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# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Langton, Robert

1904 Errata appended.
​LANGTON, ROBERT (d. 1524), divine and traveller, nephew of Thomas Langton [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, was born at Appleby in Westmoreland. He was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, of which his uncle was then president, and proceeded D.C.L. in 1501. He held the prebend of Welton Westhall in the church of Lincoln from 10 Oct. 1483 till 1517, and became prebendary of Fordington-with-Wridlington in the church of Salisbury in 1485. From 25 Jan. 1486 till 1514 he was archdeacon of Dorset. In 1487 he received, probably by way of exchange, the prebend of Charminster and Bere at Salisbury. On 24 April 1509 he was made treasurer of York Minster, holding office till 1514, and held the prebend of Weighton in York Minster from 2 June 1514 till 1524, and that of North Muskham at Southwell from 13 July 1514 till January 1516–17. Langton went at some time on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James of Compostella. He was a benefactor to Queen's College, Oxford, and built the outer hall in 1518. He died in London, June 1524, and was buried in the chapel of the Charterhouse. By his will he left 200l. to Queen's College where with to build a school-house at Appleby. Langton is said to have given an account of his wanderings in 'The Pilgrimage of Mr. Robert Langton, Clerk, to St. James of Compostell ...,' London, 1522, 4to, but no copy seems to be extant. A portrait of Langton is described in 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd ser. vi. 347.
W. A. J. A.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.177 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Col. | Line | |
| | 32 | Langton, Robert: for president read provost |
| | 33 | for D.C.L. read LL.D. |
| | 12 f.e. | for outer hall read ante-chapel |
| ii | 4 | for pp 297, 305 read iv. 297, 303 |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, Henry (d.1559)

​MORGAN, HENRY (d. 1559), bishop of St. Davids, was born 'in Dewisland,' Pembrokeshire, and became a student in the university of Oxford in 1515. He proceeded B.C.L. 10 July 1522, and D.C.L. 17 July 1525, and soon after became principal of St. Edward's Hall, which was then a hostel for civilians. He was admitted at Doctors' Commons 27 Oct. 1528, and for several years acted as moderator of those who performed exercises for their degrees in civil law at Oxford. Taking holy orders he obtained ​ much clerical preferment. He became rector of Walwyn's Castle, Pembrokeshire, 12 Feb. 1529-30; prebendary of Spaldwick in the diocese of Lincoln, 13 Dec. 1532 (Willis, Cathedrals, p. 232); prebendary of St. Margaret's, Leicester, also in the diocese of Lincoln, 7 June 1536 (ib. p. 202); canon of Bristol, 4 June 1542 (ib. p. 791); prebendary of the collegiate church of Crantock in Cornwall, 1547; canon of Exeter, 1548; rector of Mawgan, Cornwall, 1549, and of St. Columb Major, Cornwall, 1550; prebendary of Hampton in Herefordshire, 1 March 1551 (ib. p. 574).
Upon the deprivation of Robert Ferrar [q. v.] he was appointed by Queen Mary bishop of St. David's in 1554, which see he held until he was deprived of it, on the accession of Elizabeth, about midsummer 1559. He then retired to Wolvercote, near Oxford, where some relatives, including the Owens of Godstow House, resided. He died at Wolvercote 23 Dec. 1559, and was buried in the church there.
John Foxe, in his 'Acts and Monuments of the Church' (sub anno 1558), like Thomas Beard in his 'Theatre of God's Judgments,' i. cap. 13, states that Morgan was 'stricken by God's hand' with a very strange malady, of which he gives some gruesome details; but Wood could find no tradition to that effect among the inhabitants of Wolvercote, though he made a careful inquiry into the matter. Wood mentions several legacies left by Morgan, proving 'that he did not die in a mean condition.'
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, J.

