MORGAN
,
THOMAS
(
1543
-
c.
1605
),
Roman Catholic conspirator
,
claimed descent from a ‘
right worshipful family of
Monmouthshire
’;
D.N.B.
surmises this to have been the
Llantarnam
Morgans
(qq.v.)
, and
David
Mathew
(
Celtic Peoples and Renaissance Europe
, 89), those of
Machen
, but he cannot be fitted into the pedigree of either family as given in
Clark
,
Limbus
, 311-3, 322-3. After education at
Oxford
(college unknown) and service in the households of the
bishop of Exeter
and the
archbishop of York
(
1561-8
), he was recommended in
1569
by the
earls of Pembroke
(q.v.)
and
Northumberland
to the service of
George
Talbot
,
6th earl of Shrewsbury
, at whose house at
Tutbury
,
Mary
Queen of Scots
was then a prisoner.
Morgan
attached himself to the
queen
, conveyed her secret letters, and after examination by the council (
15 March 1572
) was imprisoned in the
Tower
for nine months as an accomplice in the
Ridolfi Plot
. On release he went to
Paris
, where as
secretary
to
Mary
's
ambassador
,
James
Beaton
,
archbishop of Glasgow
, he continued to manage her correspondence till, in
1583
, he was accused by
Dr.
William
Parry
(q.v.)
of originating the assassination plot for which
Parry
was
executed
in
1585
. In the preceding year (
1584
) had appeared the anonymous libel on
Elizabeth
's
Protestant advisers
known as
Leycester's Commonwealth
, of which
Walsingham
was convinced that
Morgan
was the principal author;
Mary
believed it was on this account that
Elizabeth
's government implicated him in
Parry
's ‘plot’ to give grounds for a demand for his extradition.
Although
Henry
III
dared not offend
Spain
by complying, he kept
Morgan
in the
Bastille
(
1585-90
), where he continued his correspondence with
Mary
(which was betrayed to
Elizabeth
), and helped to organise the
Babington Plot
(
1586
). After
Mary
's
execution
he adhered to her son
James
VI
, maintained contact with
Catholic
friends and relations in
South Wales
, and tried to use them in his schemes (
Cal. Scot. Pap.
, v, 87, 142,
Hist. MSS. Com.
,
Cecil
, iv, 1, 6-10). When he was freed in
1590
, his patroness's death had robbed him of his standing and his pension, while open opposition to the
Jesuits
and support for the claims of
Mary
's son raised against him powerful enemies in his own camp. As a counterpoise to the influence of
Parsons
and
Allen
he urged the advancement of
Owen
Lewis
,
bishop of Cassano
(q.v.)
, whose views on
English
affairs he found more acceptable, and sent a
Welsh Carthusian
to
Rome
with that object. Expelled from
France
, he went to the
Spanish Netherlands
, where the
Jesuit
faction procured his imprisonment for another three years (
1590-2
). For the rest of
Elizabeth
's reign he drifted ineffectually about
Europe
, and early in
James
I
's he approached
Sir
Thomas
Parry
(d.
1616
) (q.v.)
, our
ambassador
in
Paris
, with plans for reconciling the
English Catholics
and spiking the
Jesuits
’ guns. In
Jan. 1605
he was accused of conspiracy with
Henry
IV
's
mistress
(whose sister was in touch with the
English Catholic
malcontents) and was condemned to death, but at the end of the year he was still alive in
Paris
and in expectation of the legacy promised by
Mary
,
Queen of Scots
. After that he disappears from view, but it is possible that he was alive in
1611
.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
Wood
,
Athenae Oxonienses
, 1813–20. Sometimes
cited in the first (1691-2) edn
, i, 605-8;
-
Reports of the ‘Historical
Manuscripts Commission
,
Reports of the ‘Historical
Manuscripts Commission
, iii,
passim
, iv, 6-10, 571, xiii, 274, 296, xvii, 53, 493;
-
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
Series
, Record Publication
,
1580-1610
;
-
Calendar of the State Papers relating to
Scotland
. Record Publication, 1858 ff
, iii-x;
-
‘Public Record Office—State Papers’
78/50;
-
English Historical Review
, liii, 628, 641;
-
The Listener
,
16 March 1950.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, M.A., (1891-1975), Bangor
