George Cadogan Morgan

Last updated

George Cadogan Morgan (1754 - 17 November 1798) was a British dissenting minister and scientist.

Contents

Life

He was born in 1754 at Bridgend, Glamorganshire, the second son of William Morgan, a surgeon practising in that town, by his wife Sarah, sister of Dr. Richard Price. William Morgan, the pioneer of actuarial science, was his elder brother. George was educated at Cowbridge grammar school and, for a time, at Jesus College, Oxford, whence he matriculated 10 October 1771. [1]

An intention of taking holy orders in the Church of England was abandoned, owing to the death of his father and the poverty of his family. His religious views also changed, and he soon became, under the guidance of his uncle, Richard Price, a student at the dissenting academy at Hoxton, where he remained for several years.

In 1776, he settled as Unitarian minister at Norwich, where it is said that his advanced opinions exposed him to much annoyance from the clergy of the town. He was subsequently minister at Yarmouth for 1785–6, but moved to Hackney early in 1787, and became associated with Dr. Price in starting New College at Hackney, where he acted as tutor until 1791. [1]

In 1789, accompanied by three friends, he set out on a tour through France, and his letters to his wife descriptive of the journey are still preserved. He was in Paris at the storming of the Bastille, and is supposed to have been the first to communicate the news to England. He sympathised with the revolution in its earlier stages, and held very optimistic views as to human progress, believing that the mind could be so developed as to receive, by intuition, knowledge which is now attainable only through research. In 1791, following the death of Dr Price, he hoped for his position as preacher at the Gravel-pit meeting-house at Hackney, but, unsuccessful, he retired to Southgate, a village a few miles to the north. There he undertook the education of private pupils, and met with much success. [1]

Morgan gained a high reputation as a scientific writer, his best-known work being his Lectures on Electricity, which he had delivered to the students at Hackney. In these he foreshadowed several of the discoveries of subsequent scientific men. In chemistry, he was an advocate of the opinions of Stahl in opposition to those of Lavoisier, and was engaged upon a work on the subject at the time of his death. [1]

In 1785, he communicated to the Royal Society a paper containing 'Observations and Experiments on the Light of Bodies in a state of Combustion'. He was also the author of 'Directions for the use of a Scientific Table in the Collection and Application of Knowledge, . . . with a Life of the Author'. This contains an elaborate table for the systematisation of all knowledge. He also made considerable progress in writing the memoirs of Dr. Richard Price. [1]

He died on 17 November 1798 of a fever contracted, it was supposed, while making a chemical experiment in which he inhaled some poison. [1]

Family

By his wife, Nancy Hurry of Yarmouth, he had seven sons and one daughter, Sarah, wife of Luke Ashburner of Bombay, who was a prominent figure in Bombay society. Two of the sons, William Ashburner Morgan and Edward Morgan, successively became solicitors to the East India Company, while most of the others settled in America, where the eldest, Richard Price Morgan, was connected with railroad and other engineering works. [1]

Related Research Articles

Thomas Secker 18th-century archbishop

Thomas Secker was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England.

Bunhill Fields Former burial ground in London

Bunhill Fields is a former burial ground in central London, in the London Borough of Islington, just north of the City of London. What remains is about 1.6 hectares in extent and the bulk of the site is a public garden maintained by the City of London Corporation.

Richard Price Welsh moral philosopher, nonconformist preacher and mathematician

Richard Price was a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French and American Revolutions. He was well-connected and fostered communication between many people, including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Mirabeau and the Marquis de Condorcet. According to the historian John Davies, Price was "the greatest Welsh thinker of all time".

Abraham Rees

Abraham Rees was a Welsh nonconformist minister, and compiler of Rees's Cyclopædia.

George FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton

George Henry FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton, KG, styled Earl of Euston until 1811, was a British peer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1782 to 1811 when he succeeded to the Dukedom.

William Morgan (actuary) Welsh scientist

William Morgan, FRS was a Welsh physician, physicist and statistician, who is considered the father of modern actuarial science. He is also credited with being the first to record the "invisible light" produced when a current is passed through a partly evacuated glass tube: "the first x-ray tube".

George Morgan may refer to:

John Conder

John Conder D.D. was an Independent minister at Cambridge who later became President of the Independent College, Homerton in the parish of Hackney near London. John Conder was the theological tutor at Plaisterers' Hall Academy in 1754; and residential tutor and theological tutor at Mile End Academy, then the theological tutor at Homerton Academy.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1798 to Wales and its people.

This article is about the particular significance of the year 1777 to Wales and its people.

George Walker (mathematician)

George Walker was a versatile English Dissenter, known as a mathematician, theologian, Fellow of the Royal Society, and activist.

New College at Hackney

The New College at Hackney was a dissenting academy set up in Hackney in April 1786 by the social and political reformer Richard Price and others; Hackney at that time was a village on the outskirts of London, by Unitarians. It was in existence from 1786 to 1796. The writer William Hazlitt was among its pupils, sent aged 15 to prepare for the Unitarian ministry, and some of the best-known Dissenting intellectuals spent time on its staff.

Thomas Dixon was an English nonconformist minister and tutor.

John Eyre (evangelical minister)

John Eyre was an English evangelical clergyman. He helped in establishing some of the major national evangelical institutions.

William Shepherd (minister) English dissenting minister and politician (1768-1847)

William Shepherd was an English dissenting minister and politician, known also as a poet and writer.

Newcomes School

Newcome's School was a fashionable boys' school in Hackney, then to the east of London, founded in the early 18th century. A number of prominent Whig families sent their sons there. The school closed in 1815, and the buildings were gutted in 1820. In 1825 the London Orphan Asylum opened on the site. Today the Clapton Girls' Academy is located here.

The Gravel Pit Chapel was established in 1715–16 in Hackney, then just outside London, for a Nonconformist congregation, which by the early 19th century began to identify itself as Unitarian. In 1809 the congregation moved to the New Gravel Pit Chapel nearby, while its old premises were taken over by Congregationalists. The New Gravel Pit Chapel was closed and demolished in 1969.

References

Attribution

Wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Thomas, Daniel Lleufer (1894). "Morgan, George Cadogan". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Sources