| Notes |
- (1) Origins & Early Life of Col. Morgan Morgan <http://morganfamily2.tripod.com/part1.html>:
Morgan Morgan was born in the principality of Wales on November 1st, 1688, traditionally said in the county of Glamorganshire, though that is in question. As there are no primary sources linking him to such a birthplace, the idea that he was born in Glamorgan seems to arise from the family legend that he was a member of the Morgans of St. Mellon's, a junior branch of the famous and ancient Morgan family of Tredegar. This theorized relationship is perhaps the most substantial of the Morgan legends to genealogists, as if true, would give insight into Morgan's family origins. Unfortunately, however, no evidence has ever been found to support this proposal, or tie Morgan into any other Welsh lineages.
Most commonly though, Morgan is claimed to have been a son of Charles Morgan of St. Mellon's, an alleged grandson of Sir William Morgan of Tredegar, through William's son, John of the Temple. However, from where this idea originated has never be en clear, but it does appear to be a relatively new phenomenon as none of the older Morgan genealogy references have ever addressed it.
In George T. Clark's elemental work, Genealogies of the Older Families of the Lordships of Morgan and Glamorgan, John of the Temple is shown as Sir William's son, through William's first wife, Lady Elizabeth (Winter). Clark unfortunately does no t further explore John's family, however, and thus has made no record of his children or grandchildren. Although Clark's genealogies do include some information on the Morgan's of St. Mellon's, there is absolutely no entry of this particular Charles, and it should also be noted, that no other records regarding this individual have ever been produced or cited by researchers. In other words, as it stands, even Charles' existence remains to be inconclusive.
Perhaps the most persuasive detail in contest to this relationship is in the way Morgan's name is commonly presented. As the Report of the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission reads:
Lest the Welsh prepositionap . . . be construed by the reader to be a part of the name, it may be stated that "Morgan ap Morgan" means Morgan son of Morgan, and was used to designate the son before the adoption in Wales of Christian names.
Up until the beginning of the eighteenth century, few Welsh families possessed fixed surnames, using a patronymic system of which individuals were identified in relationship to their father. For example, a Rhys, son of a William, would be know n as "Rhys Williams," or "Rhysap William," with ap meaning literally, "son of." If, for instance, Rhys further had a son named Maredudd, then Maredudd may consequently take on the name "Maredudd Rhys," or "Maredudd ap Rhys," thus showing that t he surnames of many Welsh families were adjusted within every generation. This also further discredits the idea that all "Morgans" share a common ancestor, as family names were simply nonexistent among many ancestral lines until circa three hundred years ago. However, subsequently, as Morgan's name is often accepted as "Morgan ap Morgan," one would expect his father's forename to have also been Morgan, rather than Charles.
Furthermore, although many genealogical lines spawning from the progenitor of the Tredegar Morgans continued the use of this naming system, it can be seen in Clark's genealogies that the forefathers of the aforementioned Sir William adopted their fixed Morgan surname in the fourteenth century, making them one of the earliest Welsh families to make the conformation. Therefore, if Morgan was indeed a descendant of this Morgan line, it seems unlikely that he would have returned to the traditional patronymic system after nearly four centuries. If Morgan was indeed once known as "Morgan ap Morgan," then it is probable that his ancestry had not yet acquired a fixed surname, and that he simply adopted it himself after immigrating t o America in order to conform with English customs.
This relationship to Charles is not the only element of this family legend to be addressed, however. Another important and routinely declared tradition of Morgan's descendants, is that Sir Henry Morgan, famously known at "the buccaneer," or "the pirate," was a brother of Charles,' and thus an uncle of Morgan's. This is so widely believed, that even at the 100th Morgan Morgan Family Reunion, an entire exhibit was dedicated to the notorious man. However, this claim cannot be proven, a s simply, there are no primary sources naming the parentage of Sir Henry. Just as Sylvanus Urban published in The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronicle in 1832 - a statement that references the still defining factor of Henry and Morgan' s claimed blood relationship:
Of the parentage of Sir Henry I have not yet been able to obtain any positive proof; but it is sufficiently evident, from numerous collateral facts, that he was one of the great clan of the Morgans of Monmouthsire, which the house of Tredegar was at hand.
The most persuasive of these "facts" that Urban refers to, is that in the will of Sir Henry, a Thomas Morgan of Tredegar was styled as his cousin. While this makes it unquestionable that Henry was in relation to the powerful Tredegar family, the exact origin has never been proven.
Nevertheless, this Thomas is understood to have been the great-great grandson of Thomas Morgan of Machen and Tredegar, who was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Roger Bodenham. After an examination of Clark's genealogies, the brother of Thomas M organ of Machen and Tredegar, Henry of Llanrhymny, was the grandfather of Robert and Lt. Gen. Edward Morgan, sons of Thomas and Catherine (Herbert) Morgan of Llanrhymny. As Clark recorded among his works, he believed that this Robert was the fat her, rather than John of the Temple, of Sir Henry; an idea that many modern historians also believe. Further, Lt. Gen. Edward Morgan, and his wife, Anna Petronella (Von Polnitz), were the parents of Mary Elizabeth Morgan, who subsequently, married Sir Henry. Needless to say, if Henry was of the Llanrhymny family, a first cousin to his wife, and indeed a son of Robert's, then he could not have been a brother of the said Charles, and he especially could not have been an uncle of Morgan's .
Theoretically, the relationship between these three men was likely first based in circumstantial evidence. Humorously, it has been joked that every "Grandfather Morgan" has proudly boasted such tall tales to his grandchildren of a blood relation ship to the infamous "Terror of the Spanish Main." It is probable that someone's guesswork, noticing the obvious that both Morgan and Henry had the same surname, led to the speculation, and later gave rise to the legend that the two men were related.
What is especially noticeable to the researchers of Morgan's life and family, is that two of his sons, Charles and Henry, are also generally paired with one another as they are the two male progenitors of what is commonly called "the three lost Morgan tribes." Charles and Henry were born consecutively, their wives were sisters, and additionally, the families of both are generally associated with Spartanburg, South Carolina. Also, frustratingly, with the exception of a few tidbits o f information, the two brothers essentially disappeared from the historical record, and their descendants are hence "lost." Therefore, typically, as there is so little known about these two brothers, they are generally addressed together, rather than as separate individuals.
As Sir Henry had no children of his own, he therefore could not have had any direct descendants, and obviously, could not have been Morgan's father. However, it is probable that this simply guided the idea that he could have instead been an uncle. With the father-son relationship between Henry and Morgan out of the question, it is no surprise that the next choice, and obvious best fit to the theory, was that Morgan's father was a Charles, thus playing on this Charles-Henry correlation . This appears to be the root of the family legend, which in addition, after becoming accepted as fact by many unsuspecting Morgan descendants, pushed into further assumptions. Eventually, a collection of speculations, intricately "fit" into on e another, basing guesswork off of other guesswork, led to one large collection of "facts," and ultimately, a single conglomerate legend regarding Morgan's family. Unfortunately, as intricate as this family legend is, it has no real basis in his torical evidence, whatsoever.
