A History of James Morgan, of New London, Conn., and His Descendants
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?, S M o UNIVERSITY . BRlGh/.- ^ ^ U.NG PROVO, UTAH ^i#*ltAlt BO NOT GIRCUUTE !^:< ..,9^^ \> ^On^ce^j^ Jcn^^'^'^^^'^'^ KELLOGG & BULHEUY. HAHTFRO. CONN. — /m&3^n^p*-//* ^Tlorcjan ^cncalogg A HISTOEY OF JAMES MORGAN, OP NEW LONDON, CONN. AND HIS DESCENDANTS; • From 1607 to 1869. (13 Illustrative Portraits.) WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF HIS BROTHER, MILES MORGAN, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASS. ; AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS. This shall be written for the generations to come. Ps. 102, 18. BY NATHANIEL H. MORGAN. HARTFORD: PRESS OF CASE, LOCKWOOD & BKAINARD, 1869. A FEW ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS RECEIVED TOO LATE TO BE NOTED IN TUEIR PROPER PLACE, WILL BE FOUND ON THE LAST PAGE. THE LIBRARY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNiVERSBW LIST OF ILLUSTRATIVE PORTRAITS, 1. Nathaniel Harris Morgan, - Hartford, Ct. 2. Samuel Morgan, - - - _ 3. Samuel Coit Morgan, - - - 4. Hon. Daniel Morgan, M. D. 5. Charles Morgan, - - - - 6. John Avery Morgan, - - . 7. Hon. Lewis Henry Morgan, - 8. Youngs Ledyard Morgan, - 9. Hon. Edwin Barber Morgan, 10. Nathan Denison Morgan, - 11. Hon. Edwin Denison Morgan, 12. Rev. Wm. Ferdinand Morgan, D. D. 13. Allen Denison Morgan, INTRODUCTION. The task of the genealogist, in groping his way amid the dusty records of the past, is much like that of the American Indian, in pursuing an ob- scure trail through a tangled wilderness. An acute faculty of perception, and a keen and practised eye, must note and scrutinize every obscure foot- print, every rustled leaf, every bent twig ;—now progressing rapidly under a clear light, and guided by sure tokens; and anon, suddenly arrested by a total absence of all further signs, and forced hopelessly to abandon the trail, long and patiently pursued ; until perchance again, some new and unexpected way-mark greets his eye, inspiring fresh pursuit. It is easy to see why the vicissitudes, occurring in the progress of such a labor, should be highly exciting, as well as perplexing, and also, why it is, that a relish for it is sometimes acquired so ardent as to become almost a passion. Indeed, were it not for this kind of inspiration, but few, if any, of the valuable family genealogies, of which the last few years have been so prolific, would ever have seen the light; more especially as their prepar- ation involves such a vast amount of patient labor as well as much expense, a remuneration for neither of which, can ever be reasonably expected. The absence of any settled rule or custom, in the early towns of Con- necticut, requiring the public registration of births^ marriages and deaths, and the consequent silence of the records thereon, in so many cases, is a source of great embarrassment to the genealogist. Much of this data must now be gathered from ancient grave stones, old deeds, family papers and other fugitive memoranda, accidentally preserved and luckily discovered; while even much more that would have been most valuable, is now for- ever lost. And, I am constrained to add, that my most formidable and vexatious embarrassments have occurred just where I least expected them. The ancient records were, at least, ever ready to disclose such information as they had ; but the living descendants, to my surprise, have generally evinced a strange reticence to my urgent inquiries ; not one in five of my 6 INTRODUCTION. letters and circulars eliciting any response whatever. Had the simple facts I sought, and which, in most cases, ten minutes labor would have supplied, been promptly sent me, nearly every family line could have been perfected, and at an earlier day. Most of the information, thus unavail- ingly sought, I have been enabled, after much delay and expense, to ob- tain through outside agencies, but quite too much remains unsupplied. The prevailing indifference to ancestry or kinship, which seems a pecu- liar mark of our family, I can not regard as a commendable trait of char- acter. That frame of mind which is entirely careless as " To whom related, or by whom begot," is not a wholesome one ; and from the judgment of those of the clan, who attach but little importance or value to this family Memorial, I appeal to their own posterity, confident that they will better appreciate the motives and labor, involved in its preparation. To this general indifference there are, however, many honorable excep- tions ; and to those genial spirits whose ready zeal has lent such essential aid, and whose warm, fraternal sympathy in the labor, has encouraged and cheered me on, my most grateful acknowledgments are due. There is another reflection, altogether a pleasant one. The family, as a whole, is an honorable and good one ; ranking quite above the average, in moral and social