COLEMAN, Morgan (b.c.1556), of Gray's Inn and St. Mary Aldermanbury, London.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1556 at Calais. educ. Hart Hall, Oxf., matric. 1582, aged 26.1 m. 23 Feb. 1585, Mirabilia Bourne, at least 1s. 5da.2

Offices Held

In the service of Sir William Pelham in Ireland bef. 1582, of Lord Willoughby at The Hague 1588-9, John Puckering 1592-6, Thomas Egerton I 1596-1604, Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury 1611, royal household 1622.3

Biography

Coleman’s return for Newport in 1597 was due to George Carew, who, like Coleman, was a servant of Thomas Egerton, the lord keeper. Coleman was appointed to a committee concerning the punishment of rogues on 22 Nov. 1597.4

In 1601 Coleman was imprisoned in the Fleet for defaulting as subsidy collector. Though remaining in Egerton’s service, he was still or again imprisoned in the Fleet, presumably for debt, until 8 Aug. 1604, when a warrant for his release on bond was issued. His subsequent career is obscure. In the spring of 1611 he was suggesting various economies in the management of the royal household which ‘rendered him hateful to all’ and brought ‘jeers and derisions below stairs’. He assured Salisbury that his scheme would save the King £20,000 in a year alone, but the ‘well intended service’ almost caused his banishment from the court. Nothing more is heard of him until August 1622, when he was making genealogical tables for the King.5

No trace of his death, will, administration or inquisition post mortem has been found.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes

  • 1. Al. Ox. i(1), 302; Reg. Univ. Oxon, 11(2), ed. Clarke, 120.
  • 2. Reg. St. Mary Aldermanbury (Harl. Soc. lxi), 49; Vis. London (Harl. Soc. xvii), 324.
  • 3. Cal. Carew Pprs. ii. 296, 396, 416; HMC Ancaster, 129, 293, 478; Birch, Mems. i. 86-8; Bodl. Rawlinson misc. 406; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 13; 1619-12, pp. 437-8.
  • 4. C219/33/53, 54; D’Ewes, 561.
  • 5. SP46/42/127; Egerton Pprs. (Cam. Soc. xii), 395; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 140; 1611-18, pp. 13, 22, 23; 1619-23, pp. 437-8.