Welsh Journals

was a brother-in-law of William Morgan of Pencoed, having married the latter's sister, Margaret, and John Morgan was William Morgan's nephew. John Morgan was a minor at the time of his father's death but was apparently of age by 1509 when, as lieutenant of Henry, Lord Stafford, the brother of Edward, duke of Buckingham, he was acting as sheriff of the lordship of Newport (Wentloog) and steward of the lordship of Machen.98 Together with his father's brother, Thomas Morgan of Machen, John Morgan continued to be active in the duke's administration during the following decade, being rewarded, like his uncle Thomas, with the duke's red and black livery cloth in 1517.99 He married Lettice, daughter of Sir George Herbert (d. 1504) of St Julians near Newport, whose eldest son, Walter, has already been mentioned as one of the main protagonists in the Newport affray of 1533. Following the execution of Edward, duke of Buckingham on 17 May 1521 and the seizure of his estates by the Crown, the royal commissioners who surveyed his lands reported that the stewardship of Newport had lately been occupied by John Morgan, the king's servant, a substantial young man of £ 100 in lands and Thomas Morgan, his uncle, a sad gentleman and also of good substance.100 In another report, apparently written at about the same time, the royal commissioners noted that as John Morgan, esquire, now admitted the king's servant, and Thomas Morgan, had since the duke's death discreetly administered justice and kept the people in right commendable order, the commissioners had deputed them their lieutenants in the stewardship of the lordship, and allowed them a joint fee of £ 13 6s 8d.101 However, as already noted, Sir William Morgan was granted the chief steward- ship of the lordships of Newport (Wentloog) and Machen on 12 January 1522 with a fee of £ 13 6s 8d. Sir William's appointment was probably unwelcome to John Morgan, and particularly to Thomas Morgan of Machen, who deposed in January 1534 that he and Sir William had always been enemies.102 On the same date as that of Sir William's appointment John Morgan was granted for life the offices of constable and doorward of Newport castle with an annual fee of 66s 8d and wages of 2d a day.103 John Morgan's grant described him as a gentleman usher of the king's chamber, evidently the recent appointment in the king's service which the royal commissioners had mentioned in their report. His appointment illustrates the expansion in the numbers of gentlemen in England and Wales in the king's service which resulted from Buckingham's execution. As a gentleman usher John Morgan appears in a list of members of the king's household compiled in the early 1520s, but there is no evidence of his activities in that capacity.104 Moreover he did not live long enough to make a successful career in the royal service, as the last instalment of his fees which he received was that for Lady Day 1524 and he evidently died before the end of that year.105