Elizabeth Morgan, née Bonney. Her birth date remains uncertain, but she was born in London, and was still a minor on 24 April 1818 when she married Thomas Morgan (1786-1862), of Dixon, Morgan and Co., wine and spirits traders. A stained glass...
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Elizabeth Morgan, née Bonney. Her birth date remains uncertain, but she was born in London, and was still a minor on 24 April 1818 when she married Thomas Morgan (1786-1862), of Dixon, Morgan and Co., wine and spirits traders. A stained glass window in St. Olave's Church, Hart Street, bears an armorial decoration commemorating the union. Elizabeth was a close friend of the novelist Jane Porter; she signed her letters to Porter with the nickname "Belinda." The Morgans had at least five children: Thomas (1819-1892), who helped run the family business in London; Francis (1820-1876), who moved to Spain to handle the family business's connections there; Aaron Augustus (1822-1888), a clergyman and Shakespeare scholar; Emily Eustatia, married name Gruggen (1828-1909); and Adelaide Elizabeth, married name Beresford (1837-1902). Elizabeth Morgan died at the age of 65, and was buried in All Souls, Kensal Green on 9 July 1866. Her grandson, Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan (1857-1935) was the legal guardian of the fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien. Five of the nine items appear to have been torn out of the same quarto-sized sketchbook: an original ink drawing of a cavalier soldier, by Robert Ker Porter, signed by him and inscribed to Mrs. Morgan, 25 May 1841; an original watercolor of a women's charitable home inhabitant soliciting donations, signed "E. M."; a pencil drawing of "Bradley Rectory," signed "F. J. G., 1851"; a page of manuscript music, "Le dernier Soupir," signed "M. T."; and a pencil and watercolor copy of R. Westall's portrait of Lady Charlotte Harley, "Lord Byron's Ianthe." The other items include: a small unbound notebook (50 total pages, some blank) in Elizabeth Morgan's hand, circa 1849-1850, which includes biographical notes on Jane Porter, a note on Robert Ker Porter's "Battle of Agincourt" painting, notes from readings, tables of expenses, etc.; a printed invitation accomplished in manuscript, to Mr. Mrs. Morgan, for an event at Boyle Farm on 30 June 1829, from Lord Chesterfield, Lord Alvanley, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. de Roos, and Mr. Grosvenor; a watercolor of the Rialto Bridge in Venice; and a small pencil drawing, "The House in which Lord Byron died at Missolonghi," signed "E. H., 1834.".
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