Edward Morgan (governor)

Edward Morgan was a Welsh politician and uncle of the privateer Henry Morgan. He was made Deputy Governor of Jamaica in 1664 after the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II. His daughter Mary married his nephew Henry Morgan, and his daughter Joanna Wilhelmina married Henry Archibold, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the English Army who rose to prominence in the early English colony of Jamaica.[1]

Sir Thomas Modyford, then Governor of Jamaica, and who would later grant Henry Morgan a letter of marque, considered Edward Morgan a dear and loyal friend. On the eve of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, Jamaica hosted numerous privateers, and although English officials despaired of their presence, Modyford and Morgan believed them to be a useful security for the otherwise vulnerable colony. [2]

Hostilities between the English and Dutch in 1664 led to a change in government policy: colonial governors were now authorised to issue letters of marque against the Dutch.[n 1] Although many privateers did not take up the letters, Morgan led a 600-man force to conquer the Dutch islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba in late 1665.[4] Morgan died in December 1665, and his nephew Thomas Morgan, cousin of Henry Morgan,[5] became governor of the two islands.[6]

Notes
  1. The hostilities led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667).[3]

References
  1. Cruikshank 1935, p. 51.
  2. Sainsbury 1880, pp. 207–210, 218.
  3. Latimer 2009, p. 146.
  4. Latimer 2009, p. 148.
  5. Pope 1978, p. 344.
  6. Goslinga 2012, pp. 38–39.

Books
  • Cruikshank, Ernest Alexander (1935). The Life of Sir Henry Morgan, by Brig.-General E. A. Cruikshank. Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada.
  • Latimer, Jon (2009). Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03403-7.
  • Pope, Dudley (1978) [1977 (in the UK, as Harry Morgan's Way)]. The Buccaneer King: The Biography of the Notorious Sir Henry Morgan 1635–1688. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. ISBN 978-0-396-07566-0.
  • Goslinga, C. C. (2012). A Short History of the Netherlands Antilles and Surinam. The Hague: Springer. ISBN 9789400992894.
  • Sainsbury, W. Noel (1880). Calender of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies, 1661-1668: Preserved in Her Majesty's Public Record Office. London: Longman.


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