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William Morgan (1700-1731), afterwards Sir William Morgan, knight of the Bath, married Lady Rachel Cavendish (c.1694-1780). By their marriage settlement, dated 13-14 May 1723, he conveyed several manors, lands and tenements in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan to the use of William, marquis of Harlington, and Lord James Cavenish, to pay Lady Rachel £500 a year for her separate use during their joint lives and £2,000 during her widowhood. The marriage produced two sons and two daughters.

Sir William Morgan made his will 3 April 1731, and died 24 April 1731. His eldest son, William Morgan (c.1725-1763), became entitled to the Tredegar settled estates, and enjoyed them subject to the payment of £2,000 a year to his mother. As he was a minor at the time of his father's death, his trustees and guardians paid until he reached the age of 21 on 28 March 1746, and he continued to pay until his own death on 16 July 1763. He died without issue and intestate. His only brother Edward (c.1727-1744) having died during William's lifetime, and without issue, Thomas Morgan (1702-1769) the only younger brother of Sir William Morgan became entitled to the real estates by virtue of Sir William's will, and enjoyed them, and paid Lady Rachel's rent charge until his death on 16 April 1769.

Rachel Morgan, one of the daughters of Sir William and Lady Rachel, died as an unmarried minor in March 1738/9. The other daughter, Elizabeth (1729-1787), was the wife of William Jones of Clytha. Elizabeth was the administrix of her brother William Morgan, and in 1764 she and her husband contested the validity of Sir William Morgan's will. Elizabeth Morgan wrote a letter to an unnamed recipient, presumably her uncle Thomas Morgan, on 9 July 1766, including "as I am inform'd that you purpose making some expensive alterations att Tredegar, I think myself obliged to acquaint you, that I have had the opinions of some of the first council, that the freehold estates of my father & brother in Monmouthshire & Glamorganshire belong to me, such part only excepted as was devised by my father for the payment of his debts, with remainder to my brothers, your self &c". After lengthy litigation, the court of Chancery upheld the will, a verdict confirmed after an appeal to the House of Lords.

On the death of Thomas Morgan in 1769, his eldest son Thomas Morgan (1727-1771) was the next person in remainder under Sir William Morgan's will, and held the estates, and paid Lady Rachel's £2,000 a year until his death, without issue, on 15 May 1771. His brother Charles Morgan (1736-1787) now became entitled under the will, entered upon the premises, and continued to pay Lady Rachel's £2,000 rent charge.

On 25 Feb. 1775, Lady Rachel conveyed her claim to arrears of her rent charge since her son William Morgan's time, ie, 1731-1763, to William Jones and Elizabeth his wife. They pressed a claim, demanding that Charles Morgan prove payment of all sums of money paid on account of the rent charge since 1731. Charles Morgan argued that there had been no claim for arrears in 1763 when Charles Morgan's father took over the payment until the present claim in 1775. He also argued that the claim was unjust as it was entirely out of his power to prove that William Morgan had paid the rent charge 1731-1763, as William's papers were in the possession of his administrix, Elizabeth Jones, and that the difficulties facing Charles Morgan were all the more unjust as for the eight years 1747-1755 Lady Rachel had lived retired and William her son had managed her affairs, during which time no one had kept any accounts.

Lady Rachel (and after her death on 10 June 1780, her daughter Elizabeth Jones) also claimed against Charles Morgan for the payment of arrears of maintenance payments of the younger children of the marriage of Sir William and Lady Rachel Morgan, from the time of the death of Sir William Morgan until each child either came of age or died. Charles Morgan argued that maintenance should come out of the settled estate

Lady Rachel Morgan, William Jones and Elizabeth his wife, together with Lord George Augustus Cavendish, Lord Frederick Cavendish and Lord John Cavendish, the representatives of the Marquis of Hartington (who had been the longer lived of the trustees of Sir William and Lady Rachel's marriage settlement), also launched a further action, arguing that there was an outstanding legal estate by which they or some of them were entitled to possession of the premises.

In 1782 final judgement in the court of Chancery found in favour of the heirs of Thomas Morgan of Ruperra. They were proclaimed to be rightfully seised of all the family properties, but the rights of those such as Elizabeth Jones of Clytha who had an interest in reversion or remainder, should be enforced.