Morgan is also commonly believed to have had three distinguished brothers: Zackquill, Evan, and Charles. Noticeably, these three names are all those of Morgan's sons, which may initially call for a researcher's attention. In particular, the name Zackquill is highly indicative, as that name appears to have been wholly unique to Morgan's descendants. If a Zackquill Morgan were to be found among Welsh records, then it would emphatically give a strong indication of kinship. However, the problem exists in that there never has been any Zackquill, Morgan or otherwise, cited within Welsh records. Especially since this Zackquill Morgan is generally claimed to have once been a Bishop of Cardiff, one would expect to find some records o f this noteworthy person - but there are none. No official records of this mentioned Evan (a supposed military officer), or Charles (a supposed prominent farmer), have ever been presented either, and just as with Morgan's supposed father, there is no evidence to prove that these three "brothers" are anything more than fictitious characters.
Overall, as it was correctly and appropriately recorded in the report published by the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission:
Whether by design or through indifference to ancestral lore - the latter being a well known family trait - Col. Morgan Morgan . . . left no record, official or otherwise, so far as is known, which has been preserved or remembered by any of his m any descendants, of his connection in his native Wales with the old Glamorganshire family there of the same name.
To date, this work remains to be the most comprehensive account of Morgan's life. The above statement, written over eighty years ago, is still the conclusive reality of any ties speculated between Morgan and the family of Tredegar.
With Morgan's parentage still unknown, his early years have been further shrouded in history as there are no historical records pertaining to him during that time. The little insight we have comes from a record found within a family Bible, written by Charles Stephen Morgan, Morgan's great-grandson (Stephen3, David2, Morgan1), in 1835. Now located in the Virginia State Library's archives and manuscript collection, it reads that Morgan was "educated in London during the reign of William III" (1689 - 1702), however, although he, along with his children and grandchildren, are found to have been able to read and write quite eminently, the extensiveness of his learning's are unknown. It is often said that Morgan studied at Cambridge University, but as he is not listed among John Venn's Alumni Cantabrigienses, this probably isn't true. Further, as Morgan was born in Wales, it has become unclear whether his family had removed to London, or if he was simply sent there to board during his schooling years. However, as education has been historically withheld from the lower classes of social hierarchies, it has been construed that Morgan was at least of a family with some social standing, and his education would n o doubt play a chief role in his success and prominence in America.
(2) Immigration & Beginning Life in America <http://morganfamily2.tripod.com/part2.html>:
As Charles Stephen Morgan further recorded in his family Bible, Col. Morgan left his native homeland and immigrated to America "during the reign of Queen Anne, or probably about the commencement of George I." This would place Morgan's voyage acr oss the Atlantic Ocean around 1713, being that George I was crowned in 1714, and Morgan is known to have been within the colonies by at least 1715. It is, however, impossible to know exactly what year Morgan made his exodus from Wales as he ha s not been found in any immigration records. It should be stated, however, that some believe he may have arrived as early as 1707, though there are no records to support that idea.
There is an old Morgan legend claiming that he was once a young British soldier, stationed within the new world, and ultimately, chose to remain in America for the rest of his life. Some of his descendants even go as far to say that he had fought in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), but there is no evidence of this. However, if Morgan had sailed to America aboard a military vessel, then this would account for the missing immigration record, as one simply would not have bee n made. Nonetheless, while it is true that Queen Anne's War (1702 - 1713), an offshoot of the War of Spanish Succession, was proceeding in North America at that time, it is important to note that no such military record has ever been found. Although it is possible for Morgan to have served in the conflict, no claim of military association prior to his involvement with the Virginian militia can be proven.
Actually, this idea of Morgan's involvement with the British military seems to arise from the ignorance of when he was granted the rank of colonel. Morgan's military rank is not evidence of any association with the English forces, and the belie f that he had been given the rank prior to reaching America's shores is incorrect. Morgan was not granted the rank of full colonel until the age of sixty-nine, which was a position he earned among the Virginian militia that he organized. Simply , it is also quite possible, and perhaps more likely, that his immigration record was either lost or destroyed.
Upon his arrival in America, Morgan established his first home within the settlement of Christiana, New Castle County, Delaware, probably residing "within a few miles thereof, if not within the city" itself. This region was a portion of the land s ceded to William Penn by the Duke of York, but although Welsh Quakers were the largest group migrating to Penn's colony in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Morgan does not appear to have shared a similar credence. He was rather a staunch "member of the Church of England," and therefore, religious persecution would not have been a trigger for Morgan's withdrawal from Britain.
Further, despite the fact that forty thousand acres of southeastern Pennsylvania were intended to become a Welsh Barony, Morgan chose not to journey farther inland, ignoring the huge "Welsh Tract" and the flow of Welsh settlers into towns like Gwynedd, or Buck and Berks Counties. Additionally, as Wayland Dunaway wrote in his work, A History of Pennsylvania, he relates that these Welsh immigrants were:
["]Influenced by the belief that, purchasing a large tract of land and settling thereon in a body, they could establish in the New World a community of their own in which they could perpetuate their distinctive language and institutions.["]
Thus, it does not appear that establishing a type of "new Wales," or preserving Welsh culture, was part of Morgan's agenda either. Rather, he seems to have been a particularly self-propelled, independent individual, whose personal ambitions were not necessarily centered on anyone other than himself and his family. He was a man whom, after considering his success in Delaware, with his later audacious role among the Virginian frontier, had few limitations, and was ready and determined t o become an honorable leader within the New World.
While it is certain that Morgan first set foot in American soil as a young, single man, it is impossible to know whether or not he voyaged across the Atlantic Ocean alone. If he did indeed come as a Welsh immigrant, then one cannot further examine the other persons among the ship record as none seems to exist. However, although there certainly is no evidence that he directly immigrated with any other kinsman, nor is there any proof that he was closely aquatinted with any members of hi s native family after his migration from Wales, it has been indicated by one grandson, James Morgan, son of Zackquill, that other relations had settled within the Delaware Colony at an early date.
In Now and Long Ago, John Glenn published an interview of James Morgan, conducted by Joseph H. Powell in 1850, in which James referenced a John and William Merrill, along with his father, Zackquill, and uncle, David. James stated that, "there wa s some blood tie with the Merrills that began in Delaware," who accordingly, "got their first land" in Monongalia County, Virginia, from his "father and Uncle Dave." He further stated that he had "heard Uncle Dave say that William Merrill married a Morgan cousin of ours," and as James explains, she was supposedly the same celebrated Mrs. Merrill of Nelson County Kentucky - the woman of popular frontier folklore who is famed for the violent axing of Indians as they raided her family's cabin.
