Sir Charles Morgan, 2nd Baronet

Tredegar House

The 2nd baronet was the son of Sir Charles Morgan, 1st Baronet (originally Charles Gould), and Jane Morgan (daughter of Sir Thomas Morgan.[2] His sister Jane married the industrialist Samuel Homfray.[3]

He was commissioned ensign and lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards on 21 November 1777, and promoted to lieutenant and captain on 22 March 1781. He was taken prisoner in the capitulation at Yorktown on 19 October. He was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel on 14 May 1790, retiring from the Army on 4 December 1792.[4] He became an MP for Brecon (1787–1796) and later for County of Monmouth (1796–1831),[5] supporting the government of Lord Liverpool.[1] He adopted the name of Morgan in 1792, at the same time as his father, and inherited the Tredegar estate of his Uncle John from his mother in 1797.[1]

In 1806, he succeeded to the baronetcy.[6] He also succeeded his father as a Bailiff on the board of the Bedford Level Corporation from 1807 to 1827,[7] and was Recorder for Newport from 1807 to 1835.[1] He was considered a good landlord, and held annual cattle shows on his Tredegar Park estate.[6] His political opponent, John Frost, referred to him as "a handsome little man ... possessed of great power". By 1820 he had amassed an income of about £40,000 a year from his estates and investments.[1]

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816, in recognition of his investment in agricultural improvements.[5]

Morgan (then still Gould) married Mary Margaret (or Mary Magdalen)[6] Stoney, daughter of Capt. George Stoney R.N., in 1791, and they had eight children, four sons and four daughters.[8][2] He did not remarry after her death in 1807.[9]

Morgan was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles Morgan, 1st Baron Tredegar. His other children were:

• George Gould Morgan (1794–1845), army officer and Member of Parliament[10]
• Charles Augustus Samuel Morgan (1800–1875), clergyman, who married his first cousin Frances Lascelles, daughter of Rowley Lascelles[11][12][13]
• Charles Octavius Swinnerton Morgan (1803–1888), antiquarian.[14]

The daughters were:[15]

• Maria Margaret (died 1875), who married in 1817 Francis Miles Milman, an army officer and son of Sir Francis Milman, 1st Baronet,[6] and had children
• Charlotte Georgiana (died 1878), who married in 1819 George Rodney, 3rd Baron Rodney, and had no children[6]
• Angelina Maria Cecilia (died 1844), who married in 1825 Sir Hugh Owen Owen, 2nd Baronet,[6] and had children
• Selina Anne, who died young

Sir Charles died, aged 86, at Tredegar House. The mourners at his funeral included Sir Benjamin Hall, Charles Kemeys Kemeys Tynte, and Sir George Tyler, 1st Baronet, and he was buried in the family vault at St Basil's Church, Bassaleg.[6]