Joseph Morgan in the ODNB.
​MORGAN, J. (fl. 1739), historical compiler, projected and edited a periodical of great merit, entitled 'Phoenix Britannicus, being a miscellaneous Collection of scarce and curious Tracts… interspersed with choice pieces from original MSS.,' the first number of which appeared in January 1731-1732. Owing to want of encouragement it was discontinued after six numbers had been issued, but Morgan republished them in a quarto volume, together with an excellent index. Prefixed is a curiously slavish dedication to Charles, duke of Richmond, whom Morgan greets as a brother freemason. Three editions of the work are in the British Museum Library. In 1739 Morgan compiled, chiefly from what purported to be papers of George Sale the orientalist, an entertaining volume called 'The Lives and Memorable Actions of many Illustrious Persons of the Eastern Nations,' 12mo, London.
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, John (d.1504)

​MORGAN or YONG, JOHN (d. 1504), bishop of St. Davids, was the son of Morgan ab Siancyn, a cadet of the Morgan family of Tredegar and Machen in Monmouthshire, There was at least one daughter, Margaret, who was married to Lord St. John of Bletsoe, and there were also four sons besides Morgan or Yong, namely Trahaiarn, who settled at Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire, John, Morgan, and Evan. The surname Yong or Young sometimes applied to the bishop was probably adopted in order to distinguish him from the brother, also named John. He was educated at Oxford and became a doctor of laws. In a life of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, printed in 'The Cambrian Register,' he is reckoned among the counsellors of young Sir Rhys, and is described as a ' learned, grave, and reverend prelate ' (i. 75). His brother, Trahaiarn Morgan of Kidwelly, 'a man deeplie read in the common lawes of the realme,' was also one of Sir Rhys's counsellors, and both appear to have incited Sir Rhys to throw in his lot with the cause of Henry of Richmond. Their brother Evan had already shared Richmond's exile, and was probably with him when he landed at Milford (Gairdner, Richard III, pp. 274-280). Morgan is also said to have offered to absolve Sir Rhys of his oath of allegiance to Richard III, and his friendship with Sir Rhys continued into old age. A few weeks after his accession Henry VII presented Morgan to the parish church of Hanslap in the diocese of Lincoln, and made him dean of St. George's, Windsor. He held the vicarage of Aldham in Essex from 7 June 1490 to 27 April 1492, and the prebendal stall of Rugmere in St. Paul's Cathedral from 5 Feb. 1492 till 1496 (Newcourt, Repertorium, i. 208). He was also clerk of the king's hanaper, and from 1493 to 1496 archdeacon of Carmarthen. Several of these preferments he held until he was made bishop of St. David's in 1496, the temporalities being restored to him, according to Wood, on 23 Nov. 1496. He died in the priory at Carmarthen about the end of April or the beginning of May 1504, and was buried in his own cathedral of St. David's. In his will, dated 24 April 1504, and proved 19 May following, he instructed that a chapel should be erected over his grave, but his executors erected instead a tomb of freestone, with an effigy of Morgan at length in pontificalibus; this is now much mutilated.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ii. 693-4; Dwnn's Heraldic Visitations, i. 218; Cambrian Register, i. 75, 88, 104-5, 142; Gairdner's Richard III, pp 274-80; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, p. 339.]
D. Ll. T.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, Matthew

​MORGAN, MATTHEW (1652–1703), verse writer, was born in the parish of St. Nicholas in Bristol, of which city his father, Edward Morgan, was alderman and mayor. He entered as a commoner at St. John's College, Oxford, in 1667, under John Rainstrop, graduated B.A. 18 May 1671, M.A. 9 July 1674, and B. and D.C.L. 7 July 1685. In 1684 he was associated in a translation of Plutarch's 'Morals,' to the first volume of which he also contributed the preface. Some reflections therein upon 'Ashmole's rarities' displeased Dr. Robert Plot [q. v.], who carried his complaint to Dr. Lloyd, the vice-chancellor. Morgan was threatened with expulsion, but he disowned his work, the responsibility for which was assumed by John Gellebrand, the bookseller. He was presented in 1688 to the vicarage of Congresbury, Somerset, but forfeited it owing to his failure to read the articles within the stipulated time. He was vicar of Wear from 1693 till his death in 1703.
Besides his work on Plutarch Morgan contributed the life of Atticus to a translation of the 'Lives of Illustrious Men,' 1684, and the life of Augustus to a translation of Suetonius, 1692. He also wrote: 'An Elegy on Robert Boyle,' 1691; 'A Poem upon the Late Victory over the French Fleet at Sea,' 1692; 'A Poem to the Queen upon the King's Victory in Ireland and his Voyage to Holland,' 1692; 'Eugenia: or an ​Elegy upon the Death of the Honourable Madam——,' 1694.
[Wood's Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 327, 344, 397; Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iv. 711; Brit. Mus and Bodleian Library Catalogues; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714.]
G. T. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, James