What is important to note, is that while Col. Morgan and his family were still residing in Delaware, all of his children were too young to have married or had issue. In other words, if this blood tie between the Merrills and Morgans was established within that colony, it must have come from a source outside of Morgan's immediate family. This is particularly interesting, being that if it were possible to prove and locate other Morgan kinsman within historical records, then it may lead t o some insight regarding Morgan's ancestry.
It is unfortunate, however, that very little is known of this John and William Merrill, and one has not been able to ascertain any real evidence of their ancestry, or from where they came. Especially in regards to this William, no record of hi s name has ever been found in exception to James' deposition. Further, in contradiction to James' story, accounts of the Mrs. Merrill event generally give her husband's name as John, rather than William. Although James does also talk of a John Merrill, believed to be William's brother, he could not have been Mrs. Merrill's husband, as he had instead married Jemima, a triplet daughter of Henry Batten's. Furthermore, John does not appear to have ever migrated out of Virginia.
In regards to legends such as the one of Mrs. Merrill, however, it is not uncommon for them to have been seriously embellished and the stories to be greatly inaccurate. Such is the case with David Morgan's famous fight with the Indians at his homestead, in which James even claimed that, "about Uncle Dave's fight with the Indians here, a pack of lies has been told and printed." Thus, it should not be surprising to find that details regarding the Mrs. Merrill legend may be false.
Coinciding with James' deposition, it seems possible that the husband of Mrs. Merrill was indeed, William, rather than John. This would explain that while John remained in Virginia, William and his wife migrated further west into the Kentucky frontier at an early date, explaining why his name has not been found among Virginia records. Also, as James additionally stated that he had been "there to visit" Mrs. Merrill's family, and that he even recalled her nickname to be "Miff," it seem s probable that he was certain about who the woman was. However, despite James' claim, it is certainly unfortunate that we will doubtfully ever know the real name of the legendary Mrs. Merrill, or her connection to the Morgan family.
This Morgan-Merrill relationship was not the only blood tie to be mentioned by James, however. As he spoke of the famous Captain John Brady, and son, Captain Samuel Brady, James stated:
["]There was a blood tie between the Bradys and the Morgans. Sam Brady married 'Indian Van' Swearingen's daughter (Drusilla). John Swearingen everybody called 'Bible John,' and was 'Indian Van's' father. They lived below Cheat on the old Cheat Road when I was growing up. I was there many times with my father and others. They were some kin of ours through the Maryland Morgans and Springers.["]
As to when exactly the Morgan and Swearingen families first became acquainted cannot be certain, but it does appear that they were close for much of David Morgan's life. The progenitor of this Swearingen line was one Gerrett Van Swearingen, a Dutchman who sailed to New Castle, Delaware, as the supercargo aboard the ill-fated Prins Maurits. Notably, one Jan Garritsen, who was also a sailor aboard that vessel, is commonly believed to have been the brother of Hendrik Gerritsen, David's grandfather. Thus, this leaves little doubt that the Swearingens and the family of David's mother were well associated with one another from the earliest days of their settlings.
However, Gerrett Swearingen moved his family to St. Mary's County, Maryland, around 1665, predating Col. Morgan's arrival in America by roughly fifty years. Therefore, whether or not Morgan was actually acquainted with Garrett is unknown. Nevertheless, it is known that David also settled in Maryland for at least a short time, as his son Evan declared that "I was born in Town Creek, now in Allegany County, Maryland, in 1753." Therefore, it seems possible that David and the Swearingens h ad known each other during his residence there. Additionally, it appears that David and the Swearingens both left Maryland around the same time, migrating to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and became some of the earliest settlers within that region.
By 1770, it is doubtless that David and the Swearingens had become acquainted, as he, along with "Bible John" Swearingen, "Indian Van" Swearingen, several Springers, and the aforementioned Henry Batten, were all settled in Bedford, now present day Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Further, in James Veech's The Monongahela of Old, all of these men, along with one "Morgan Morgan," perhaps David's oldest son, are shown to have been in the 1772 tax lists for the southwestern portion of that st ate.
Additionally, although David is known to have moved further south into present day West Virginia before 1787, the Fayette Archives Will Records show that he, along with Colonel Theophilus Phillips and Thomas Berry, were witnesses to the will o f Henry Batten's father, Thomas, in Fayette of that year. In addition, Thomas Batten named John Swearingen Jr., and Samuel Rubal as executers, and left to his son, Henry, a tract of land "on Paw Paw Creek bounded on the Monongahela River." Thi s tract is doubtless the same piece of land adjacent to the property then owned by Zackquill Morgan, which his son, James, claimed to have "joined Henry Batten at Longwell Spring Run." Notably, it was a piece of this same land that Zackquill ha d sold to the aforementioned John and William Merrill.
It is further interesting to note that southwestern Pennsylvania, of where present day Fayette County is located, was then disputed by Virginia to be part of its territory. Thus, it seems possible that David believed that this settlement was actually in northwestern Virginia. Further, as Eva Carnes wrote in "The Courthouse Wars," during the time of David's settlement there, the county seat of Monongalia County, Virginia, was actually set "at the farm of Theophilus Phillips, about two m iles of present day Geneva, Pennsylvania." It wasn't until after the southwestern boundary of Pennsylvania was established that it officially showed Monongalia's county seat to have been founded outside of its jurisdiction. Subsequently, the county seat was moved to Morgantown, where it was set at the home of David's brother, Zackquill.
As James Morgan correctly stated, the thousand-acre Swearingen homestead was located near the mouth of the Cheat River, where Fort Swearingen was built around 1774. It was near here that Bible John's son, Marmaduke, was captured by Indians, an d consequently never seen again. Indian Van, who had come to Fayette County from Maryland with his father, however, did not remain there for long. As Franklin Ellis' History of Fayette County relates, "Van Swearingen . . . removed to a new location on the east side of the Monongahela," and it was while living in Washington County, Pennsylvania, that he and Samuel Brady, who had married Indian Van's daughter, Drusilla, were both made captains in the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment.
In 1744, Indian Van's uncle, Van Swearingen, had purchased a tract of land from one Richard Morgan, just north of Pack Horse Ford in Frederick County, Virginia. Another uncle, "Thomas of the ferry," soon followed, initially purchasing land fro m Richard Paulson and William Spurgin in 1748, but later, as Dan Everson's "Timeline: 1748-1768" shows, "received a Fairfax grant of 278 acres next to his brother," Van's property, in 1754. Additionally, the Richard Morgan mentioned here appear s to have migrated into Frederick County with the party of Joist Hite, and after Thomas of the Ferry had secured his Fairfax land, it constituted that they, and Thomas' brother, Van, were neighbors. Consequently, children of Richard Morgan's an d Thomas Swearingen's would later intermarry.
