Frank Arthur Morgan

 

St. John the Baptist church,
Penmaen

Rev. John James was the vicar at St. John the Baptist church, Penmaen, serving 49 years.  John married Jane Gammon, of Penmaen.  The marriage ceremony took place at St. Michael the Archangel, Bristol in 1806.  Two of their children were daughter Charlotte and son Edward Knight, who followed his father as vicar at St. John the Baptist church, Penmaen. 

Charlotte married Charles Morgan, barrister of Lincoln’s Field, farmer and landowner.  They were to have five children, Charles Edward, born 1837; John Mabbott, born 1839; Emma Jane, born 1840; Caroline Agnes, born 1843 and Frank Arthur, born 1844.

At the time of the 1851 Census, the family and the 3 younger children were residing at Cavowgan, Llanrhidian.  Also present were four servants, Jane Jones, 24; Ann Thomas, 16; Annie Louisa Stenner, 22, and Thomas Davies, 36.

1851 Census

Sherborne School, Dorset

Frank was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset, and it was here that he became aware of career opportunities in China, through his elder brother, Charles, who was an officer with the 67^th Regiment saw action in the Second Opium War and took part in the sack of Old Summer Palace at Beijing during 1860.  Four years later, in 1864, Frank went to China where he enrolled as a fourth-class clerk in the Chinese Imperial Customs Service.  It was whilst he was in Shanghai, that he learned Chinese.

port of Zhenijang
River Yangtze

1876, Frank oversaw the port of Zhenijang on the River Yangtze, near Nanjing, then being promoted to run the port of Taikou on the island of Taiwan, by 1880 was the deputy commissioner in Beijing.

1885, Frank returned to Gower, whilst on long leave, where he rebuilt Herbert’s Lodge, Bishopstone.  A property that he inherited from his uncle, Henry John Morgan, who died in 1859. 

Herbert’s Lodge, Murton dates to the 16^th century a hunting lodge owned by Sir George Herbert, Steward of Gower. By the late 17^th century, it was recorded to have been a substantial farm.  From the Herberts the house and estate moved to the Earls of Warwick until the 18^th century to local farmers. John James, rector of Penmaen purchased the property as a dowry for his daughter, Charlotte. 1855 they decided to rebuild the lodge perhaps to live there. Charles Morgan, who employed local builder, Walter Richard Thomas to carry out the work.  Drawings show the property to be a symmetrical villa of 2 storeys an attic with a hipped stepped roof.   Charles never lived there, and it passed to his brother, Henry, and then to his nephew, Frank.

Frank employed architect Henry Hall, of London to carry out the work during 1885. Frank was influenced by the Colonial style, whilst Henry was influenced by Norman Shaw.  The house contained both styles. The asymmetry and polygonal bars with timber framed to the upper storey, were painted red and orange in the Chinese style.

John Brett

Frank rented the property to John Brett, a Pre-Raphaelite landscape painter for some months.

port of Zhouhai

Returning to the port of Kowloon in 1887, Frank lived in Hong Kong for 3 years, where he worked “with distinction”, from 1890 to 1891 and was sent to the port of Zhouhai.  Frank returned to Gower in 1892.

For several years Frank formed a secret relationship with his Eurasian companion, Ah Soo, whom he had two children with Robert and Sybil Morgan.  Eventually, his family in Gower found out and he was forced by their pressure to marry Winifred Dorthy Morgan, daughter of Stanley Morgan, of Llandysul, a cousin. The couple sailed to China where Frank was appointed administer to Korean cities, Jenchuan and Seoul during 1892 and 1893, to negotiate the transfer of Korea from China’s sphere to the rising empire of Japan. His son, Frank Stanley Morgan was born in 1893 in Seoul.

Frank was put in charge of the port of Jiujiang, where two daughters were born in 1895 and 1897, and later during the 1890s oversaw the southern port of Swatou.  Frank was besieged in Beijing by the time of the Boxer Rebellion, in 1900.  The family was sent back to Gower to avoid a possible massacre.  Following the Rebellion, Frank served between 1901 and 1905 as Guangzhou.  1902 Frank’s marriage broke down and filed for divorce on the grounds of Winifred’s adultery.  She emigrated to Vancouver where she married a distant cousin, Gordon Hanson.

Order of the Double Dragon,
third division (first class)

May 1905 Frank retired from the Chinese service.  Frank was awarded the Chinese civil rank of the fourth and the second class and the honours of the Order of the Double Dragon, third division (first class).  King Edward VII also honoured Frank with the rank and precedence of a knighthood.

Frank Arthur Morgan
headstone

Frank retired to Herbert’s Lodge, where he was cared for by his lifelong servant, Ma Jing Dong.  His health declined and Frank died at a London clinic, in February 1907, and was buried at St. Teilo’s, Bishopston.