​MORGAN, JAMES, D.D. (1799–1873), Irish presbyterian divine, son of Thomas Morgan, a linen merchant, of Cookstown, co. Tyrone, and Maria Collins of the same town, was born there on 15 June 1799. After attending several schools in his native place, he entered Glasgow University in November 1814, before he was fifteen, to prepare for the ministry, but after one session there studied subsequently in the old Belfast college. In February 1820 he was ordained by the presbytery of Dublin as minister of the presbyterian congregation of Carlow, a very small charge, which, however, increased greatly under his care. In 1824 he accepted a call from Lisburn, co. Antrim, to be colleague to the Rev. Andrew Craig, and for four years laboured most successfully there. In 1827 a new church was opened in Fisherwick Place, Belfast, and he became its first minister in November 1828. The congregation soon became a model of wise organisation and active work. Morgan also became prominently associated with all benevolent and philanthropic schemes in the town. In 1829 he joined with a few others in founding the Ulster Temperance Society. He was also most active in promoting church extension in Belfast. In 1840, when the general assembly's foreign mission was established, he was appointed its honorary secretary, and continued to hold this position with great advantage to the mission until his death. In 1842 he helped to found the Belfast town mission, and became one of its honorary secretaries. He was appointed moderator of the general assembly in 1846, and next year received the degree of D.D. from the university of Glasgow. He took a foremost part in the establishment of the assembly's college, Belfast, which was opened in 1853. He died in Belfast on 5 Aug. 1873, and was buried in the city cemetery.
Morgan was a voluminous writer. For some time he was joint editor of 'The Orthodox Presbyterian.' His chief works, besides sermons, tracts, and other fugitive publications, were: 1. 'Essays on some of the ​ principal Doctrines and Duties of the Gospel,' 1837. 2. 'Lessons for Parents and Sabbath School Teachers,' 1849. 3. 'The Lord's Supper,' 1849. 4. 'Rome and the Gospel, 1853. 5. ' The Penitent; an Exposition of the Fifty-first Psalm,' 1854. 6. 'The Hidden Life,' 1856. 7. 'The Scripture Testimony to the Holy Spirit,' 1865. 8. 'An Exposition of the First Epistle of John,' 1865. An autobiography was posthumously published in 1874, with selections from his journals, edited by his son, the Rev. Thomas Morgan, Rostrevor.
He married in 1823 Charlotte, daughter of John Gayer, one of the clerks of the Irish parliament at the time of the union, and by her had three sons and three daughters.
[Life and Times of Dr. Morgan, 1874; information supplied by the eldest and only surviving son, the Rev. Thomas Morgan; personal knowledge.]
T. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morgan, Macnamara

​MORGAN, MACNAMARA (d. 1762), dramatist, born in Dublin, was called to the bar, though not from Lincoln's Inn as has been wrongly stated, and practised at Dublin. Through the influence of his friend Spranger Barry the actor, Morgan's tragedy, entitled 'Philoclea,' founded on a part of Sir Philip Sidney's 'Arcadia,' was brought out at Covent Garden on 20 or 22 Jan. 1754, and by the exertions of Barry and Miss Nossiter ran for nine nights, though both plot and diction are full of absurdities (Genest, Hist. of the Stage, iv. 395). It was published at London the same year in 8vo. From Shakespeare's 'Winter's Tale' Morgan constructed a foolish farce called 'Florizel and Perdita, or the Sheepshearing,' first performed in Dublin, but soon after (25 March 1754) at Covent Garden, for the benefit of Barry, and it was frequently represented with success (ib. iv. 398). It was printed at London in 1754, 8vo, and again at Dublin in 1767, 12mo, as a 'pastoral comedy,' with a transposition of title.
There is reason for crediting Morgan with 'The Causidicade,' a satire on the appointment of William Murray, afterwards earl of Mansfield [q. v.], to the solicitor-generalship in November 1742 (included in 'Poems on various Subjects,' 8vo, Glasgow, 1756), and of another attack on Murray, called 'The Processionade,' 1746 (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 94). Both, according to the title-page, are included in 'Remarkable Satires by Porcupinus Pelagius,' 8vo, London, 1760, but neither appears there. Copies of this work in contemporary binding are frequently found with the lettering 'Morgan's Satires.' 'The Pasquinade,' which is given in it, was written by William Kenrick, LL.D. [q.v.]
Morgan died in 1762.
[Baker's Biog. Dram. 1812.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferdinand, Philip

