MORGAN, RICHARD WILLIAMS (Môr Meirion, c. 1815 - c. 1889), cleric and author

Name: Richard Williams Morgan

Pseudonym: Môr Meirion

Date of birth: c. 1815

Date of death: c. 1889

Gender: Male

Occupation: cleric and author

Area of activity: Literature and Writing; Religion

Author: Nansi Ceridwen Jones

Born at Llangynfelyn, Cardiganshire, about 1815, the nephew of John Williams, archdeacon of Cardigan. He was educated at S. Davids College, Lampeter. He was curate of Mochdre, Montgomeryshire, from 1842-53 and in 1842 he was appointed perpetual curate of Tregynon, Montgomeryshire, which he held until 1862, after which he held livings in England. He was a leading figure at eisteddfodau and ‘Gorsedd y Beirdd.’

He was the author of the following books: Maynooth and St. Asaph, 1848; Verities of the Church, 1849; Ida de Galis. A Tragedy of Powys Castle, 1851; Vindication of the Church of England: in reply to Viscount Fielding, 1851; Raymonde de Monthault, The Lord Marcher, 1853; Christianity and Modern Infidelity, 1854, reprinted New York, 1859; Scheme for the Reconstruction of the Church Episcopate and its patronage to Wales, 1855; North Wales or Venedotia, 1856; The British Kymry or Britons of Cambria, 1857, translated into Welsh by the Rev. John Williams (Ab Ithel) as Hanes yr Hen Gymry, eu Defodau a’u Sefydliadau, 1858, and reprinted New York, 1860; Amddiffyniad yr Iaith Gymraeg, 1858; St. Paul in Britain or the Origin of the British as opposed to Papal Christianity, a 2nd ed., 1880; Correspondence and statements of facts connected with the case of Morgan and the Bishop of St. Asaph.

There is a suggestion in NLW MS 9267A (200) that he died in 1876, but according to Crockford’s Clerical Directory, 1889, he was a curate in Huntingtonshire until 1888.