This is the same Richard Morgan told of by Lewis Walkinshaw in his Annals of Southwestern Pennsylvania, of whom he writes:
["]Richard Morgan . . . was born in Wales in 1700, and when a young man came to America. He received large grants of land from Thomas Lord Fairfax under King George II in the year 1734. He settled on this land near Shepherdstown, Virginia. He bu ilt one of the first houses ever erected in the Shenandoah Valley. He was a captain in the French and Indian War. His sons and grandsons were officers and soldiers in the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars. . . . His eldest son, Colonel William . . . married Drusilla Swearingen.["]
Although Col. Morgan Morgan had also migrated to Frederick County, Virginia, predating Richard's arrival by at least three years, no definitive relationship between the two men has ever been found. However, as James Morgan said that there wa s a blood tie with the Swearingens, established by the "Maryland Morgans and Springers," it seems possible that the unities between Richard and Thomas Swearingen's children were the relationships referred to in James' deposition.
It should also be said in this chapter, that General Daniel Morgan of Revolutionary War fame, is also often speculated to have been a relative of Col. Morgan's family. In the earliest known account of David Morgan's famous Indian fight, analyze d by Jack B. Moore in an article titled "The Earliest Printed Version of David Morgan and the Two Indians," an anonymous writer sent a letter to the American periodical, the "United States Magazine," and it was accordingly published in 1779, describing David as "a kinsman to Col. Morgan of the rifle battalion." Additionally, in an interview of one David Crouch, transcribed from the Kentucky Papers of the Draper Manuscripts and published in an article by Linda Cassidy Lewis in 2005, Crouch is quoted as having said, "Old David Morgan, brother of Gen. Morgan, lived on the West Fork of Monongahela, not only about thirty miles from us." However, while it is possible that David and Daniel were related, Crouch was incorrect to their relationship, as they definitely were not brothers.
In 1909, William Allen Daily published a sketch titled "History of the Descendants of David Morgan," which was later represented by the Morgan Society in the year 2000. In the brief section titled "Daniel Morgan and the French and Indian War," Daily wrote that:
Daniel, on his return home from the Saratoga campaign early in 1778, visited his brother David near their old home in New Jersey; David having been compelled to flee from his home near Red Stone Fort owing to Indian depredations, when the year before he had engaged in a deadly combat with three Indians.
To the descendants of David Morgan, it is easily seen whom Daily was writing of. However, although it is true that David Morgan, son of Col. Morgan Morgan, had at one time lived near the mouth of Redstone Creek, so close to the Swearingens and Battens, Daily was, like Crouch, seriously mistaken about David and Daniel's relationship.
Firstly, there are no records to indicate that David had ever lived in New Jersey, especially throughout the 1770's, where he is found to have been living in present day Marion County, West Virginia. Thus, if he had ever settled within New Jersey, it would have likely been prior to 1769. Daily may have been correct, however, in his claim that David had retreated from Pennsylvania due to Indian troubles, as Robert Dilger wrote in his "Fayette County History," that in 1772, "a series o f incidents between settlers and Indians . . . ended what had been nearly eight years of peace."
One of these incidents was the killing of Chief Bald Eagle, told of in McWhorter's The Border Settlers of Northwestern Virginia. This is the same famous Indian chief who is so often attributed to the murder of Captain Samuel Brady's younger brother, James. However, this cannot be true, since James was killed in 1778, six years after Bald Eagle's death. Additionally, the claim that Samuel Brady had killed the old Indian in vengeance for his young brother is also false. Rather, account s within McWhorter's work attributes the killing to Jacob Scott, William Hacker, and Elijah Runner, who had murdered the old chief near the mouth of the Cheat, and after thrusting a piece of johnnycake in his mouth, sent him afloat down the rive r in a canoe. He was later found by one Mrs. William Yard Provance, who "buried him on the Fayette shore." It was a series of crimes such as this, committed by both settlers and Indians alike, which had lead to the natives making a string of attacks into the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and sending many settlers to retreat farther east for protection.
It was in 1772 that David retired to present day Fairmont, where Dilger wrote in his "Early History of Marion County," that David and "Nicholas Woods had constructed cabins" during that year. This date for David's Virginia settlement correlate s perfectly with his disappearance from southwestern Pennsylvania records. Thus, while Indian havoc may have forced David to leave his Pennsylvania lands, he had not moved into New Jersey, as stated by Daily, but rather into western Virginia. Interestingly, this was also same year that Indian Van Swearingen had claimed a tract of land in Ohio County, therefore again showing that David and Indian Van's migrations were exceptionally mirrored.
Also, Daily was further mistaken as he wrote that "the year before" 1778, David had "engaged in a deadly combat with three Indians." It was not until 1779, while living in Rivesville, Marion County, that the fight had taken place. As his nephew , James, was telling of Captain John Brady's murder by Indians in April of 1779, he claimed that Brady's death was only "the day after Uncle Dave fought the Indians at his place." This too, further shows that it could not have been Col. Morgan' s son that was visited by General Daniel Morgan in New Jersey, as David's "place" was then in Rivesville, Marion County. Additionally, as David and his wife were subsequently buried on this Rivesville land, it further suggests that David had remained in Marion County from 1772 up until the time of his death.
William Daily also mistakenly wrote that:
["]About the year 1720, the parents of David, Sarah and Daniel Morgan, with about twenty other Quaker families from Wales, emigrated to America and first settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. About 1725, they moved across the Delaware river a few miles above Trenton and settled near its banks and opened up a farm in what is now Hunterdon County, New Jersey. David was born in 1709 and Sarah 1711, while Daniel, the youngest child, was not born until 1736, a difference of twenty-five yea rs.["]
Not only does Daily's story fail to match up with the immigration of Col. Morgan, but simply, David was not born in 1709. As the records show, David was instead born in Christana, New Castle, Delaware, in May of 1721, and subsequently, baptize d at Old Swedes (Holy Trinity) Church in Wilmington. Thus, at this point, is has become evident that Daily was simply mistaking Col. Morgan's son for another David.
Additionally, David never had a sister named Sarah, though there was a Sarah Morgan, daughter of Edward and Margaret Morgan, wife of Squire Boone, who later became the mother of the famous Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone. It became clear that thi s was the same Sarah of whom Daily attributed as David's sister, when he further wrote that:
David and Sarah evidently were born in Wales. Squire Boone, who married Sarah Morgan in 1727, accounts for this difference that three of their children died of scarlet fever, and a baby on ship board on voyage to America.
