1666 to be allowed to hold it in commendam, State Papers, Dom. Car. II, clix. 58). The definite union of the archdeaconry with the bishopric was accomplished by Morgan's successor. He was long engaged in litigation with Thomas Jones (1622–1682) [q. v.], who held the living of Llandyrnog, which was usually held by the bishops of Bangor in commendam because of its convenience for residence. Jones brought a charge against the bishop and two others early in 1669 in the court of arches (Elymas the Sorcerer, p. 29).
Morgan died 1 Sept. 1673, and was buried on 6 Sept. in the grave of Bishop Robinson, on the south side of the altar (for two different inscriptions see Lansdowne MS. 986, fol. 168). He effected considerable restorations in Bangor Cathedral, and gave an excellent organ. A preacher in English and Welsh, he is said to have worn himself away by his pulpit exertions. He left 'several things' fit for the press, but forbad their publication.
Morgan married Anne, daughter and heiress of William Lloyd, rector of Llanelian, Anglesey, and left four sons: (1) Richard, died young; (2) Owen, of Jesus College and Gray's Inn (1676), and attendant on Sir Leoline Jenkins at the treaty of Nimeguen, died 11 April 1679; (3) William (b. 1664), LL.B. of Jesus College, Oxford (1685), later chancellor of the diocese of Bangor; (4) Robert D.D. (b. 1665), of Christ Church, Oxford, canon of Hereford 1702, and rector of Ross, Herefordshire. Of four daughters: (1) Margaret was wife of Edward Wyn; (2) Anna, wife of Thomas Lloyd of Kefn, registrar of St. Asaph; (3) Elizabetha, married Humphrey Humphreys, dean of Bangor; and (4) Katherine, who died unmarried, was buried with her father.
[The single authority for the main facts is Bishop Humphrey's letter to Wood, given in Athenæ Oxon. ii. 890, and repeated almost verbatim in Williams's Eminent Welshmen, and, with a few additions, in vol. lii. of Bishop Kennett's Collections, Lansdowne MS. 986. See also Official Return of Members of Parliament; Lords' Journals, xii. 401 seq.; Commons' Journals, ix. 201–13; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 359; State Papers, Dom.; Professor Mayor's Admissions to St. John's College, Cambridge; Welch's Alum. West.; Lloyd's Memoirs; Byegones relating to Wales and the Northern Counties; Wood's Fasti, i. 441; Le Neve; Stubbs's Registrum; Thomas Jones's Elymas the Sorcerer; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy; Browne Willis's Survey of the Cathedrals; D. R. Thomas's Hist. of the Diocese of St. Asaph; Baker's Hist. of St. John's College; information kindly supplied by the master of Jesus College, Cambridge.]
MORGAN, SYDNEY, Lady Morgan (1783?–1859), novelist, was the eldest child of Robert Owenson [q. v.], by his wife Jane Mill, daughter of a Shrewsbury tradesman, who was once mayor of that town, and was a distant relative of the Mills of Hawkesley, Shropshire. According to her own account but she was constitutionally inexact, avowed a scorn for dates, and sedulously concealed her age—Lady Morgan was born in Dublin one Christmas day, about 1785. The year generally given for her birth is 1783. Croker maliciously alleged that she was born on board the Dublin packet in 1775. Mr. Fitzpatrick adopts Croker's date (W. J. Fitzpatrick, Lady Morgan, 1860, p. 111). To a considerable extent she was brought up in the precincts of theatres and in the company of players; but she was put to various schools near or in Dublin, and very soon proved herself a bright and amusing child. She went with her father into the mixed society which he frequented, at first in Sligo and afterwards in Dublin. His affairs becoming hopelessly involved, and for a time (1798-1800) she was governess in the family of Featherstone of Bracklin Castle, Westmeath, and elsewhere. She is said to have appeared on the stage, though this cannot be verified; but she attracted considerable notice wherever she went by her wit and spirits, and by her dancing, singing, and playing upon the harp. She soon began to write verse of a sentimental character, and published her first volume in March 1801. She also collected a number of Irish tunes, wrote English words to them, and subsequently published them, an example speedily followed by Moore, Stevenson, and others. Excited by the report of Fanny Burney's gains she then took to fiction, and wrote in 1804 'St. Clair, or the Heiress of Desmond,' a trashy imitation of the 'Sorrows of Werther;' it was translated into Dutch. In 1805 appeared her 'Novice of St. Dominick,' in four volumes, a work of slight merit, yet not unsuccessful. It was published in London, and was read several times by Pitt in his last illness. To her is attributed the 'Few Reflections' which was issued in the same year on Croker's anonymous 'Present State of the Irish Stage;' but her next avowed work was the one which made her famous, 'The Wild Irish Girl,' published in 1806. It was very rhapsodical and sentimental, but it contained descriptions of real power, and may almost be called a work of genius, though misguided genius. Philips, her former publisher, refused it on account of its too openly avowed 'national' sentiments; but when Johnson, Miss Edgeworth's publisher, offered her three hundred guineas for it, Philips claimed and
