Richard Morgan (Chief Justice)

Sir Richard Morgan SL PC (d. May 1556) was a British justice. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1524 and served as legal counsel to the Duchy of Lancaster in 1528 before being called to the bar in 1528. He gave his first reading at Lincoln's Inn in 1542 on the action of Replevin, unusually using two texts as his source, and gave his second reading in 1549 on the Statute of Marlborough. In June 1546 he was called to the order of Serjeant-at-law by Henry VIII, but was not formally appointed until February 1547 due to the death of Henry. By this point he was Recorder of Gloucester, which he represented in Parliament between 1545 and 1553, and had also married Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Bailey; they had three sons and three daughters.

A Roman Catholic, Morgan was sent to Fleet Prison in 1551 for hearing mass at the chapel of Princess Mary, before being discharged by the Privy Council a few weeks later with a warning. After the death of Edward VI Morgan joined Mary and her supporters at Kenninghall Castle in Norfolk, and was rewarded for his loyalty by being made a Privy Councillor on 16 August 1553, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas on 23 August and finally by being knighted on 2 October. He took part in the November proceedings against Lady Jane Grey before losing his mind on 8 May 1554 in the parish of St Magnus-the-Martyr, where he had a residence; according to John Foxe and Raphael Holinshed this was as a result of Lady Jane Grey's fate. [ [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19232?&docPos=49&backToResults=list=yes|group=yes|feature=yes|aor=3|orderField=alpha Oxford DNB:Morgan, Sir Richard] ] He died most likely in May 1556 and was buried on 2 June; his lands and the family home at Skenfrith were left to his eldest son, Sir Thomas Morgan.

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