​FERDINAND, PHILIP (1555?–1598), Hebraist, was born in Poland, of Jewish parents, about 1555. In his boyhood he learnt the Talmud, after the Jewish fashion, without grammatical rules. Afterwards he became a Roman catholic, and eventually a protestant. Coming to this country he entered the university of Oxford as a poor student. Dr. Airay, Dr. Rainolds, and others obtained for him employment in several colleges as a teacher of Hebrew. He was duly registered among the Oxford students, after he had taken the oath of supremacy and the usual oath to the university. He himself mentions that he read lectures assiduously for many years subsequently to his arrival in England. Removing to the university of Cambridge he was matriculated on 16 Dec. 1596, and probably obtained a living by teaching Hebrew. Dr. William Gouge, then a scholar in King's College, was one of his pupils (Clarke, Lives of Modern Divines, ed. 1677, p. 236). He obtained a professorship at Leyden through the interest of Joseph Scaliger, and died there at the close of 1598. Writing to Janus Drusius, 21 Dec. 1598, Scaliger laments the premature death of Ferdinand, and says that it interrupted his own Hebrew studies. In another letter he states that he had learnt from Ferdinand, whose practical familiarity with the Talmud was surprising, many proverbs which he proposed to send for insertion in Drusius's ‘Commentarium Verborum’ (Scaligeri Epistolæ, edit. Leyden, 1627, pp. 208, 594).
His only publication is: ‘Hæc sunt verba Dei &c., Præcepta in Monte Sinai data Iudæis sunt 613, quorum 365 negativa, et 248 affirmativa, collecta per Pharisæum Magistrum Abrahamum filium Kattani, et impressa in Bibliis Bombergiensibus, anno à mundo creato 5288 Venetiis, ab Authore Vox Dei appellata: translata in linguam Latinam per Philippum Ferdinandum Polonum. Cum licentia omnium primariorum virorum in inclyta et celeberrima Cantabrigiensi Academia,’ Cambridge, 1597, 4to.
T. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferchard

​FERCHARD, kings of Scotland. [See Fearchair.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferg, Francis Paul

​FERG, FRANCIS PAUL [FRANZ DE PAULA] (1689–1740), painter, born in Vienna, 2 May 1689, was son of an artist, Pancraz Ferg, from whom he received his ​first instructions in art. His father placed him under an inferior painter of the name of Baschueber, with whom he remained four years. He returned to his father's house, and became a student of the engravings of Callot and Le Clerc, whose peculiarities were of great influence in forming his style. He then studied at Vienna under Hans Graaf, a painter of small landscapes with figures, fairs, &c., but more permanently under Joseph Orient, a well-known landscape-painter, in whose house he lived for three years, and often painted the figures for him in his landscapes. In 1718 he left for Vienna and settled for some years at Bamberg. Meeting with the landscape-painter Alexander Thiele at Leipzig, he went with him to Dresden, and worked for some time with him there. He soon gained a great reputation for small landscapes and sea-pieces with figures, and for fairs and peasant scenes in the style of Ostade, Berchem, and Poelenburg. These were executed, often on copper, with great care and industry, well coloured and exquisitely finished. He eventually came to London and settled there. Here, though he found plenty of employment, he drifted into depressed circumstances, which were rendered worse by an imprudent marriage. His works were no sooner executed than they were hurried off to the pawnbroker. One night in 1740 he was found dead in the street, not far from his lodgings, in a condition of great destitution. He was one of the artists employed in the Chelsea china manufactory. His pictures are frequently met with in private collections in England and in public galleries abroad, notably Brunswick, Dresden, and Vienna. A set of the ‘Four Seasons’ was engraved by T. Major, and others by F. Vivares, J. Wagner, C. G. Geyser, and others, including two pictures engraved in the ‘Galerie Lebrun.’ Ferg also executed some etchings of great merit, mostly landscapes of a small size with figures and ruins; also a larger plate of ‘Boors Carousing,’ in the style of Ostade. These are among the Sheepshanks collection in the print room at the British Museum. A portrait of him was engraved by J. F. Bause.
L. C.
He died 4 years before the Chelsea Porcelain Company came into existence.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Ferebe, George