In a final action in 1784-1785, the action revolved at least in part around Sir William Morgan's copyhold properties in the manor of Basaleg. Prior to the Civil War, the manor of Basaleg had been the property of the bishops of Llandaf, and Sir William Morgan had been among the copyhold tenants of the manor. In 1648, after the war, Sir William bought the manor from the parliamentary commissioners. Copyhold properties in part of the manor were held in borough English, whereby property was inherited by the youngest son. To keep estates together, it was common practice for landed families with borough English lands to require the youngest son to surrender the borough English properties to the use of the eldest son. For this reason Sir William Morgan's will included a clause requiring his youngest son Edward when he came of age to surrender his rights in all the copyhold lands in Monmouthshire to William, the eldest son, giving Edward another estate in exchange. The argument revolved around whether on the death of Edward, William was entitled under his father's will to the fee of all his father's customary lands in Monmouthshire, and whether Elizabeth Jones, as William's customary heir, was entitled to the same. Thomas Morgan argued that Sir William Morgan could not devise his copyhold lands, or direct how they were devised, without a surrender of the lands to the uses of his will, nor was it his intention to devise his copyhold lands. He was merely doing what his ancestors had done, for the family policy was always that the youngest son should convey to his eldest brother all his right in the borough English, which comprised not just part of Basaleg, but fifteen out of nineteen of the family manors. In the absence of such a surrender to the uses of the will, the lands had passed to Thomas Morgan. In 1784 Charles Morgan also argued that a lord of a manor could not be his own tenant, and that Sir William Morgan ceased to be a tenant of the manor of Basaleg as soon as he became its lord. On this point, however, counsel's opinion suggested that Sir William's intrusion into the bishop of Llandaf's manor, albeit with parliamentary sanction, might not give him a sufficiently good title to convert his copyhold tenancies under the bishop into freeholds in his own manor.

Edwards, William, ca. 1705-1788

  • Person

Rev. William Edwards, minister of Llanfihangel-y-fedw and St Mellons, co. Mon., and Llanedern, co. Glam. (d. 27 Sept. 1788, aged c.83), held several estates, including one in the parishes of Marstow, Goodrich, Hentland, Peterstow, Sellack and Bridstow, all in Herefordshire, and worth above £400 a year.

The causes relate to an allegedly forged deed, being a lease and release for 999 years dated 8 and 9 Aug. 1781, made by William Edwards of the whole of his Herefordshire estate to his relation and steward William Donne of Brelstone in the parish of Marstow, Herefordshire, gent. (d. 31 Aug. 1784), witnessed by Dr Thomas Llewelyn (d. July 1783) and Mary Watkins, William Donne's servant. In his will, dated 16 Dec. 1783, William Donne left this leasehold estate to his friend and executor John Scudamore of Kentchurch Court, MP for Hereford.

William Edwards made his will in 1782, making no mention of the alleged lease, and leaving a moiety of the estate for life to Ann Donne (described elsewhere as his 'first cousin', and the mother of his 'second cousin', the said William Donne and of the otherwise unmentioned John Donne), and the other moiety to the said William Donne, and after Ann Donne's death her moiety to go to William Donne and the heirs of his body, and in default to a friend, John Morgan of Tredegar. Both Ann Donne and William Donne died in the lifetime of William Edwards, and William Donne died without issue. The estate therefore fell to John Morgan of Tredegar.

The causes were initiated after John Scudamore proved William Donne's will and tried to take possession of Rev. William Edwards's estate. The aged William Edwards turned to his friend John Morgan. William Edwards, and later John Morgan, argued that Donne had been the steward of William Edwards's estate, and since the commencement of the alleged lease had issued several receipts to tenants for rents received for the use of his master and so had not collected rents in his own name. They argued that, given William Donne and Mary Watkin's general bad characters and probable intimacy, they had forged the deed using thin paper, unusual in itself for a long lease, so as to copy through the paper the signatures of William Edwards and Dr Llewelyn from other documents in their possession, resulting in the signatures looking similar but formal versions of their usual signatures.