The family of Sarah Morgan (Boone) is also often believed by many of Col. Morgan's descendants to share a common kinship with Col. Morgan's family, due mostly to the fact that Sarah had an older brother named Morgan Morgan, and her son, Daniel B oone, is known to have been an acquaintance of David and Zackquill's. However, just as David had no siblings named Sarah, neither did she have any siblings named David. Thus, while they may have shared a common ancestor, they certainly were no t brother and sister.
Further, in Stewart Baldwin's "The Family of Edward Morgan of Pennsylvania," he convincingly shows that Sarah did have an older brother named Daniel. However, while this Daniel Morgan was supposedly born in 1691, he could not have been the famous General who was born on July 06, 1736. Nonetheless, Baldwin gives further evidence to suggest that Sarah's brother, Daniel, may have actually been the father of General Daniel Morgan.
Baldwin writes that a grandson of Sarah Morgan's, Daniel Bryan, "stated in two letters to (Lyman C.) Draper that Sarah Morgan was sister to the father of Daniel Morgan." This relationship was made more explicit in notes taken from a conversation between Daniel Bryan and Rev. John D. Shaw, in about 1844, when he apparently stated that "Squire Boone 'married Sarah Morgan, sister of Danl. Morgan, the father of Genl. Danl. Morgan.'" Additionally, another one of her grandchildren, Samuel Boone, apparently stated that he "always understood that there was a relationship with General Daniel Morgan, but was unsure of the details."
Thus, by these depositions, it would seem that Sarah was actually an aunt of General Daniel Morgan's, rather than a much older sister as designated by Daily. However, in spite of these claims, Baldwin also points out that Lyman Draper had too interviewed a granddaughter of General Daniel Morgan, Winifred Kerns, and in affect, her deposition was "at odds with the claim that General Daniel Morgan was the son of Daniel Morgan." Thus, unless better evidence surfaces, the question of whether or not General Daniel was related to the family of Sarah Morgan must be left unsettled.
Concisely, in respects to any believed relationship between the families of General Daniel and Col. Morgan, the Report of the Col. Morgan Monument Commission was earnest enough to write:
["]General Daniel Morgan, "Hero of Cowpens," one of General Washington's staunchest supporters - both for some years immediate neighbors and contemporaries of Col. Morgan Morgan, too old for active military duty - left shrouded in uncertainty al l traces of his ancestry. An unkind stepmother - 'res augusta domi' - tradition has it. Nor was it recorded whether he was related to the subject of this sketch.["]
In other words, no records connecting Gen. Daniel Morgan to the family of Col. Morgan has ever surfaced, and the truth of their relationship cannot yet be determined at this time.
Around the year 1713, Col. Morgan Morgan married Catherine Garretson, "a daughter of a prominent Dutch family," in New Castle County, Delaware. The Garretsons (Gerritsens) were closely associated with the famous Old Swedes Church in Wilmington , Delaware, as their names are found throughout its records. This was the same church where Morgan's son, David, was baptized, as The Records of Holy Trinity Church states that, "Morgan Morgan and wife Catharina's child David, born May 12th, bap tized May 28th."
At the time of Morgan's marriage, New Castle County was densely populated by the Dutch and Swedes who had quarreled over the Delaware colony prior to its seizure by the English. Thus, it is no surprise that Morgan took a Dutch wife. In 1679, Cat herine's father, Hendrik, and his younger brother, Pal, were living near Bread and Cheese Island with their stepfather, "Swart" (Black) Jacob Jansen, and mother, Lysbet Hendrikson. According to Peter Craig's 1671 Census of the Delaware, Jansen " had been a soldier at Fort Amstel in 1660," and was later an ensign "in 1675 when he was shown as the owner of the tract of Hans Bones." Jansen had been distinguished as the "father" of Hendrik and Pal in Delaware records, where in November of 1 677, he and the two sons were each fined twenty guilders for refusing to work on Hans Block's dike. However, it has been construed that Jansen was not the biological father of the Garretson brothers, not because of their difference in surnames , but rather, because of Jansen's forename. Just as the Welsh had followed a patronymic system in which individuals were identified in relationship to their father, the Dutch had followed a similar one. Hendrik's surname, Garretson, would have meant literally, "Garret's son," or "Garret's child," and thus, it is obvious that Hendrik's father's forename would have been Garret, rather than Jacob. Additionally, it should be noted that it was not customary of the time for Dutch women to ad opt their husband's surnames, which is simply why Lysbet Hendrikson had been designated in records as just that, rather than "Lysbet Jansen." Moreover, following this Dutch patronymic system, Lysbet's father would have likewise been named "Hendrik," and thus shows that Hendrik Garretson was probably named after his maternal grandfather.
"Swart" Jacob Jansen died in 1681, and in the following year, Hendrik was approved to take up one hundred fifty acres along White Clay Creek, in White Clay Creek Hundred, New Castle County. According to the "White Clay Creek Multiple Resource Ar ea," composed by the National Register of Historic Places, White Clay and Christiana Creeks were "major attractions for settlements and land speculation" at the time. The navigability of the nearby Christiana River and the county's developed road system further placed White Clay Creek Hundred in a significant position for incoming commerce as traders and travelers passed throughout. Consequently, it was here that Col. Morgan later became a prosperous merchant tailor.
In 1723, Morgan, described as a "merchant tailor," purchased "245 acres on King's Road between White Clay and Christeen Creek in White Clay Creek Hundred," located next to Garrett Garretson, Catherine's brother. The King's Road was one of the fi rst main thoroughfares established within America, and as it connected the city of New Castle with Philadelphia and Baltimore, it was thus a staple of migration throughout the middle colonies. As the sketch of the "White Clay Creek Multiple Resource Area" further explains:
["]During the first half of the eighteenth century, land speculators, who appear to have been merchants, were buying and building large tracts of land . . . in the easternmost portion of the Hundred where White Clay and Christiana Creeks joined. ["]
Thus, as shown by this sketch, Morgan naturally was not the only businessman taking such an ardent advantage of the key location, further relaying the importance of this position for New Castle businesses. Additionally, as Morgan was situated i n such a lively town, it is consequently understood that he was in operation of a flourishing enterprise.
In 1716, six years prior to acquiring his White Clay Creek land, Morgan was appointed as a churchwarden for St. James Protestant Episcopal Church, founded in present day Mill Creek Hundred. It was in that year that the original church, a log dwe lling, was replaced by a more sustainable structure, and designated as the "chapel-of-ease" for the Immanuel Protestant Church, where Morgan's first son, James, "had been baptized in the previous year." The site was originally deeded to Reverend Ericus Biorck and the Swedish Church in 1701, but after Biorck's return to Sweden became imminent, the property was deeded to one James Robinson. In turn, Robinson donated ten acres of the tract to St. James Church.