​FEREBE, or FERIBYE, or FERRABEE, GEORGE (fl. 1613), composer, son of a Gloucestershire yeoman, was born about 1573, and matriculated at Oxford 25 Oct. 1589, aged 16 (Clark). He was a chorister of Magdalen College until 1591. He was admitted B.A. 1592, licensed to be M.A. 9 July 1595, and became vicar of Bishop's Cannings, Wiltshire. Wood relates how Ferebe found and ingeniously made use of an opportunity to display his talents before Queen Anne, the consort of James I, on her way from Bath, June 1613. In the dress of an old bard, Ferebe, with his pupils in the guise of shepherds, entertained the royal lady and her suite as they rested at Wensdyke (or Wansdyke) with wind-instrument music, a four-part song beginning ‘Shine, O thou sacred Shepherds' star, on silly [or seely] Shepherd swains,’ and an epilogue. This quaint and courtier-like action earned Ferebe the title of chaplain to the king.
Nichols mentions the publication, on 19 June same year, of ‘A Thing called “The Shepherd's Songe before Queen Anne in four parts complete musical, upon the Playnes of Salisbury.”’ In 1615 appeared ‘Life's Farewell, a sermon at St. John's in the Devises in Wilts, 30 Aug. 1614, at the Funerall of John Drew, gent., on 2 Sam. xiv. 14,’ 4to.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fergushill, John

​FERGUSHILL, JOHN (1592?–1644), Scotch divine, son of David Fergushill, merchant and provost of Ayr, was educated partly at Edinburgh University, partly in France, and partly at the university of Glasgow, where his name occurs among the incorporati in 1611, and among the laureati in 1612. He was licensed to preach as a minister of the Scottish kirk and had a charge at Ochiltree in 1614. He was cited to appear before the high commission court at Glasgow in March 1620, and refusing to submit to its jurisdiction was suspended, and sentenced to be imprisoned in Perth. By the influence, however, of his friends, Robert Boyd of Trochrig, and John Chalmers, the court was induced to permit his return to Ochiltree under certain restrictions. There he appears to have continued to officiate until in October 1639 he was transferred to Ayr. He was a member of the assembly in 1638. He died on 11 June 1644, aged about 52.
[Wodrow's Collections upon the Lives of the Reformers and most eminent Ministers of the Church of Scotland (Maitland Club), ii. 66; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Hew Scott's Fasti, pt. iii. pp. 88, 133.]
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fergus II

​FERGUS II (d. 501), son of Earc, was the first Dalriad king in Scotland. According to the Irish annals, the earliest and best authorities for the Celtic history of Scotland, the Dalriad or Scottish kingdom in Argyle and the Isles, which the mediæval chroniclers and the historians Boece and Buchanan antedated to a fictitious Fergus I, son of Ferchard [q. v.], was really founded by this Fergus, son of Earc. The synchronisms of Flann Mainistreach (i.e. Flann of the monastery of Monasterboice in Louth) state that twenty years after the battle of Ocha the sons of Earc arrived in Britain, and date the battle of Ocha forty-three years after the coming of St. Patrick; 432 being the date of St. Patrick's mission, the migration of the sons of Earc to Scotland would be about 495 or 498 (Skene). The ‘Annals of Tigernach’ substantially agree with this date, having under 501 the entry ‘Fergus Mor, the son of Earc, with the Dalriad race, held a part of Britain and died there.’
The date 501, according to Skene's probable conjecture, refers to the death of Fergus. He and his brothers, Lorn and Angus, came in all likelihood with a small number of followers and took possession of Cantyre and the adjacent isles. The Dalriads were already Christians, having been converted by St. Patrick, and Earc belonged to the royal race of the northern Hy Niall, from which Columba, who followed about half a century later to Scotland, also belonged. The exact cause of the migration from Ulster to Argyle is not recorded, but it was probably due to overpopulation and a desire for more land. Fergus is said to have been succeeded by his son Domangart, and Domangart by his sons Congall I Conall and Gabran Goranus [q. v.]
[Chronicles of Picts and Scots; Skene's Celtic Scotland.]
Æ. M.