The cause was tried before the Master of the Rolls on 17 April 1788, when William Edwards's bill was dismissed, with costs against Mary Watkins, although the issue at law of whether the deeds were those of William Edwards and whether they had been obtained by fraud or imposition were forwarded for trial. William Edwards died 27 Sept. 1788. John Morgan filed his bill in Michaelmas Term 1788, and the case was ordered to be revived. In June 1790 Scudamore was moving for a new trial. The case appears to have ended with something of a judgement of Solomon, with the alleged lease ordered to be surrendered to John Morgan to be cancelled, with John Morgan paying William Donne's costs, and John Scudamore paying John Morgan's costs.

Scudamore, John, fl. 1783-1788

  • Person

The case appears to relate to an indenture between John Scudamore of Kentchurch and Thomas Symonds Powell of Pengelli, both in Herefordshire, esqs, and Charles Morgan of Tredegar, esq., relating to two messuages at Mile End in the parish of St Dunstan Stepney and four messuages in the parish of St Mary Stratford Bow, all in Middlesex.

Untitled

This cause in Chancery was brought forward by Mary Brettargh, widow, plaintiff, the administrix of her late sister Ann Bryan and administrix de bonis non with the will attached of Thomas Bryan, gent., dec., against Thomas Morgan and John Morgan, esqs, William Jones and Elizabeth his wife, Phillip Thomas and Thomas Daniel, defendants. The cause is a side-issue of Morgan v. Morgan (Tredegar L 1).

Thomas Bryan had been steward of the Tredegar estates in Monmouthshire, Breconshire and elsewhere from his appointment in 1744 until 1769, serving under William Morgan (d. 1763), General Thomas Morgan (d. 1766) and Thomas Morgan. The estates were chargeable with Lady Rachel Morgan's annuity of £2,000, which Thomas Bryan paid out of the rents of the estates. The case of Morgan v. Morgan, later Morgan v. Jones, arose out of a dispute relating to the payment of the annuity, and a master's report stated that there appeared to be £600 due from Thomas Bryan to William Jones on account of the annuity. In 1769 a writ of execution was issued out of Chancery against Thomas Bryan for neglecting to pay the money. To prevent the execution of the writ, Thomas Morgan prevailed on Thomas Bryan to execute a deed conveying all his personal estate, and freehold, leasehold and customary lands to Thomas Morgan until the "Roman Catholic Storm" (as Morgan called the cause) had passed over.

Thomas Bryan died in 1772, before any account was settled between him and Thomas Morgan. He had made his will, making Charles Morgan, Thomas Morgan and Phillip Thomas or one of them his executors. Thomas Bryan's wife Ann died intestate a few days later. Phillip Thomas was Thomas Bryan's next-of-kin, as well as the brother of Ann Bryan and of the plaintiff. Thomas Daniel, another defendant, was married to a sister of the plaintiff. With the help of Phillip Thomas and Thomas Daniel, an account was drawn up in 1776 between the representatives of Thomas Bryan and Charles and John Morgan.

The plaintiff disputed the account, and petitioned that the defendants return all of Thomas Bryan's papers, and to come to a full account and to pay her the balance. The original bill was filed in 1777, but the surviving papers date from 1780.

Untitled

The case related to Kerswell, 27 Axminster Road, Cardiff, which Lord Tredegar demised on 7 July 1924 for 99 years from 25 March 1924 to Henry Beavis, 7 July 1924. The lease included the usual Tredegar clause for fire insurance "in the Law Fire Office or in some other responsible Insurance Office to be approved of by the Lessor". Beavis insured the house at the Law Fire Office for £800 for one year from 25 March 1924, and then on 29 July 1924 assigned the remainder of the term to Mrs Harwood (one of the respondents).

On 30 July 1924, Mrs Harwood mortgaged the premises with the Principality Building Society (the other respondent), the mortgage containing a condition that the mortgagee should insure the premises with such offices as the Society should appoint. By order of the Principality, Mrs Harwood insured with the Atlas Company, and on 25 March 1925 failed to renew the Law Fire insurance. Lord Tredegar initiated the action to forfeit the lease for breach of contract. Justice Tomlin declared in Lord Tredegar's favour: "Atlas had not been approved by the Appellant and that ended the matter." This judgment was reversed by the Court of Appeal: "No question having been raised as to the responsibility of the Atlas - the Appellant had no right to refuse his approval on any ground which did not directly affect the contract between him and the Respondent." By a majority of three to one, the Law Lords found in favour of Lord Tredegar.

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