MORGAN(N), MAURICE (c. 1725 - 1802), Shakespearian commentator and political writer

was descended from the ancient family of Morgan of Blaenbylan in the parish of Clydey, Pembrokeshire, who traced his ancestry, according to a pedigree by William Lewes the antiquarian (Bronwydd MS. 7170), to Llewelyn ap Gwilym of Cryngae (who was an uncle to Dafydd ap Gwilym) and Ednyfed Fychan. Fenton, who knew him and his brother William, states that he was brought up at the family home which fell into ruins about 1740-50 and that the brothers were the last of the family. It is not impossible that he was the son of Morris Morgan of Blaenbylan (by Hannah his wife) whose will (in N.L.W.), dated 25 May 1725, provided for the education of his three young children - Sarah, Morris, and David. In October 1766 he was appointed clerk in the secretary of state's office and private secretary to Shelburne. He served in Quebec from 1768 to 1770. He became under-secretary of state and, in 1782, was in New York acting as secretary to governor Guy Carleton. In 1783 he was secretary to the embassy for peace with America. Morgan wrote several pamphlets on political and social subjects (1758-94) but his best-remembered work is his admirable Essay on the Dramatic Character of Sir John Falstaff, 1777. He died at Knightsbridge, 28 March 1802.

Author

• Dr Bertie George Charles, (1908 - 2000)

Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Richard Fenton, A Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire (London 1811). (1st ed.), 490-4 (= 1903 ed., 269; see also 265, 272)
• [and see Western Mail, 1 July 1954 ]

Published date: 1959

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