WILLIAM MORGAN and ELIZABETH DAVIES
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WILLIAM MORGAN and ELIZABETH DAVIES By Marion Lofthouse Maxwell These dear people are my 2 nd great grandparents, therefore everything I write will be results from research and documentation of records found about them. We generally begin with births and parentage. Information given by them is considered an excellent source. Presumable, it was they who gave their parentage, their birth date and place to the Patriarch at the time of their blessings in Brigham City, Utah. They came to America in 1854 and they received their patriarchal blessings in 1855. I will quote the genealogical data recorded at the beginning of their blessings: “Brigham City, Weber County, Utah, May 17, 1855. A Patriarchal Blessing by Charles W. Hyde upon the head of William Morgan son of Morgan Morgan and Guana Morgan born Parish of Llanaden, South Wales, March 1797.” (Llanedeyrn, Glamorganshire, Wales) “Brigham City, Weber County, May 17, 1855. A Patriarchal Blessing by Charles W. Hyde upon the head of Elizabeth Morgan, Daughter of David and Jane Davis. Born Town of Billt, Breakneckshire South Wales, August 3, 1793.” (Builth, Breconshire, Wales) We will begin with the siblings and parentage of Elizabeth Davies Morgan. There are four christenings in the Builth Parish Register, known too as Llanvair- yn-Muallt, County of Brecon, Wales which fits nicely with family names given by Mary Morgan daughter of Elizabeth Davies Morgan found in Logan Temple Records. While in Wales, my sister Deon Lofthouse Morlock copied from the parish register, an entry that we feel is our 2 nd great grandmother: “ELIZABETH, dau of DAVID DAVIES, profession Earthenware, 20 Aug 1797". The County Archives Office at Llandrindod Wells, emailed me the exact information. However, the Builth Parish Bishop Transcripts, FHL #104,461, had one discrepancy, the name of the child and I quote, “1797, JANE, Dr of Da’d DAVIES, Aug 20 th ”. This is very interesting that the bishop or minister would transcribe it using the mother’s first name, instead of the daughter’s name. The day, month and year are the same. David Davies has three more children which is recorded in the Builth, 1 Breconshire, Bishop Transcripts as well as the Parish Records and are as follows: BT: 1791, July 13, Sarah Dr. Of Da d Davies Parish: 1791, Sarah daug of David Davies, Earthenware Seller, Baptised July 13 th BT: 1792, Dec 4 th John son of David Davies Parish: 1792, John son of David Davies, Dealer in Earthenware, Baptised Dec 4th BT: 1795, Oct 17, John son of David Davies, Baptised Parish: Oct 7, 1795, no name given, of David (no surname given), Earthenware, baptised Could this be Joseph who is buried in 1796? Did the minister try to remember the name of the child when he was required to make the transcript of the register and submit? We do know that Joseph, the child of David Davies, Earthenware, was buried Oct 7 th 1796. BT: 1796 missing Parish: Joseph son of David Davies, Earthenware, Buried Oct 7 th BT: 1797, Jane Dr of Da d Davies Aug 20 th Parish: 1797, Aug 20 th Elizabeth dr. of David Davies, Earthenware I am still searching the Carmarthenshire area for births of the remaining children Mary Morgan Rees gave when she sealed the family in the Logan Temple. Carmarthenshire is listed as birth places for them. They are Mary, Jane, Ann, Simon, Kitty Mary and Hannah. I feel the above six children are older children in the family and that Sarah Davies 1791, John Davies 1792, Joseph Davies 1795 and our 2 nd great grandmother Elizabeth Davies 1797 who were found in the Builth Parish, Breconshire, are younger children. Ten children have been identified. Many Parishes in Carmarthen have been searched to date with no results. We will lay the Davies family aside and discuss William Morgan. William Morgan’s christening has been searched for in many churches. Josie Geddes, Delbert Neeley, Orville Neeley and others with the financial help of many descendents have searched many parishes with no results. 2 I would like to cite reference to the Cardiff area giving information relative to both Parish Church and Non-Conformist Churches. NEW TRINITY, The History of Cardiff’s oldest Non Conformist Church, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah, 942.97/C1 K2j, page 19, gives some insight into the churches at the time of William Morgan’s birth in 1797 and I quote: “When we commented on Cardiff … and the first nonconformists, the town could be described as small and quiet; there were the fairs and markets, and a few ships traded across the Bristol Channel. ...the end of the eighteenth century (1790's), things were beginning to change. The iron industry and later coalmining developed in the valley to the