Sir George Osborne Morgan, 1st Baronet, PC, QC (8 May 1826 – 25 August 1897) was a Welsh lawyer and Liberal politician.

Sir George Osborne Morgan
Photograph by John Thomas (c. 1875)

Life

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Born at Gothenburg, Sweden, Morgan was educated at Friars School, Bangor, Shrewsbury School and Balliol College, Oxford, and was a scholar of Worcester College, Oxford, from 1847.

Morgan became a barrister of Lincoln's Inn in 1853. He was Liberal MP for Denbighshire from 1868 to 1885, and for Denbighshire East from 1885 until his death. He introduced Burials Bill in 1870 re-introducing it for ten successive sessions until it was finally passed in 1880, allowing any Christian ritual in a parish cemetery, and the Places of Worship (Sites) Bill, which became law in 1873. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel and a bencher of Lincoln's Inn in 1869, serving as treasurer from 1890. He was chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Land Titles and Transfer from 1878–9. Among his many Welsh involvements was support for the Welsh Sunday closing bill, disestablishment of the Welsh Church, supporting the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth.

 
Caricature by Leslie Ward (1879)

He held office as Judge Advocate General under William Gladstone from 1880 to 1885, and was appointed a privy councillor in 1880. He introduced successfully the annual Army Discipline Bill in 1881, and took charge of Married Women's Property Bill, 1882. He was re-elected as Member of Parliament for East Denbighshire in 1885, 1886, and 1892, defeating Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, whose family had represented Denbighshire in Parliament for 177 years.[1]

He once again held office under Gladstone as Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1886.

He was created a baronet, of Green Street, Grosvenor Square, in the Parish of Saint George, Hanover Square, in the County of London and of Lincoln's Inn, in 1892.[2] The baronetcy became extinct on his death, since he had no children by his wife Emily (née Reiss).

Works

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Morgan published a translation of Virgil's Eclogues in English hexameters, and other writings.

References

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  1. ^ Peters, Lisa (1 June 2021). "The Fall of the House of Wynnstay: The 1885 Election in East Denbighshire". The Welsh History Review. 30 (3): 350–382. doi:10.16922/whr.30.3.3. S2CID 243681605.
  2. ^ "No. 26334". The London Gazette. 14 October 1892. p. 5736.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Denbighshire
18681885
With: Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, Bt, to May 1885
Sir Herbert Williams-Wynn, Bt, from May 1885
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for East Denbighshire
1885–1897
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Judge Advocate General
1880–1885
Succeeded by
Preceded by Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies
February–July 1886
Succeeded by
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of Green Street and Lincoln's Inn)
1892–1897
Extinct