John Drigue Morgan's father, as we know, was David Walter Morgan. Who was his father, and how is he related to Maria Morgan who married John Luttrell-Olmius?
A search of ancestry.co.uk's Oxford University Alumni 1500-1886 yields this: "Morgan, David Walter, s. William, of St George’s, Southwark, pleb. HERTFORD COLL., matric. 14 June 1759, aged 25.” Which tells us that this David Walter Morgan’s father was called William. A note in “The Marriage, Baptismal, and Burial Registers of the Collegiate Church or Abbey of St Peter, Westminster” Published 1876, somewhat peevishly records that there’s no record of anyone of that name ever graduating. “Rightly David Walter Morgan and so called on his monument, erected by his only surviving son, Col. John-Drigue Morgan, which described him as Doctor of laws, minor canon of the Abbey, priest in ordinary of the Chapel Royal, and Vicar of Little Leights, co. Essex. One of his names matriculated at Oxford, from Hertford College, 14 June 1739, aged twenty-five as son of William Morgan of St George’s Southwark on Surrey, but his name does not occur in the lists of graduates either of Oxford or Cambridge and this man as Rev. Dr Morgan…” and there the snippet tantalisingly ends.
However, it seems to me that he may well have matriculated for a higher degree, such as his Doctor of Laws. Maybe the person who wrote the note didn’t check out the graduation lists for higher degrees.
I have a note from my original research that says a Google Books snippet preview for Notes and Queries page 434 1940 showed the following: "David Walter Morgan, d. Mar.Ii 1795 aged 61". That's all the information there was. I do wish sometimes that Google Books snippet view wasn't so gnomish. Still, If David Walter Morgan died in 1795 aged 61, that would put his birth in about 1734ish.
A search of Ancestry's London Metropolitan Archives gives two intriguing results. David Walter Morgan, son of William Morgan and Elizabeth was born on 21 February 1733, and was christened a day later at St George the Martyr in Southwark on 22nd February 1733 (that's in the old calender, where new year was 25th of March) and then baptised at St Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey on the 21st February 1733. That seems a bit odd to me, is christnening and baptism technically different? I suppose that it's possible that there were two couples named William and Elizabeth Morgan one living in St George's Southwark, and the other living in Bermondsey, both of whom had a son named David Walter Morgan in the spring of 1833. How likely that is, I can't really work out. The trail goes a bit cold there, because there are too many possibilites for the birth of William Morgan, that I can't tell who his parents were, unfortunately. Have you got any further back, Banana Doctor? It seems to me that the probable answer to the question of how Maria Morgan and John Drigue Morgan might be related may well lie there.
From “Allegations for Marriage Licences Issued from the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury at London 1543 to 1869”, also found on Google Books, “Dec. 6 David Walter Morgan of St Martin in the Fields Middlx, Clerk, Bachr.” There's an IGI on Family Search which gives a record for David Walter Morgan marrying Mary Adams 11 December 1758 at St Martin in the Fields, Westminster. This means he was married when he matriculated. I think it was unusual for a man to matriculate when he was already married, although if he was studying for a doctorate, that may not be so odd. It’s always possible that this David Walter Morgan is someone else entirely from the one who was John Drigue Morgan’s father. If you look here
http://eagle.cch.kcl.ac.uk:8080/cce/persons/ you'll find that David Walter Morgan was ordained as a priest in 1758, that's before he matriculated, and the same year as he was married.
On Google books I found a snippet from something called The Old Cheque-book which said "John Higgate – David Walter Morgan was sworn into his place in the Chapel Sept. 17, 1761 (MS. Chapel Royal). I suppose that means he was sworn into office at the Chapel Royal in 1761. We don't know in detail from that what that particular office was. Although this page on the British History website
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=43826 which is about the Chapel Royal, shows that Morgan D.W. is listed as being Confessor on 17 September 1761. If you scroll down to the bottom and read Footnote 5 it says:
"See the corroborating testimony of Rev. David Walter Morgan in 1784: ‘a Place by many supposed a Sinecure but instead thereof, the Duty attending it is very hard indeed; the Confessor being obliged to visit all the sick in the House Baptize all Children born therein and Read Prayers at Eight o'clock every day in the week both Winter and Summer as also administer the Sacrament every Sunday morning'"
So that’s obviously what he was doing in 1861.