north of the town and Cardiff became the natural outlet for their exports. First came a new road down from Merthyr, then the canal was built in the 1790s; in 1839 the first Bute Dock was opened, and in 1841 Cardiff and Merthyr were linked by the Taff Vale Raillway. The town’s population grew from 1,870 at the first census taken in 1801, to 18,358 in 1851". Growth had been phenomenal...and the old borough had burst its boundaries to spill out into the adjoining farms and fields of Roath (including Splott) and Canton (including Grangetown). I would like to quote film #183,397, Endowment House Sealings, 12 Dec 1870, page 152: “#19720, William Morgans, dead, born 1795, (where) Wroth, Glamorgan, South Wales and Elizabeth Davis, dead, born 1801, Bealt, Carmarthen, South Wales, Mary Morgan Rees, heiress, David Morgan Rees heir”. The town William was born at spelled Wroth is the same pronunciation as the above Roath. The above article cited, states boundaries of Cardiff extending out to Roath. I find this of interest in as much as Llanedeyrn is given by William as his birth place and Roath given by his daughter Mary as his place of birth. “The Christian churches responded to the increase of population with a quite amazing energy. In the year 1801 there had been one parish church (St. John’s) and two small congregations of nonconformists meeting in the Womanby Street chapel and at the Wesleyan chapel in Church Street. They all worshiped in the English language. In 1851 there were two parish churches, one Roman Catholic church, two Wesleyan chapels, three Baptist chapels, two Independent chapels, and Calvinistic Methodist chapel and a Mormon congregation which did not have its own place of worship.” 3 CARDIFF, THE CHURCH AND THE WELSH LANGUAGE, 942.97/C1 K2b, pages 10-11, Family History Library SLC and I quote, “St Mary, Cardiff...this parish had been merged into St John’s parish when the old parish church of St Mary had been destroyed by flooding in 1607, although the two parishes had not been formally joined together until the early 1800's. This new parish of St Mary was urgently needed. The population of Cardiff had grown from 1,870 in 1801 to 18,351 by 1851. The new docks and the opening up of the colliery and industrial areas of South Wales were beginning to make Cardiff one of the great urban areas of Great Britain. The vicar did his long incumbency, living on his other parish of Tretire in the diocese of Herefordshire. If the Sunday duty was performed, the leadership of the parish was missing, and the result was that the parish stagnated for well over forty years. The Anglican tradition of the parson’s freehold, which made it impossible to remove him, meant there could be no hope of any improvement until he resigned or died.” At the time of William Morgan’s birth in 1797 the one Parish Church and the two small congregations should be identified and searched if records exist. However, William states his birth as Llanedeyrn, which is “a parish in the hundred of Kibbor, County of Glamorgan, South Wales, on the banks of the Romney, 4 miles (N. E. by N.) From Cardiff, containing 315 inhabitants. To the west the venerable cathedral of Llandaf, and southward Cardiff and the Bristol channel, are included in the prospect. The living is a discharged vicarage, united to that of St. Mellon’s in the county of Monmouth, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaf. The church, dedicated to St. Edeyrn, is a small simple structure. It is stated that St. Edeyrn established a Christian Society here, amounting in number to three hundred persons, but there are no remains of their residence.” Topographical Dictionary of Wales, DA 734.L 47 vol 2. UVFHC We have not been able to find William Morgan as a child nor his brother or any of his sisters with parentage of Morgan Morgan and Gwenna Miller Morgan. William Morgans brother and sisters are Kitty (Catherine), Ann, Morgan, Sarah and were listed from Cardiff for the most part in temple records. William, believed the youngest, is listed born in Llanadan, Glamorgan, Wales. He, his brother and his sisters were sealed to their parents, Morgan Morgan and Gwenna or Gwenllian Miller in the Logan Temple 22 June 1899 with Mary Morgan Rees (daughter of William) acting for the mother. We will return to William Morgan and Elizabeth Davies possible marriage. 4 Searches of the Glamorgan Marriage Index, Pre 1837 gives two marriages of William Morgan and Elizabeth Davies. And I quote the most likely first, “Marriage, Parish of St. John and St. Mary, Bishop Transcripts, Cardiff, Glamorganshire, Wales, #104,855, WILLIAM MORGAN, of the Parish Saint John and ELIZABETH DAVIES, of the Parish of Saint John were married in this church by Banns this Twenty-ninth day of January, 1820.