This is the same James Robinson who was acting as a warden for the Immanuel Protestant Church in 1710, and who's daughter, Phoebe, was baptized with Morgan's son, David, in 1721. As The Records of Holy Trinity states, "James Robinson and wife Ca tharina's child Phoebe, born April 15th, baptized May 28th." This note, and the one concerning David, are the only two entries within The Records of Holy Trinity regarding baptisms on May 28th in that year. Later, in 1735, James Robinson's son , James, would act as a juror with Morgan Morgan in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Also, in 1730, Morgan and a fellow churchwarden, Jeremiah Ball, had received donations from one William Graham, "for and towards the repairing of the Fabrick and Fences of the said Church and church yard," for St. James Protestant Episcopal Church. Named as an executor of Graham's will was Reverend George Ross, who had baptized Morgan's oldest child, James, in 1715, and was a close acquaintance of James Robinson. Ross had been the first seated Rector of Immanuel Church, and is well documented as having been an important figure in the religious history of New Castle County. One of Ross' own sons, George, would later become one of the signers of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.
By 1717, Morgan appears to have sat particularly well with the prior Lieutenant Governor of Delaware and Pennsylvania, John Evans (1704-1709), since Morgan was made an executor of his will in that year. Governor Evans, although appointed under S ir William Penn, was not a Quaker like most of the other Pennsylvania governors and magistrates, so it is further doubtless that the Quaker population had caused much frustration to his agenda. In one instance, Evans had established a tax for the security and military foundation of the colony, but many Quakers, being passive in nature, simply refused to pay the levy. Additionally, in contrast to Quaker practices, the Protestant governor had been well known for frequenting taverns and publicly conducting himself in lewd behavior, and as William Crawford Armor wrote in his Lives of the Governors of Pennsylvania, Evans was not seen as "a man of exemplary morals." While Evans' actions did much to disgust the pious Quaker citizens , Morgan, also sharing a distinctive faith from those of the Society of Friends, may not have been so critical of his political or social manners. Morgan had, at least, shared the same credence, and judging by his later active role with the Virginian militia, seems to have shared a similar avid opinion on the importance of a military presence. The depth of their association cannot be determined, but it seems unlikely that Morgan abhorred the behaviors of the previous Governor.
In 1726, Morgan was elected as the coroner of New Castle County, and subsequently, was reelected in each of the following three years. These elections, however, were not held as in the custom of today, but rather, at the office of the governor' s in Philadelphia. "With an executive council present," the Lieutenant Governor, being Patrick Gordon at the time (1726-1736), chiefly appointed his choice of the city's candidates to such magistrate positions. It was in 1726 that Morgan was chosen over the aforementioned William Graham, and succeeded Peter Reverdy, who had held the position since 1693.
In 1727, King George I died, and immediately upon George II's ascension to the English thrown, Governor Gordon ordered that "a congratulatory address . . . to the new king" (Armor 132), be drawn up and presented to the new monarch. Among the twenty-seven magistrates who signed their allegiance and submission to the new king, we find that it is Morgan's name which heads the list. It should be remembered that this was several decades before the War for American Independence had been fought, and the colonies were still under the order of the English crown, with Morgan and his associates still considered English subjects.
This was a time when "George Washington was no yet born . . . Philadelphia, with a population of scarcely ten thousand, was the second largest city in the British Empire, and London was not as large as Clarksburg, West Virginia." The era considered in this chapter contained the earliest known years of Morgan's life in America. Living in a bustling Dutch colonial town, sheltered from the dangers of the western frontier, he had become an exemplary man of his city and maintained devoted loyalty to the English crown. He had not been part of the Quaker society with hopes to found a Quaker dominion, which so many other Welshman had sought. But rather, Morgan continued to serve the king and his religious doctrine though public offices, cultivating his gentleman status and close alliances with the honorable citizens and magistrates of New Castle in his day. This sterling character did not cease after his time in New Castle, however, but carried over into the third and final chapter of his life, crossing the Blue Ridge, and making his home along the untamed Virginian frontier. It is for his feats there that he has become most famous, and his descendants most undauntedly proud.
(3) Migration & Life in Virginia http://morganfamily2.tripod.com/part3.html
In 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia led an expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah, and sent back glowing reports of the country's untouched fertile valleys. It was in 1730, that in order to disrupt the activ ities of the French and Indians in the west, Spotswood began issuing large tracts of land to settlers on the premise that they brought in one family for each one thousand acres granted. This marked the beginning of settlements west of the Blue Ridge, and we subsequently find that in November of 1730, Morgan sold his Delaware property to one John Harris, and prepared to make a new home within the expanding colony of Virginia.
At the time of Morgan's onset into this new land, the territory was, much to the contrast of his Delaware home, a raw and undeveloped wilderness. He and his family had, however, ignored the dangers of the untamed frontier, and constructed their cabin along Mill Creek in present day Berkeley County, West Virginia. This single dwelling is considered to have been the first settlement within present day West Virginia, as Virgil Lewis had written in his "History and Government of West Virginia:"
["]John Lederer came as an explorer; Governor Spottswood and party came as adventurers; John Van Matre came as an Indian trader, but his sons, whom he advised regarding the fertile lands of the South Branch, were not the first to establish a hom e within the state. Morgan Morgan was the name of him who reared the first cabin home in West Virginia.["]
It is traditionally claimed that the year of Morgan's settlement was actually in either 1726 or 1727, though this obviously could not be true as he is still found to have been in Delaware at that time. The Morgan Morgan Monument Commission wrote that they had "accepted as a matter of course 1726 as the date of Col. Morgan's settlement in Virginia," but they also noted that one T.K. Cartmell, in his "History of the Shenandoah Valley," asserted that "there was not likely any settlement there prior to 1730." However, the Commission further pointed out that, "Being a merchant in Delaware, located along the channel of commerce between the colonies, it is more than probable that [Morgan] was an acquaintance of" John Van Meter o f New York, a trader who had passed throughout the Virginia country as early as 1725. As the Commission theorized, "Col. Morgan might have accompanied [John Van Meter] as early as 1726 or 1727, and on one of his expeditions, ?aUthacked' out a location and built a cabin."
In 1662, Lysbet Hendrickson, the grandmother of Morgan's wife, Catherine, arrived in New Amsterdam aboard the ship d'Vos. Catherine's father, Hendrik, is also often speculated to have been aboard this ship, though others say he had immigrated wi th his believed older brother, Jan, on the Prins Maurits. Nevertheless, upon examination of the d'Vos records, we find that one Jan Joosten, "from the Thrillerwaerd," immigrated to America with his wife, Macyken Hendrickson, and several children . This is doubtlessly the same Jan Joosten who's [sic] wife and children were taken captive by Indians in June of 1663, though later rescued and returned in the following September. One of these children, Joost Jansen Van Meteren, was none othe r than the father of the famous trader, John Van Meter, the "Dutchman of the Hudson." Thus, it seems possible that there was an even closer acquaintance between Morgan and Van Meter, through the Garretsons, than the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission had realized.
