MORGAN, Philip

Of uncertain background, Morgan was living at Chitterne in the south of Wiltshire by the late 1430s. He acquired property and land in Knook in 1440,10 Wilts. Feet of Fines (Wilts. Rec. Soc. xli), 535. and by the time of the tax assessments conducted early in 1451 he was said to have landed holdings in the county providing him with an income of £5 p.a.11 E179/196/118. At his death he was in possession of an estate composed of 29 messuages, three dovecotes, two mills and several acres of land scattered in Chitterne, Knook, Warminster and other places, having in all a value set at 20 marks a year., which was probably an underestimate,12 C140/46/48; VCH Wilts. viii. 105. and in any case failed to take into account his property in Salisbury. He apparently alternated between residence in that city and at Chitterne,13 CP40/752, rot. 406d; 753, rot. 134d. but a pardon he purchased also gave him the addresses of Bristol and Berkeley in Somerset.14 C67/40, m. 28.

In fact, it looks as if Morgan’s career began in Somerset. Usually described as a ‘gentleman’ or ‘esquire’, he trained in the law, and when he started off as an attorney in the central courts in the 1430s he took on briefs for litigants from that county.15 e.g. CP40/699, rot. 112d. During the same decade he became better known to the landowners of Dorset and Wiltshire, who, like William Botreaux II*, engaged him to complete transactions on their behalf.16 Wilts. Feet of Fines, 469, 471, 501; Dorset Feet of Fines (Dorset Recs. x, 346. In May 1438 he stood surety at the Exchequer for John Giles*, the clerk of the peace in Wiltshire who was one of the filacers in the court of common pleas,17 CFR, xvii. 44. and such a connexion can only have furthered his professional career. In his own interest he brought lawsuits in the common pleas in 1441, suing debtors from Stoke by Chewe, Somerset, and Salisbury, as well as accusing Richard Furbour* of Marlborough of unlawful detinue of £20.18 CP40/721, rot. 235d.

Although Morgan is not known to have held property in Marlborough it was that borough which returned him to the Commons for the first time, to the Parliament summoned for 25 Jan. 1442. While up at Westminster he took the opportunity to again appear in person in the common pleas to sue men from Wiltshire, and to carry on his suit against Furbour.19 CP40/724, rots. 225, 352d. Morgan’s association with the city of Salisbury began a month or so after the dissolution, when on 18 May the town clerk William Lord resigned his office, so that he might have it. He was duly admitted as town clerk ten days later, and subsequently received livery and an annual stipend of £2. Besides his regular duties he was expected to take on additional tasks as requested by the mayor.20 First General Entry Bk. nos. 370-1, 393; Wilts. Hist. Centre, Salisbury city recs., acct. rolls, G23/1/44, nos. 1, 2.

On 18 Jan. 1447 elections were held at Salisbury for the Parliament initially summoned to meet at Cambridge on 10 Feb. The two men chosen, Morgan and Thomas Temse*, agreed to serve the city for 1s. a day each (half the normal amount), but shortly afterwards Morgan’s name was crossed off the record, and replaced by that of John Mone*.21 First General Entry Bk. no. 408. What was behind the change is not revealed. On 21 May 1448 Morgan was granted a royal pardon of trespasses, misprisions and concealments, at the same time as three other ‘gentlemen’– William Twyneho* and Reynold and John Croke of Codford. The nature of their supposed offences is not recorded.22 CPR, 1446-52, p. 164. Morgan was well known to the Twyneho family, for he had previously served as an attorney for William’s father, and he and William both made sure that the Exchequer knew of their pardons by obtaining writs of non molestetis in January 1450.23 E159/226, brevia rot. 13d. This suggests that their alleged wrongdoing was related to financial matters for which they were answerable before the barons. Twyneho was a retainer of John Stourton II*, Lord Stourton, the treasurer of the Household, and it may be significant that at the Wiltshire elections for the Parliament of November 1449, Morgan stood surety for Stourton’s youthful and inexperienced son-in-law, Richard Warre*, while a year later he was a enfeoffed of lands in Somerset on behalf of Lord Stourton and his son Sir William*.24 Som. Feet of Fines (Som. Rec. Soc. xxii), 114, 127. It is quite possible that the pardon of 1448 had been related to business undertaken on the Stourtons’ behalf.

Meanwhile, Morgan’s continued employment as clerk to the Salisbury authorities had been under threat. On 2 Nov. 1448 it was agreed in the civic assembly that he might resign his office in favour of one Edward Chiltern, but on 22 Jan. following the citizens decided to reinstate him. Then, on 5 Feb. Morgan was elected to represent Salisbury in Parliament along with another lawyer, John Whittocksmead*, who as bailiff of the liberty of the bishop of Salisbury held a predominant place in the city’s affairs. The two men agreed to serve for half wages, but even so there was a considerable delay after the end of the Parliament in mid July before they were paid. Morgan continued to take on tasks for the civic authorities, such as riding to Winchester to discover more about a proposed visit to Salisbury by Henry VI, for which he was paid 10s. during the mayoralty of John Hall II* in 1450-1. In October 1451, just before the end of that mayoralty, it was again decided that Morgan should be discharged from the office of clerk, so that Chiltern might have it. It transpired that the latter, a notary, had originally been promoted by order of the King, who in his letters required Chiltern to be appointed town clerk as a reward for his good service at home and in France. These instructions had not been put into effect, and on 30 June orders had been sent to the mayor requiring Chiltern to be appointed for life at the next assembly, in return for the King’s grace to the city. As some compensation, the citizens assigned to Morgan for his lifetime a silk gown, similar to the one worn by the mayor and members of the 24, and replaced as often as they received their common livery.25 First General Entry Bk. nos. 422, 424, 425, 444-6.

