WILLIAMS, MORGAN (1808 - 1883), chartist

son of a prominent Unitarian at Merthyr Tydfil, where he was born in 1808. He was a web and flannel manufacturer, and supplied the uniforms - waistcoats for men and aprons for women - worn by Merthyr chartists. A founder member of the Merthyr Subscription Library, and secretary of the Merthyr Working Men's Association, his was the leading literary talent among the chartists of Merthyr. He was one of five appointed to the National Chartist Association in 1841 and 1842 and attended the convention in London in 1842. At the time of the Newport outbreak in November 1839, he was away purchasing a press for printing the chartist newspaper, Udgorn Cymru, which he published, with David John. He possessed an extensive collection of books, part of which he bequeathed to the Merthyr Tydfil Library. At the time of his death, 17 October 1883, at Merthyr, he had been registrar of marriages, etc., there for thirty years. An article by him on Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg) appeared in Red Dragon, ii.

Author

• Edward Ivor Williams, (1885 - 1958)

Sources

• David Williams, John Frost, A Study in Chartism (1939), 171, 331, 334-6
• Yr Ymofynnydd, December 1883
• South Wales Daily News, 19 October 1883
• Western Mail, 18 October 1883
• Charles Wilkins, The history of Merthyr Tydfil (Merthyr Tydfil 1867), 425-6

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20748862

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/