In George Smyth's A Genealogy of the Duke-Shepherd-Van Metre Family, he writes that "John Van Meter was with the Delaware and Cayugas in 1725," who had been driven "from their home in the Carolinas westward through Virginia and Pennsylvania" b y the Catawbas and Cherokees. It was supposedly in that year that Van Meter had equipped and accompanied a war party which set south to retake Cayuga territory, but were unfortunately "encountered, and defeated . . . with great slaughter." As tradition has it, only Van Meter and two of his Indian allies survived the fight. Nonetheless, on this expedition, he was one of the first white-men to pass through the Shenandoah Valley, and when he returned home, Van Meter "advised his son s . . . to secure a part of the South Branch [of the Potomac River]," described as "the finest body of land which he had discovered in all his travels."
It was in 1730 that two of John Van Meter's sons, Isaac and John, migrated westward, and settled in present day Berkeley County, West Virginia. Around the same time, Morgan Bryan and Alexander Ross had sponsored the settlement of a company of Pennsylvanian Quakers in the freshened Virginia frontier, who were once again aiming to establish a new Quaker community. Of them, the Morgan Morgan Monument Commission wrote that:
["]There is a tradition of the effect that Col. Morgan Morgan was the forerunner of and interested in the colonization of this section, and while his name is not mentioned as one of the promoters along with those of Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan, as set fourth in his patent, he was, nevertheless, associated with them; the said Morgan Bryan having settled near Morgan's plantation and being the owner of the land which a meeting house was petitioned to be built, in 1735-?aUt6, and which resulted in the establishment of a church afterward named 'Morgan's Chapel.'["]
This church, later discussed in this chapter, is the same which was sponsored by Col. Morgan Morgan and Joist Hite, husband of Anna du Bois, a first cousin of the elder John Van Meter's mother, and who had cut his way into the Virginia frontier with a group of Pennsylvania Germans in 1732. It is also interesting to note that Morgan Bryan's son, William Bryan, had married Mary Boone, sister of the Kentucky pioneer, Daniel Boone, mentioned previously in this sketch. Both the Bryan an d Boone families later lived in Rowan County, North Carolina, near one Captain Benjamin Merrill, a revolutionary who had been hanged for treason by British regulars, and was once believed to have been the father of the John and William Merrill s poke of in the previous chapter. While the idea of this relationship between Captain Benjamin and the Merrills acquainted with David and Zackquill Morgan has long been disproved, it was, nevertheless, a very small world in eighteenth century Ame rica.
Of these new families migrating west of the Blue Ridge, Warren R. Hofstra explains in his "The Extensions of His Majesties Dominions," that:
["]Gentlemen of eighteenth-century Virginia, unlike those of the seventeenth-century, did not wait for obscure backwoods hunters, fur traders, cattlemen, and small farmers to blaze the trails to the West, and subdue the forests for them; they we re themselves pioneers in those ventures.["]
This certainly was Morgan's case, a gentleman of New Castle, Delaware, who as far as we know, had no real backwoods or frontier experience, but only something of an adventuresome spirit. However, Morgan was, of course, not alone in his settlement of this untouched land, but was rather accompanied by his wife, Catherine, and several young children - the oldest, James, being only fifteen or sixteen years of age. As the Report of the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission was quick to poi nt out, Catherine too, is "entitled to equal credit" for this feat, as it fairly states that, "It is up to the wife of any frontiersman to more than hold up her end of the family burden, and the large and useful family they reared shows that sh e did not fail in her part."
It was in 1731 that a most unfortunate event, the death of Morgan's son, James, had occurred. There have been a few traditions passed down which contradict this, but as the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission wrote, "if the statement of the brother, David, is to be relied upon," then James "gave up the struggle within the year" of the family's Virginia settlement. Thus, as David Morgan claimed, James died at the age of sixteen. This would have been, without doubt, one of the earliest, if not the first funeral, for a settler in present day West Virginia.
One of the contradictory claims regarding James' death, is that he had grown and married one Margaret Hedges, the sister of Ruth Hedges, wife of Abraham Van Meter, a brother of the aforementioned Isaac and John. Tradition has it that on a scouting trip from Prickett's Fort in 1778 or 1779, at about sixty-three or sixty-four years of age, James was shot and killed by an Indian. However, while it seems that there was a James Morgan who had married Margaret Hedges, there is no evidence t o suggest he was the son of Col. Morgan Morgan. Actually, descendants of this James seem to believe more often than not, that he was a son of Captain Richard Morgan of Frederick County. But again, James is not named in Capt. Richard's will, no r is there any hard evidence proving that he was related to Richard's family. Unfortunately, it simply seems that this James' true ancestry has been lost in history.
The more famous tradition of Col. Morgan's son claims that he had grown, married, and had several children by the outbreak of the American Revolution. During the war, in which he supposedly served as an officer, James had visited his home and family on leave, near the old Morgan homestead, and while there, was tragically murdered by a group of Tories. The story goes on that James was forced and bound to the family's springhouse, and with a lighted candle placed at his breast to serve a s a mark in the middle of night, had seventeen shots fired into his body while his wife and children were forced to witness the atrocity. This event, as tradition states, gave rise to the town's name, Torytown.
The Morgan Morgan Monument Commission did attempt to sort out this legend, as their theory of the event went:
["]By referring to the above list of Colonel Morgan's children, it will be noted that David says Nathaniel Thompson, the first husband of his sister Anne, was murdered. It is pointed out that all the statements of David may be reconciled if we g o on the assumption that it was Anne's husband, Thompson, who was shot, or murdered by the Tories, and not her brother James; and it is suggested that in the tradition, in the main, may be correct, an error has slipped in at this point, by reaso n of its longevity and frequent repetition.["]
This is the same Nathaniel Thompson (Thomas) who had received a Virginia patent in 1735, and settled near present day Winchester, Virginia. It was also in that year that he was appointed to guard one Charles Hyatt, convicted by his future father -in-law, Morgan Morgan, for the murder of David Hopkins. However, while the Commission's theory was at first certainly a convincing idea, and has been accepted by many of today's Morgan descendants, more recent evidence has shown the assumption cannot be true.
