Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, Charles Octavius Swinnerton
MORGAN, CHARLES OCTAVIUS SWINNERTON (1803–1888), antiquary, born on 15 Sept. 1803, was the fourth son of Sir Charles Morgan [see under Gould, afterwards Morgan, Sir Charles], second baronet, of Tredegar Park, Monmouthshire, by Mary Magdalen, daughter of Captain George Stoney, R.N. Sir Charles Morgan Robinson Morgan, baron Tredegar (1794–1890), was his elder brother. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, he graduated B.A. in 1825 and M.A. in 1832. From 1841 to 1874 he sat in parliament in the conservative interest, for the county of Monmouth, of which he was a justice of the peace and deputy-lieutenant. Interested in archaeology, he read numerous papers before the Caerleon Antiquarian Association, of which he was president, and they were subsequently printed. In 1849 he communicated to the Society of Antiquaries some 'Observations on the History and Progress of the Art of Watchmaking from the earliest Period to Modern Times.' In 1850 he published a 'Report on the Excavations prosecuted by the Caerleon Antiquarian Association within the Walls of Caerwent.' In No. 35 of the 'Archaeological Journal' there appears his 'Observations on the Early Communion Plate used in the Church of England, with Illustrations of the Chalice and Paten of Christchurch.' In 1869 he published a valuable account of the monuments in the church at Abergavenny.
He died, unmarried, 5 Aug. 1888, and was interred in the family vault at Bassaleg churchyard, Monmouthshire.
[Morgan's Works; G. T. Clark's Limbus Patrum Morganiæ, p. 313; Old Welsh Chips, August 1888, Brecon.]