MORGAN, Thomas I (c.1542-95).

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

Constituency

Dates

1593

Family and Education

b. c.1542, s. of William Morgan of St. George’s and Pencarn, Glam. by Anne, da. of Robert Fortescue of Wood, Devon. m. 1589, Anna, 4th ch. of Jan Baron van Merode, 2s. 2da. Kntd. 1587.

Offices Held

Capt. in Netherlands Apr. 1572, in Ireland 1574, in Wales 1575, in Netherlands 1578-84; commanded regiment in Netherlands 1584-5; gov. Flushing and other towns 1585-7, of Bergen-op-Zoom and lt.-col. English forces 1588-93.

Biography

This Member was the well-known professional soldier, whose distinguished service in the Low Countries earned him rewards both from Elizabeth and the States General. He presumably emerged from obscurity as one of the 1st Earl of Pembroke’s many Welsh protégés. A Henry Morgan, presumably a relative, was gentleman usher at the funeral of the 1st Earl in 1570. On the first occasion that Morgan sat in Parliament for a Pembroke borough, it must have been as a young man during an interval in his military service. Pembroke again found a seat for him after the close of his military career. He was named to committees on 12 and 30 Mar. 1593, dealing respectively with the punishment of rogues and with distributing the contributions of both Houses of Parliament towards the relief of poor maimed soldiers. The burgesses of Wilton were appointed to a cloth committee, which he may have attended on 15 Mar. A brave soldier and a modest man, in the will he made a few days before his death on 22 Dec. 1595, he left token bequests to the Earl of Pembroke and his son, and to the Earl of Essex. The lord chamberlain, Lord Hunsdon (Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon), was appointed overseer. Through his wife, Morgan was related to the Knollys family.

DNB; DWB; HMC Foljambe, 9; D’Ewes, 499, 501, 512; PCC 18 Drake; Cath. Rec. Soc. xxiv. 17, ex inf. Dr. A. Davidson.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes