Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hansbie, Morgan Joseph
HANSBIE, MORGAN JOSEPH, D.D. (1673–1750), Dominican friar, younger son of Ralph Hansbie, esq., of Tickhill Castle, Yorkshire, by Winifred, daughter of Sir John Cansfield, was born in 1673. He was professed in the Dominican convent at Bornhem, near Antwerp, in 1696, and was ordained priest in 1698. After holding several monastic offices in that convent he was appointed in 1708 chaplain to the Dominican nuns at Brussels, and in 1711 he came on the English mission. He returned, however, to Bornhem in 1712, and in the same year was appointed vice-rector of the Dominican College at Louvain, of which he became fourth rector in 1717. In 1721 he was made provincial of his order and created D.D. He was then sent to the mission at Tickhill Castle. In 1728 he was installed prior of Bornhem, and in 1731 appointed vicar-provincial for Belgium. In the latter year he was re-elected prior of Bornhem, and a second time provincial in 1734, when he was stationed in London.
From 1738 to 1742 he was vicar-provincial in England, and in 1743 he went to Lower Oheam, Surrey, the residence of the Dowager Lady Petre. Hansbie was an ardent Jacobite, and on 22 Dec. 1745 the house was searched for arms. Only two pairs of pistols were found, but Hansbie was taken before the magistrates at Croydon. He was apparently liberated on bail, for he continued to reside at Cheam till his return to London in 1747, when he was attached to the Sardinian Chapel in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In that year he was instituted vicar-general of England, and again provincial in 1748. He died in London on 5 June 1750.
His works are: 1. 'Philosophia Universa,' Louvain, 1715, 4to. 2. 'Theses Theologicæ ex prima parte (Summæ D. T. A.) de Deo ejusque attributis,' Louvain, 1716, 4to. 3. 'Theses Theologicæ de Jure et Justitia,' Louvain, 1717, 4to. 4. 'Theses Theologicæ de Trinitate, nomine, et legibus,' Louvain, 1720, 4to. 5. 'Theses Theologicæ de Virtutibus in communi tribus theologicis in specie, cum locis eo præcipue spectantibus,' Louvain, 1721, 4to.
[Addit. MS. 32446, f. 64; Palmer's Obit. Notices of the Friar-Preachers, p. 13; Kirk's Biog. MS. Collections quoted in Gillow's Dict. of English Catholics; Oliver's Catholic Religion in Cornwall, p. 457; Estcourt and Payne's English Catholic Nonjurors, p. 304.]