Author: Clifford, Morgan Morgan
Biography:
CLIFFORD, Morgan Morgan (1780-1814: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 7 June 1780 at Saint Giles in the Fields, Holborn, London, the elder of two sons of William Clyfford of Perristone, Herefordshire, and his wife Eliza Maria Lewis. His mother had remonstrated successfully with the Gordon rioters to leave her in peace while pregnant. He was educated first at Eton and with a private tutor in Derbyshire before being sent to Glasgow University where he took no degree but developed a passion for literature. He then joined the Prince of Wales’s 12th Regiment of Light Dragoons (Lancers) (Cornet 1799, Lieutenant 1803) and served in the Egyptian campaign of 1800. He left a journal of his experiences (now lost) which he intended to publish as well as the collection of poems listed here. In addition to the lead poem on Egypt, it included “Asia, an Elegy written in Marmorice Bay” (Marmaris, Turkey) in Feb. 1801. The regiment was later stationed in Ireland where he met his future wife, Sophia Willington. There is a record of marriage bonds at Killaloe in 1804 but no precise date for the marriage itself. They had three children, including Hugh Morgan-Clifford (1806-84) MP whose posthumously published Reminiscences (1893) are the principal source for information on his father’s life. They initially stayed in Ireland at Petersfield, Tipperary, but with an income of £2000 a year Clifford yearned for English society. In the summer of 1814 they planned to leave Ireland but he was taken ill at Rapla, Tipperary, in August, and after a six-week illness died of dropsy following a fever, on 16 Sept. He left his widow £600 a year, a further £1000 legacy, and the estate at Perristone. Two daughters were left £6000 each and the remainder went to his son Hugh. The family subsequently moved to Bath. (ancestry.co.uk 28 Jan. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 28 Jan. 2023; Hugh Morgan-Clifford, Reminiscences of his Life 1806-1863 [1893]; Kentish Gazette 25 Oct. 1799; London Chronicle 27 Sept. 1803; Gloucester Journal 3 Oct. 1814; A List of the Officers of the Army and Marines [1800], 77) AA
Other Names:
- M. M. Clifford