub called 'The Landoger Trow'. A Trow was a small sailing barge, the last one of which has just been restored and will be moored at the Ironbridge Museum in Shropshire. There are the remains of old trows to be seen at frequent sites beside the River Severn. The Severn widens out to become the Bristol Channel and eventually becomes part of the Irish Sea. We don't know of any relations currently living in Llandogo village, however many lived in the parish of Llandogo in The Narth. Llandogo and Trelleck are neighbouring parishes and the homes of the Morgan's and Crum's crossed over the parish boundaries. The Narth is the name of a community east of Llandogo up the hill from the River. The only commercial establishment is The Trekker Pub. The Trekker is a friendly family pub which has great food and good conversation. Behind the Trekker lives Doris Crum Vaughan a cousin of the Morgans. Near her home is the Crum family homestead with a lovely stone house over 250 years old.
WhitebrookHenry and Clara Morgan lived in Whitebrook in 1880. Nearby, at the Post Office lived her first cousin Philip Crum and his wife Eliza. Philip was the sub-postmaster there. The Crum and Morgan children would have played together frequently. Did the Morgans participate in the paper mill outing of 1880, Return to Introduction
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Morgan's move to Cardiff
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MORGAN, William James left his home in Whitebrook
, Monmouthshire sometime before 1908 and moved to Cardiff where he met and married Annie Cunningham Morgan who was from Scotland. He worked as a coal trimmer on the docks while Annie raised their 4 children: William James "Billy",Clara,Ernest Leslie (Brinley's father), and Murial.
Ernest Leslie Morgan, born 26 March 1912, lived his life in Cardiff. In 1935 he married Dorothy Brinning Morgan and had three children: Brinley, Lesley and Philip. He worked for many years at Curren's Steel Works as a carpenter eventually becoming a foreman. He died, tragically, in a car accident in 1963. | ||||
Morgan places of interest on the Internet
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Welsh places on the net
Other Morgan Family sites:gr William james Morgan married Annie Cunningham from Scotland. Her Mothers family were from Benholm, Kincardinshire, Scotland:
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For further reading:
- Gwent Federation of Women's Institute, The Gwent Village Book, The Countryside Books, Newbury, Berkshire, 1994
- Baxter, Angus, In Search of your British & Irish Roots, Macmillan of Canada, 1982
created by Cheryl L. Morgan,
last modified: 1 January 2000