The Morgans claimed descent from Cadifor Fawr, an eleventh-century prince of Dyfed. Central in establishing their fortunes was the marriage in the early fourteenth century of Sir Llewellyn ab Ifor with Angharad, heiress to Sir Morgan ap Maredudd, lord of Tredegar.
After attending university and the inns of court, William Morgan returned home to a place on the Monmouthshire bench, where he became involved in some violent disputes at the end of the sixteenth century. Around 1598/9 ‘great quarrels and jars began to grow’ between Morgan and his kinsman Henry Morgan II† of Penllwyn Sarth.
The quarrel began in 1604, when Sir William (knighted at the Coronation) brought an action in Star Chamber which stressed his credentials as a bulwark against recusancy. He claimed that 60 recusants were sheltered at Llantarnam, and insisted that the presence of 500-600 Catholics in the surrounding area meant that mass had become more common than divine service, ‘to the great terror, offence and grief of the Protestant’. Morgan’s adversaries retorted that he ‘taketh pride’ that ‘no man ... is able to make his part good against him when he shall be disposed to assemble and gather together that multitude of riotous and quarrelling people that do depend upon him’, and also declared that his intention in bringing the action was ‘to make proof of his greatness’. Morgan was fined £40 for his misdemeanours, while his sons were fined £400 upon their conviction for assault.
Tensions with Llantarnam may explain why Morgan stood for election to Parliament in 1624 and 1625, when the prospect of war with Spain and enforcement of recusancy legislation topped the political agenda. His papers contain copies of the king’s answer to the Commons’ recusancy petition of 1624, and the 1625 Protestation against the increase in the number of papists.
Morgan was named to just two committees in 1624. One dealt with the modification of the Welsh Union legislation (6 Mar.) while the other was a private bill for ‘Mr. Morgan’, perhaps a kinsman (1 May). As Member for Monmouthshire, Morgan was also eligible to attend the committee to consider the bill to remove weirs from the River Wey (3 April).
Morgan was involved in local industry, smelting ore at a forge near Machen and supplying coal to his neighbours.
Sir William made his will on 15 Jan. 1651, in which he directed that numerous trusts be surrendered to his eldest son, Thomas†, whom he constituted his executor. Following his death, the precise date of which is unknown, a dispute arose between Thomas and Sir Anthony Morgan, the Member’s only child by his second wife, who received nothing from the will. A commission for administering the estate was granted to Thomas in May 1652, who defeated his half-brother’s challenge, allowing the will to be proved in Sept. 1653.