Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet

For other people named Thomas Morgan, see Thomas Morgan (disambiguation).

Major-General Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet (1604 – 13 April 1679) was a professional soldier from Wales who fought for Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. As deputy Commander-in-Chief, Scotland, he played an important role in the 1660 Stuart Restoration and was rewarded with being made a baronet.

Major-General Sir Thomas Morgan Bt
Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet
Lieutenant Governor of Jersey
In office 1665–1679
Deputy Commander-in-Chief Scotland
In office 1659–1660
Parliamentarian Governor of Gloucester
In office June 1645 – January 1648
Personal details
Born	1604 Old Court, Llangattock Lingoed
Died	13 April 1679 (aged 74–75) Old Court, Llangattock Lingoed
Spouse	Delariviere Cholmondeley (1644
Military service
Rank	Major-General
Battles/wars	Eighty Years War Battle of the Slaak Wars of the Three Kingdoms Adwalton Moor; Nantwich; Selby; Marston Moor; Chepstow Castle; Berkeley Castle; Hereford; Stow-on-the-Wold; Hartlebury Castle; Raglan Castle; Dunbar; Dundee Glencairn's rising Battle of Dalnaspidal Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660) Battle of the Dunes Portuguese Restoration War

Biography

Morgan was born in Wales. At 16, having at that time little knowledge of any language but Welsh, Morgan enlisted in Sir Horace Vere's Protestant volunteer expedition which fought in the Thirty Years' War. Morgan fought in the Low Countries and in particular assisted the Dutch in the decisive victory at the battle of the Slaak in 1631.

He fought under Thomas Fairfax in the First English Civil War. In 1645 he was appointed parliamentary governor of Gloucester. In 1646 he took Chepstow Castle and Monmouth, and besieged Raglan Castle. From 1651 to 1657 he assisted General George Monck in Scotland and was promoted to major-general. He was second in command in Flanders in 1657 and knighted on his return in 1658. He rejoined Monck in Scotland, and played a conspicuous part in the Stuart Restoration in Edinburgh. His Scottish command was disbanded in December, but he was rewarded with a baronetcy on 1 February 1661.^[1]

Morgan established the English Expedition to Portugal to help the Portuguese fight the Spanish. He was appointed Governor of Jersey in 1665 repairing the Jersey forts and reorganising the militia.^[1]

A pamphlet narrating his acts in France and Flanders in 1657 and 1658, said to be by himself was published in 1699.^[1]

His family home was the Old Court, Llangattock Lingoed in Monmouthshire.^[2]

Notes

1. Lee 1903, p. 903.
2. Good Stuff (5 June 1952). "Old Court including Former Cider House, Granary and Stable Range - Grosmont - Monmouthshire - Wales". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 26 February 2017.

References

• Plant, David (22 September 2006), Sir Thomas Morgan, 1604-79, the British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1903). "Morgan, Thomas (d.1679)". Index and Epitome. Dictionary of National Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 903.

Further reading

• Firth, Charles Harding (1894). "Morgan, Thomas (d.1679)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. pp. 33–35.
• Dodd, Arthur Herbert (2009). "The biography of Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 15 November 2013.

Baronetage of England
New creation	Baronet (of Langattock, Monmouth) 1661–1679	Succeeded by John Morgan