On 10 June 1452 Morgan purchased another royal pardon.26 C67/40, m. 28. Despite his demotion from the office of town clerk, he continued his connexion with Salisbury, and in the following October he was granted £1 6s. 8d. a year for his good counsel to the mayor and commonalty, and for as long as he behaved well and loyally. In 1453-4 he was also given a robe worth 15s.27 First General Entry Bk. no. 455; Salisbury acct. rolls, G23/1/44, no. 3. That same year saw him appointed to his first office under the Crown, as under sheriff of Wiltshire by nomination of John Willoughby†, who thought well enough of him as to later agree to act as a feoffee of his estate.28 CCR, 1468-76, no. 100. At the end of his term, in November 1454, Morgan was made a j.p. of the quorum, and in the course of the next 17 years he was appointed to many commissions to deliver the gaol at Old Sarum castle, again as a member of the quorum whose service was obligatory. Such appointments were an indication of his standing and ability as a lawyer. This was acknowledged too by his admission to the society of Lincoln’s Inn on 4 Feb. 1455, on payment of a fee of one mark, and not only was he pardoned all his vacations, but a few years later he was assigned a new chamber, and promised that he would not be turned out unless another room with a fireplace was made available.29 L.I. Black Bk. i. 24, 34 (ff. 93, 119).

Morgan’s removal from the Wiltshire bench in 1458 may indicate that he was out of favour with the Lancastrian government, a suggestion given strength by a curious deed dated 22 Aug. 1460. In this document he was associated with the Yorkist lords, fresh from their victory at Northampton, for it was held out to be a grant by Richard Page a ‘gentleman’ of Warminster (where Morgan held property) of all his lands in Chicklade to the duke of York, the earls of March, Salisbury and Warwick, Bishop Neville of Exeter, and others including our MP.30 Tropenell Cart. ed. Davies, ii. 73. Although the deed was almost certainly a forgery, it seems that Morgan was found acceptable to the new regime. He was put back on the Wiltshire bench by Edward IV, and for good service to the new King and his father he was granted on 25 Sept. 1462 the wardship and marriage of the heir of William Walsale of Leicestershire, a tenant-in-chief.31 CPR, 1461-7, pp. 210-11. He was kept busy on gaol delivery commissions until his death. More surprising, and lacking an explanation, was his brief appointment as controller of customs in Chichester.

A little is known about Morgan’s private affairs. Before the beginning of 1461 he married Idonea, the widow and executrix of Robert Goold, probably of the Devon family.32 CP40/800, rot. 94d. The only child of Thomas Micheldever, she brought to her marriage to Morgan her inheritance of lands and tenements in ‘Culmyngton’, Devon, and East and West Coker, Kingsbury Episcopi, Othery and Wyke in Somerset. Early in Edward IV’s reign the couple brought a suit in Chancery against her father’s feoffees for failing to hand over possession to them.33 C1/28/403. After Idonea’s death Morgan was married to Agnes Lyte, the widow of the Richard Page with whom he had dealings at the close of Henry VI’s reign. However, what property she brought to the marriage is unclear.34 Agnes was not an heiress, although she would have had her Page dower: Procs. Som. Arch. Soc. xxxviii (2), 24. She was the sis. of Thomas Lyte*. Morgan was associated with husbandmen of ‘Lye’ in suits brought by a local tailor and the King for certain felonies they had committed. The sheriff of Somerset was ordered to arrest him and bring him to the King’s bench in the summer of 1465 to satisfy the Crown of fines for their offences.35 KB27/817, rot. 12, rex rot. 13. Besides his commissions, Morgan was also sent writs of dedimus potestatem to take acknowledgements of deeds, doing so in 1465 at Salisbury and two years later at Heytesbury, all of them relating to the Hungerford estates.36 CCR, 1461-8, pp. 225-6, 394. Morgan was returned to the Parliament summoned for 6 Oct. 1472, this time as one of the burgesses for Westbury. It may be that his election was promoted by his feoffee Sir John Willoughby, who held the manor of Brooke in Westbury and joined him in the Commons as a shire knight for Somerset. The Parliament was to extend through seven sessions and not be finally dissolved until March 1475, but Morgan can have only attended two of them, for he died on 18 June 1473. His landed holdings in Wiltshire were found in the inquisition post mortem to be in the hands of Willoughby and his other feoffees, who had no doubt been entrusted with them because the heir, Morgan’s son Gregory, was a minor just five years old.37 C140/46/48. In due course Gregory and our MP’s grandsons were all to follow him into the legal profession.38 Baker, ii. 1122-4.