Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/29

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Morgan
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Morgan


aid of his benevolent schemes he printed Pestalozzi's 'Letters on Early Education, with a Memoir of the Author,' in 1827; Hannah More's 'Essay on St. Paul,' 2 vols. 1850; and 'Extracts for Schools and Families in Aid of Moral and Religious Training,' 1851. He also edited in 1849 a translation of an essay entitled 'Extinction du Paupérisme,' written by Napoleon III, and in 1851 'The Triumph, or the Coming of Age of Christianity; Selections on the Necessity of Early and Consistent Training no less than Teaching.' In 1850 he reprinted some of his own and other works in thirteen volumes tinder the title of 'The Phœnix Library, a Series of Original and Reprinted Works bearing on the Renovation and Progress of Society in Religion, Morality, and Science; selected by J. M. Morgan.' Near his own residence on Ham Common he founded in 1849 the National Orphan Home, to which he admitted children left destitute by the ravages of the cholera. In 1850 he endeavoured to raise a sum of 50,000l. to erect a 'church of England self-supporting village,' but the scheme met with little support. He died at 12 Stratton Street, Piccadilly, London, on 26 Dec. 1854, and was buried in the church on Ham Common on 3 Jan. 1855.

Besides the works already mentioned, he published: 1. 'The Reproof of Brutus, a Poem,' 1830. 2. 'Address to the Proprietors of the University of London [on a professorship of education and the establishment of an hospital],' 1833. 3. 'A Brief Account of the Stockport Sunday School and on Sunday Schools in Rural Districts,' 1838. 4. 'Letters to a Clergyman on Institutions for Ameliorating the Condition of the People,' 1846; 3rd edition, 1851. 5. 'A Tour through Switzerland, and Italy, in the years 1846-1847,' 1851; first printed in the Phoenix Library, 1850.

[Gent. Mag. April | 1 855, pp. 430-1; Illustr. London News, 24 Aug. 1850, pp. 177-8, with a view of the proposed self-supporting village.]

G. C. B.

MORGAN, MACNAMARA (d. 1762), dramatist, born in Dublin, was called to the bar, though not from Lincoln's Inn as has been wrongly stated, and practised at Dublin. Through the influence of his friend Spranger Barry the actor, Morgan's tragedy, entitled 'Philoclea,' founded on a part of Sir Philip Sidney's 'Arcadia,' was brought out at Covent Garden on 20 or 22 Jan. 1754, and by the exertions of Barry and Miss Nossiter ran for nine nights, though both plot and diction are full of absurdities (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, iv. 395). It was published at London the same year in 8vo. From Shakespeare's 'Winter's Tale' Morgan constructed a foolish farce called 'Florizel and Perdita, or the Sheepshearing,' first performed in Dublin, but soon after (25 March 1754) at Covent Garden, for the benefit of Barry, and it was frequently represented with success (ib. iv. 398). It was printed at London in 1754, 8vo, and again at Dublin in 1767, 12mo, as a 'pastoral comedy,' with a transposition of title.

There is reason for crediting Morgan with 'The Causidicade,' a satire on the appointment of William Murray, afterwards earl of Mansfield [q. v.], to the solicitor-generalship in November 1742 (included in 'Poems on various Subjects,' 8vo, Glasgow, 1756), and of another attack on Murray, called 'The Processionade,' 1746 (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 94). Both, according to the title-page, are included in 'Remarkable Satires by Porcupinus Pelagius,' 8vo, London, 1760, but neither appears there. Copies of this work in contemporary binding are frequently found with the lettering 'Morgan's Satires.' 'The Pasquinade,' which is given in it, was written by William Kenrick, LL.D. [q.v.]

Morgan died in 1762.

[Baker's Biog. Dram. 1812.]

G. G.

MORGAN, MATTHEW (1652–1703), verse writer, was born in the parish of St. Nicholas in Bristol, of which city his father, Edward Morgan, was alderman and mayor. He entered as a commoner at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1667, under John Rainstrop, graduated B.A. 18 May 1671, M.A. 9 July 1674, and B. and D.C.L. 7 July 1685. In 1684 he was associated in a translation of Plutarch's 'Morals,' to the first volume of which he also contributed the preface. Some reflections therein upon 'Ashmole's rarities' displeased Dr. Robert Plot [q. v.], who carried his complaint to Dr. Lloyd, the vice-chancellor. Morgan was threatened with expulsion, but he disowned his work, the responsibility for which was assumed by John Gellebrand, the bookseller. He was presented in 1688 to the vicarage of Congresbury, Somerset, but forfeited it owing to his failure to read the articles within the stipulated time. He was vicar of Wear from 1693 till his death in 1703.

Besides his work on Plutarch Morgan contributed the life of Atticus to a translation of the 'Lives of Illustrious Men,' 1684, and the life of Augustus to a translation of Suetonius, 1692. He also wrote: 'An Elegy on Robert Boyle,' 1691; 'A Poem upon the Late Victory over the French Fleet at Sea,' 1692; 'A Poem to the Queen upon the King's Victory in Ireland and his Voyage to Holland,' 1692; 'Eugenia: or an