Simply, the will of Nathaniel Thompson has been located, and it is found to have been probated in March of 1763. Thus, he was long dead before the American Revolution had begun, and therefore, simply could not have been the officer so cruelly murdered in Torytown. However, the Report of the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission even more confusingly reads that, "Morgans yet living on the old plantation remember seeing the seventeen bullet holes in the old milk-house door before the building gave way to the ravages of time," so, as it seems, there must yet be some truth to the old tale.
The legend has been more recently declaring that it was one of Morgan's grandsons who met this fate at the hands of the Tories, which does seem more likely. But again, all the lives of Morgan's known grandchildren don't quite fit the story. It does seem possible that this James belonged to one of the obscure Morgan lines, being a son of either Charles or Henry Morgan, who have so unfortunately been lost in history. However, as it stands, this is a mystery which yet remains unresolved.
It was in 1734 that Col. Morgan, Joist Hite, Benjamin Borden, George Hobson, and John Smith, were appointed as the first justices of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Spotsylvania had been created in 1721, stretching far beyond the Blue Ridge int o present day West Virginia to promote European migration into the frontier. It had, however, remained void of settlers west of the mountains until the 1730s, marked by Morgan's establishment. In the following August, which W.W. Scott contribute d to the "divers inconveniences" that attended "the upper inhabitants to Spotsylvania County," Orange County was further enclosed and established from the Spotsylvania boundaries. Consequently, we find that out of twenty-two appointees, Morgan w as made chief justice within the first minutes of Orange County's foundation.
The appointed sheriff and a fellow justice of Morgan's, Colonel Thomas Chew, was the son-in-law of gentleman James Taylor, who had accompanied Governor Spotswood on his 1716 expedition. Additionally, Chew's wife, Martha, was the "great-aunt of P resident [James] Madison and great-grand-aunt of President [Zachary] Taylor." One of their sons, Colby Chew, later came to serve with David Morgan and Jacob Prickett in the French and Indian War under George Washington, and all were in the march on Fort Duquesne where Colby was killed. Another of Thomas Chew's sons, James, migrated with Zackquill Morgan and Jacob Prickett in 1766, becoming the first settlers in present day Monongalia County, West Virginia. Both Zackquill and Jacob are buried in Prickett's Fort Cemetery in Marion County, where as Joanne Lowe, narrator of the 100th Col. Morgan Morgan Family Reunion Bus Tour related the tradition that, "It is good to know that also buried here is . . . James Chew." However, the true whereabouts of James Chew's burial is uncertain, as his grave has never been distinctly located. If he was indeed buried in Prickett's Fort Cemetery, then he must be laid in one of the many unmarked graves, since his name does not appear etched on any of the tombstones.
In August of 1735, Morgan was commissioned as a captain of the Orange County militia, and is now credited with having been the first commissioned military officer in the state of West Virginia. However, this does not appear to have been his firs t military commission, as the Col. Morgan Morgan Monument Commission transcribed the court document which reads:
["]Goodrich Lightfoot, Gent., & Morgan Morgan, Gent., presented into Court their Several Military Commissions who severally having taken the oaths appointed and subscribed the Test were sworn accordingly.["]
Thus, it seems that Morgan must have had some prior military experience, as he had presented his "Several Military Commissions" to the court. Nonetheless, it cannot be said whether or not this military experience was drawn from soldiering in Que en Anne's War, which so many of his descendants believe, as there is simply, and unfortunately, no additional records from which to draw this conclusion.
Additionally, upon this commission, Morgan had established the first Orange County militia company, which was later incorporated into the first Virginia Regiment of the Colonial militia. Tradition has it that George Washington, then employed b y Lord Fairfax as a young surveyor (and who had worked with David Morgan in surveying the Fairfax boundaries), "was impressed as he sometimes watched while the militiamen drilled on the lawn of a nearby local church." This company was later sele cted by Washington to serve as the primary protector for settlers within the Allegheny and Monongahela River Valleys. It later developed into the first unit of West Virginia's National Guard, and is one of the oldest active units of the United States Military today.
It was in 1736 that a petition, headed by Morgan and signed by twenty-seven associates, was presented to the Orange County Court, declaring that one Reverend William Williams had agreed to offer religious services to the frontier community, an d to ask for the approval for the erection of two buildings for worship. In Aprille McKay's "Early Presbyterian Congregations," she wrote that "the petition was evidently granted," and the first of these buildings, which later became known as Bu llskin Church in present day Jeffereson County, West Virginia, was to be built on "Mr. Williams' land near his house." The second church, later known as Morgan's Chapel, was to be built "on the land of Morgan Bryan," in now present day Berkeley County, West Virginia, which subsequently became "the first place where the Gospel was publicly preached and divine service performed west of the Blue Ridge."
Of Morgan's Chapel, Priscilla Kingston, in her work Morgan the Family, wrote that:
["]Of course the country was a wilderness, the dwelling-place of bears, wolves, and Indians. But in this wilderness did he find the God of the Christians present, for here, in the spirit of patriarchs, did he wait upon Him, and here did he exper ience His providential care. In or about the year 1740, he associated, as we are informed, with Doctor John Briscoe and Mr. Hite - erected the first Episcopal Church in the valley, at what is now called Mill Creek, or Bunker's Hill.["]
It was in this church that Morgan's youngest child, Morgan Morgan, began performing the service of lay reader at the early age of sixteen. It has been said that "With the religious education of this son, [Morgan] appears to have taken peculiar c are." The young son often accompanied his father on visits to the sick and dying, and was later induced by Col. Morgan to act as clerk for the parish rector at Winchester, Reverend Meldrum. It was later into his life that Col. Morgan's son would ultimately become the minister of this church, and although he was never permitted to be officially ordained, became known as Reverend Morgan Morgan II.
It was also in 1736 that Col. Morgan had headed another petition, for the creation of Frederick County. In November of 1738, the movement was granted, and Frederick was bound from the County of Orange. However, as the "Frederick County Virginia Records" importantly shows, the courts for Frederick continued to be held within Orange, as Frederick still "lacked sufficient tithables to support itself." As the Report of the Colonel Morgan Morgan Monument Commission further explains:
["]Frederick embraced all of the territory sub-divided into the counties of Rockingham, Shenandoah, Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, part of Page, part of Hardy, and finally Clarke and Warren counties; and when we remember that only a fe w settlements were to be found at that time, and they considerable distances apart, we must not be surprised that the 'population' was slow in reporting a sufficient number of men from these settlements for Justices and other Officers, and preferred to attend court at Orange for five years after their formation.["]
It was not until 1743 that Frederick held its first independent court, and subsequently, as Morgan had continued his position of Justice in Orange County until this time, was re-commissioned as a Justice of Frederick in November of that year. One of the first acts dictated by this new court, was the establishment of West Virginia's first
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Carl & Elaine (Grove) Rhodes' Genealogy Pages
1688 - 1766 (78 years)