Welsh Journals

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Oct., 1879. BYE-GONES. 305 upon the " good works " which stood too often in Christ's stead as the accepted methods by which in those days justification from sin was to be secured. According to the traditions of his family "he prayed to Christ for pardon," and notto the Virgin, and it is a great honour to his name that his lineal descendant, William Morgan, the translator of the Bible into Welsh, in 1588, taught by pen and tongue the very faith by which he himself had hoped to be saved. The record of his worth and piety is none the less valuable because it happens to come down to us by tradition; in any case it is interesting, because it implies that even in those early days, some witnesses remained to the Welsh in proof of "that more excellent way," whereby men were to be saved frop perdition. Evan Morgan, a canon of St. Asaph in the early part of the seventeenth century, derived from him, and so did John Ellis Morgan, of Penmachno, who lived there in the latter end of the eighteenth century. MORGAN, William, grandson, it is thought, of the celebrated Welsh Bishop of that name, who at one time presided over the see of Llandaff, and afterwards over that of St. Asaph, was born in Monmouthshire, educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, and became a fellow there. He »was very much attached to the King's cause, and having become obnoxious to the republican party, he was rejected from his fellowship, and is believed to have died before the restoration. MORGAN, Sir William, was born at Pengoed Castle, Monmouthshire, and became a busy man of the world, as several of his ancestors had been before him. There is a tradition that he had been in the Naval service and had spent many years at sea, visiting divers foreign countries', but others say he was engaged inthemerchantservice.andso acquired considerable wealth. The latter opinion is so far supported by the fact that in 1574 he was at Bristol, then the great mart for mer¬ chandise, and that Queen Elizabeth knighted him there in that year. He died in 1584, and his niece Ann (who married a Sir John Morgan) succeeded to Pengoed and to his other landed estates. MORGAN, William, best known as " cosmographer to the king," was a native of Monmouthshire, and claimed kindred with the honourable family of that name, settled at Tredegar. He was great in the art of planning royal progresses, and a curious proof of this is given in a small quarto volume, published in 1685, and entitled " The King's Coronation : Being an Account of the Cavalcade, with a Description of the Triumphal Arches and Speeches prepared by the City of London for His late Majesty, Charles the Second." MORRIS, George, a native of Shrewsbury, who de¬ voted upwards of forty years of his life to the preparation °f a genealogical history of Shropshire, is deserving of very honourable mention in these records. He was par¬ ticularly skilled in the art of deciphering and translating ancient MSS., and so earnest in the pursuit of his studies that at his death in 1859 he left behind a collection of manuscripts extending to more than four thousand folio Pages. Many of his local notes are enriched with heraldic drawings, and they are so well done, and so faithfully de¬ signed, that persons well qualified to express an opinion upon wiem have pronounced them perfect. Mr. Morris had Purposed publishing a new history of his native county, out unhappily he died before he could carry out f? resolution, but his papers are invaluable to any juture historian of Shropshire who may have to study xxxx MORRIS, Joseph, brother of the last named, was born at Shrewsbury in the year 1792. He gained for himself a great reputation as a writer and an antiquary. There are few local men who managed to secure so good a literary position as he did, for not only had he been a painstaking archaeologist, and an industrious collector all his life, but his connection with a well known Salopian newspaper brought him into direct communication with the leading men of the county, and, so to speak, made him an authority to which writers and others could apply for information. He compiled a large collection of MSS. volumes upon the pedigrees of the nobility and gentry of Shropshire and North Wales. It is remarkable that although both he and his brother took pleasure in the same pursuits, they differed wholly as to the plan upon which they worked, and hence the two local collections are distinct, and each complete, and almost always necessary helps to each other. He died in 1860. OCTOBER 1, 1879. NOTES. FIRST "MEETING-HOUSE" IN OSWESTRY. The following curious particulars of account for fitting up "Meeting-House" in Oswestry is preserved amongst the Old Chapel papers :— Accorapts of James Felton whatt nee Layd out for all sorts of Timber work & wagis for ye repairing of meetting house July 29,1715 payd yong" Willoughby Samuel Phillips, Mr. Barnett for Taking down ye pulpit & ye seats of new loft..............030 p'd John Edwards & his brother for carrying in ye stable ..............0 16 August 13 p'd John Hushes smyth for iron work ..066 p'd Mr. Phillips for 3 days work ......0 4 0 p'd Mr. Barnett for 3 days work ......0 3 6 20 p'd Mr. Barnett for 6 days work ......0 7 0 p'd Mr. Phillips for 6 days work ......0 8 0 p'd Mr. Ridgway for 5 days work ......0 7 6 p'd Mr. Willoughby A new Lock stapels & Setting up ye dore..............030 27 p'd david ve plasterer for 4 days work .. ..039 p'd Mr. Barnett for 6 days work ......0 7 0 p'd Mr. Phillips for 5 days work & halfe .. ..076 p'd Mr. Ridgway 6 days work........0 9 0 p'd Mr. Barnett's daughter for sewyeing .. ..003 30 p'd Mr. Jenkin Evans widow for Altring.....2 new... 0 7 6 p'd for 3 Loades of Lime..........0 1 » September 6 p'd Thomas Turner for Glazin' ye win¬ dows ........ ,......0 * 5 10 p'd david ye plasterer for 6 days work .. .. 0 5* 6 p'd Mr. Ridgway for 11 days work......0 16 6 17 p'd Mr. Ridgway for 4 days work ,.-;•• • • ® 2 * p'd Mr.Willoughby for iron work hingis & nayles ..€90 p'd Margrett Williams for boards ......0 2 8 p'd Thomas Edwards for nayles ......0 7 5 p'd M's Mary Edwards for nayles ......0 6 4 p'd Robart Mathews for Boards ......0 8 10 p'd Jane Pritchard for Boards.. ... .. ..040 21 p'd David ye plasterer for 3 days & half work ..029 p'd Thomas Turner for Glazing........0 16 5 p'd Edward Edwards for Glazing .. • • • • ° 13 ° 22 p d Mr. Nathaniel Edwards for his journey to Sallop &chargis...... ■• ......1 ? 5 23 p'd John Burgis for A peece of timber .. ..016 30 p'd John Owen for Bricks •• •• •• ■• ° } • p'd John Vaughan for A peece of Timber .. ..010 p'd Thomas Turner for Glazin'........0 4 9 p'd Edward Edwards for Glazin' • • ■ -. ■ • ° * * p'd Mr. Richard Thomas for Timber and bords .. 1 10 0 October 3 p'd Mr. Edward Rogers for bords and other things ......, •• •• •■ 0 18 0 p'd Thomas Willoughby for work & nayles to ye window lung's .. ..........01 8 44