David Morgan (Jacobite)
Morgan himself was a friend of both Wynn and Philipps: he was closely associated with the circle of the Duke of Beaufort, another Tory with Jacobite sympathies, and was a prominent member of the “Independent Electors of Westminster”, a pro-Jacobite London club.
[4] While there is evidence of some latent support during 1745, the majority of the Welsh Tory gentry were horrified by the turn events had taken, which seemed to presage a bloody civil war rather than a Stuart restoration on the terms they had hoped for.
[5] While Wynn was subjected to intense government scrutiny, he did no more than send the Jacobites equivocal verbal messages of support; in the event Morgan, along with the Catholic William Vaughan of Courtfield and his brother Richard, was one of the few Welshmen of the property owning class to join the Rising.
[1] Contrary to Charles's assurances, very few English recruits joined on the march towards London and at Derby on 5 December the Jacobite Council of War voted overwhelmingly to return and consolidate their position in Scotland.
[9] Like Charles himself, Morgan felt the Council's decision had destroyed their best chance of success: he told Sir John MacDonald that "all was lost" and said to Vaughan that he would “rather be hanged than go to Scotland to starve”.
[9][11] The Jacobites continued northwards to Carlisle, where Towneley and the majority of the Manchester Regiment were left behind as a garrison; after a short siege they surrendered to Cumberland's government army on 30 December.
Held at Newgate Prison along with other senior Jacobites, Morgan was eventually brought to trial on 18 July 1746; despite a “lengthy and ingenious defence” he was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
As with Towneley, Morgan's speech unapologetically restated 'Country party' or 'patriot' ideals, attacking the Hanoverians' "ungrateful avarice" and labelling them as foreign usurpers, arguing that "a lawful king is a nursing father who would protect us".
[14] Memories of figures such as Morgan and David Jenkins influenced later historians in assuming the rural Welsh gentry to have been ultra-royalists or "fanatical tories", even though this view was largely a "myth".
