Family and Education

b. by 1525.1

Offices Held

Under collector of relief, Hereford 1550.2

Biography

Morgan Owgan lived in Widmarsh ward, Hereford, where in 1549 he was lessee of some ex-chantry property called the ‘Parson’s Close’. Three years earlier he had been assessed towards the subsidy on goods worth £8, but no trace has been found of his occupation and his only known civic assignment was as a collector of the relief in 1550. His election with Hugh Gebons to the Parliament of 1555 followed the city’s receipt of a letter from the council in the marches asking it to choose Catholics. That the pair conformed to this requirement is implied by the absence of their names from the list of Members who opposed one of the government’s bills, although they might in any case have wanted to avoid disfavour in the interest of the Act for rebuilding four mills on the river Wye near Hereford which they helped Thomas Kerry to secure (2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, c.14). One of the knights for Herefordshire, Stephen Parry, died during the Parliament and in June 1557 Owgan testified to the date of his death. Owgan is last glimpsed two or three months later when William Herbert I, 1st Earl of Pembroke, president of the council in the marches, visited Hereford and he accommodated one of the suite in his house. If he made a will it has not come to light.3

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference.
• 2. E179/117/207.
• 3. E179/117/162; CPR, 1549-51, p. 143; HMC 13th Rep. IV, 322-4; C142/107/57.