Morgan Morgan - Emigration To America

Emigration To America

Morgan Morgan emigrated to the United States a single man at the age of 24 during the reign of Queen Anne, or probably about the commencement of the reign of George I. So, he likely arrived in Delaware in 1712 or 1713 and soon after got married, but no record of the date has been found. Morgan commenced business as a merchant at the place now known as Christiana. Some Quaker records record that: Col. Morgan Morgan was educated at Cambridge University and went to Delaware as Crown Council. In 1713, he married Catherine Garretson in what is now New Castle County, Delaware. Their first child James was born in the fall of 1715 and so recorded in the church recorder. He evidently arrived with some money and very respectable social standing, for the early records list him as a merchant and tailor and in 1717 was appointed executor of the will of Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. At that time what we now know as Delaware was a part of Pennsylvania. Since the trade guilds were very strong in England, one wonders if he learned the tailoring trade in London, from his father, or if he bypassed the law in the new country and started a combined mercantile and tailoring store. As well as being employed there as a merchant he was also a magistrate. He is said to have been an ordained Church of England clergyman, and it is said he set up a church in Westminster County, in 1727 but there is no evidence to support this. He is often incorrectly cited as having arrived at present-day West Virginia in 1727, though he was still living in Delaware at that time, acting as the coroner of New Castle County. His first land transaction that is known was of November 20, 1723 for 245 acres (0.99 km2) for which he paid 70 pounds. Practically, the entire parcel of the land was tillable. In 1924, a committee appointed by the Governor of West Virginia determined the first crude shelter erected by Morgan Morgan was built on the Morgan Acres property.