Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, Henry (d.1559)
MORGAN, HENRY (d. 1559), bishop of St. Davids, was born 'in Dewisland,' Pembrokeshire, and became a student in the university of Oxford in 1515. He proceeded B.C.L. 10 July 1522, and D.C.L. 17 July 1525, and soon after became principal of St. Edward's Hall, which was then a hostel for civilians. He was admitted at Doctors' Commons 27 Oct. 1528, and for several years acted as moderator of those who performed exercises for their degrees in civil law at Oxford. Taking holy orders he obtained much clerical preferment. He became rector of Walwyn's Castle, Pembrokeshire, 12 Feb. 1529-30; prebendary of Spaldwick in the diocese of Lincoln, 13 Dec. 1532 (Willis, Cathedrals, p. 232); prebendary of St. Margaret's, Leicester, also in the diocese of Lincoln, 7 June 1536 (ib. p. 202); canon of Bristol, 4 June 1542 (ib. p. 791); prebendary of the collegiate church of Crantock in Cornwall, 1547; canon of Exeter, 1548; rector of Mawgan, Cornwall, 1549, and of St. Columb Major, Cornwall, 1550; prebendary of Hampton in Herefordshire, 1 March 1551 (ib. p. 574).
Upon the deprivation of Robert Ferrar [q. v.] he was appointed by Queen Mary bishop of St. David's in 1554, which see he held until he was deprived of it, on the accession of Elizabeth, about midsummer 1559. He then retired to Wolvercote, near Oxford, where some relatives, including the Owens of Godstow House, resided. He died at Wolvercote 23 Dec. 1559, and was buried in the church there.
John Foxe, in his 'Acts and Monuments of the Church' (sub anno 1558), like Thomas Beard in his 'Theatre of God's Judgments,' i. cap. 13, states that Morgan was 'stricken by God's hand' with a very strange malady, of which he gives some gruesome details; but Wood could find no tradition to that effect among the inhabitants of Wolvercote, though he made a careful inquiry into the matter. Wood mentions several legacies left by Morgan, proving 'that he did not die in a mean condition.'
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 788, Fasti i. 67; Boase's Register of the Univ. of Oxford, p. 124; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Owen's Pembrokeshire, 1892, p. 240; Coote's English Civilians; Freeman and Jones's History of St. Davids.]