position. Standing as I have been, for several years, at the focal point of a widely extended family correspondence ; gathering in the rays which have come to me from every State and Territory of the Union, I have been highly gratified with the abundant evidence of general intelligence, moral worth, and social standing, which has greeted me from every branch of the sept or clan. Although among us "one star differeth from another star in glory" the constellation is an effulgent one. AVe have also the gratifying assurance that our cis-atlantic progenitor, James Morgan, was an honest man ; fearing God and keeping His command- ments; honoring his King and serving his country, in high and important civil stations, in his day and generation ; and his posterity have not dis- graced the proud inheritance of his simple virtues. The illustrative portraits have been selected from the various branches of the family, and are faithful copies from photographs of the respective parties represented. Of the general character of these portraits, in physique and intellectual expression, I have only this to say ; that if any American volume of this kind, has ever exhibited a finer looking galaxy of representative heads, I have not yet seen it. For my own gratification, I have had them all set in an appropriate frame, with a copy of our oldest coat of arras, in proper colors in the center;—a family picture which I shall preserve and cherish, I confess with no little pride, as well as pleasure. INTRODUCTION. 7 Nearly twenty-five years ago, circumstances excited my curiosity to trace back my lineage, if possible, to ray first American ancestor. But as no one had ever before made even a partial attempt, and no record or family tradition concerning him had been preserved, I found the subject involved in such deep obscurity, that I was four or five years in hunting up the trail, and verifying, by unequivocal testimony, my pedigree from James Morgan, of New London; and in 1851, I j)rinted a little pamphlet of this pedigree for private circulation among my own branch. This fact, when established, only gave me new zest for further inquiry, and the purpose began to grow upon me to trace down again, from James, all his male descendants, in their various diverging branches ; and this purpose I have since pursued, steadily, silently and alone, with almost a passion, and with what success, is shown in this family volume. Having brouglit these various lines down to the living generations, by the light alone of the ancient records, grave inscriptions, and other fragmentary links of evidence, gathered up with a zeal and patience akin to that of " Old Mortality," I issued a thousand or more circulars, and opened a wide correspondence by letter, appealing for family data to enable me to complete the modern branches down to the present time. The general neglect, with which that appeal has been met, has already been alluded to. I can account for it only by the fact, that the5e branches had become so utterly separated and alienated from each other, owing to the oblivion of all family history or tradition among us, that we had lost all interest in our common clanship. If this effort to remove this- cloud of oblivion, and to recover our common history and origin, shall have the pleasant effect of again fraternizing the sept, and awakening new emotions of veneration for our common ancestry, 1 shall feel a double pride and pleasure in sending it down to our posterity, associated with my name. Fully impressed with the importance of accuracy in a work like this, I have labored carefully to attain it; but it can not be reasonably expected, where so many names and dates are involved, that no errors, either in the record itself, or in transcribing, transfering, or printing, shall have crept in. More than 5,000 different persons are named in the volume, many of whose names are frequently repeated. Add to these the mass of occur- ring dates, and, in some measure, the caution and vigilance requisite to secure accuracy in each, can be appreciated. There may, in some cases, seem apparent errors, where really none exist ; for it often happens that authorities disagree ; members of the same family persisting in giving different dates ; and sometimes the family register, the town record, and the tomb stone, each giving a different date for the same event. In such cases I have followed what appeared to be the best authority, often clearly 8 INTRODUCTION. verifying the true date by collateral circumstances. From a lack of carefulness in preparing the inscriptions of age upon tomb stone?, and especially from the uncertainty upon the subject in cases where the par- ties have settled and died in sections distant from their nativity, and there- fore isolated from the original records, the discrepancy between the true age, and the age thus inscribed, is a matter of much more frequent occur- rence than is generally supposed.