He was thought to have founded the first permanent settlement in present-day West Virginia at Cool Spring Farm.
Morgan evidently arrived with some money and had a very respectable social standing, for the early records list him as a merchant and tailor, and in 1717 he was appointed as executor of the will of the Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania.
Morgan is often incorrectly cited as having arrived at present-day West Virginia in 1727, although he was still living in Delaware at that time, acting as the coroner of New Castle County.
His first land transaction on record dates from November 20, 1723, when he bought 245 acres (0.99 km2) for the price of 70 pounds.
In fact, the area now known as Shepherdstown, West Virginia, was probably settled by German-speaking immigrants as early as 1727.
A project donor who traced his paternal line to Lewis Morgan of Rhea County, Tennessee also has the haplogroup R-M269.