WILLIAM MORGAN
PREFACE
This is the story of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history. It is the story of William Morgan who died about 150 years ago but the circumstances surrounding his life and death are still very controversial subjects today. Many people have advanced various theories about the type of man he was and how and when he met his demise. I will clear up much of that controversy here and tell the true story of his life. Obviously, because he lived so long ago and disappeared in what was, even then, a confusing manner makes the task now undertaken somewhat difficult. Nevertheless, I can and will finally solve the mystery.
Modern science has the capability to conclusively and unquestionably prove to any doubters whether or not my explanation here is correct. All that is needed is one more willing participant for a DNA test from one of the male to male ancestors of William Morgan and his first wife in the US or a little more hard evidence in the form of handwriting of William Morgan while he was living in Central America, but those things have, thus far, proved difficult to obtain. Not wanting to wait any longer for conclusive scientific proof, which may never be found, I now write this story. However, the search for confirming DNA and/or handwriting samples shall continue. ( see the UPDATE at the end of this story).
The History of His Early Life
William Morgan was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, on or about August 7, 1774. His parents appear to have been killed by Indians and he was then tied in to close family in the area. He was apprenticed as a mason in bricklaying and stone cutting in Hap Haphazard, Madison County, Virginia. He also worked as a mason in Richmond, Virginia and later in Lexington, Kentucky. He traveled to Europe several times and traveled with the military in Central America. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed about 135 lbs and had brown hair and a high forehead. He was a Methodist. In those days there were several William Morgan's in Virginia .Some of whom were orphaned by Indian attacks. (John Morgan : killed by Indians 11 APR 1777 in Cheat River, Monongalia, Va, his children Hugh Morgan b: 1 JAN 1759 in Cheat River, Monongalia, VA, William Morgan b: ABT 1777, James MORGAN b: 1755-01-10 in Cheat River, Monongalia, Virginia ,http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/morgan/17215/ ) .
John Day, a Freemason, of Gordonsville, Kentucky, is quoted as saying that Morgan served his apprenticeship as a bricklayer with Day's brother at Hap Hazard Mills, Madison County, Virginia. Reaching his majority, Morgan is said to have left for Kentucky, returning to Virginia after four years. He worked on the Orange County Courthouse, Virginia, and subsequently moved to Richmond.
Morgan said that he traveled to Europe by sailing ship many times and read classical literature on the voyages during the down time. He also traveled in the Caribbean Sea with the US Military when he was young.
In April of 1814 the British had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and were free to focus their attention and military strength against the Americans in North America. The War of 1812 was not going well for the U.S. In August 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg , the British marched on and occupied Washington D. C. They burned several governmental buildings including the White House and the Capitol building.
Many Americans were justifiably enraged and concerned. It appears that around this time William Morgan decided to join General Andrew Jackson’s forces traveling to New Orleans to face British Forces fresh from their defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, and who were then intending to attack and occupy New Orleans in order to cut off US trade routes along the Mississippi River. If successful the British would have stricken a major blow to the US economy and possibly to the continued existence of the Republic itself as a free and independent nation.
Many thought that it was going to be a massacre for the Americans at New Orleans who had amassed a ragtag force of about 4,500 men including ordinary citizens, Militia (of which Morgan was one) , Regular Army and Pirates to face the 7,500 professional , battle hardened and experienced British Troupes acknowledged to be the best fighting force in the world at that time . On January 8, 1815 British forces led by General Edward Pakenham, the brother in law of the Duke of York, attacked the American position in Chalmette just down river from New Orleans. The Battle lasted about 30 minutes. The British suffered over 2000 casualties; the Americans suffered 8 killed and 13 wounded. It remains the greatest land victory in war by Americans to this day.
William Morgan later reported that he had been granted a Battlefield commission to the rank of Captain by General Jackson and that he had helped coordinate the troops of the Pirate Jean Lafitte with the American troops during the battle, most likely because he spoke some French.
William Morgan returned to Richmond ,Virginia after the War of 1812 ended. In October 1819, when he was 44, Morgan married the then 16-year old Lucinda Pendleton, eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Pendleton of Richmond Virginia, the Pastor of one of the largest Methodist Churches there . He reportedly attended Church services in his Captain’s uniform which impressed the young ladies of the Church . The couple had several children together including their surviving children, Lucinda Wesley Morgan and Thomas Jefferson Morgan. He referred to himself as Capt. Morgan.
In 1821 he briefly owned a brewery in York, Upper Canada but his business there was destroyed by a fire and he returned to work as the principal mason on the last home owned by Col. Nathaniel Rochester, founder of Rochester, NY. He left there in 1823 and moved to Batavia, NY to continue his work as a stone and brick mason.
William Morgan, claimed to have become a member of the Secret Society of Masons when he was young and given his lifelong occupation as a stone and brick mason it would be hard to imagine that he had not, at some point during his life, been introduced to the Free Masons by his fellow workers or family, who were also stone and brick masons. After moving to New York Morgan reportedly joined the LeRoy, NY, Masonic Lodge, but also sought admission to the newly formed lodge in Batavia, where he was then living, and he was able to gain admittance to the Lodge there as a visitor.
At that time Western New York was the frontier of the country and was filled with the type of diverse people one might expect to find in a frontier area. It was home to many traveling evangelist, self proclaimed prophets and a host of dreamers and pioneers. The Erie Canal was under construction nearby and the land was being converted from a wilderness area to farmland.
The decision on who was able to join the local Lodge in Batavia was made by Masonic leaders in Rochester, NY and they rejected Morgan's application. It was reported later that it was because of his heavy drinking, an odd charge because many Freemasons were then known for their heavy drinking. It seems more probable that he had experienced some type of disagreement with one or more members of the local Lodge there while living and working in Rochester. In any event, he was denied admission to the new Masonic Lodge in Batavia.
Morgan was, at that time, in financial difficulty. His brewery in Canada had been destroyed; at near 50 years of age he had to re-enter his old trade as a stone and brick mason. No doubt a difficult task. He had a wife and a young child to support and was a proud man who had been a hard worker in difficult trades all of his life. As his later life would reveal, he was a determined man who was not afraid of work, was extremely intelligent, industrious and resourceful. He had learned to be flexible and to roll with the punches rather than to be crushed by them.
He was later (and is still) defamed by disgruntled Masonic writers who portrayed him to be an uneducated and illiterate drunkard, a liar and a scoundrel. However, as the following letter written by Morgan to his wife shows he certainly did not appear to be as the disgruntled Masons described him:
“Batavia Sept 4th 1824
Dear wife,
How shall I begin? O! afflicting thought, ere this reaches you my daughter, my Harriett will be no more, (if I can depend on what I have heard) my Harriett did I say? My all I might have said, for I feel like there was nothing left to supply her place; with delightful anticipation I had looked forward to her for consolation & comfort in the wane of life. But alas! It has pleased the divine disposer of all human events to take her to himself. Grant me I pray O! God a spirit of Christian resignation to all Thy holy dispensations. My dear wife I pray God that you may be able to bear this loss better than I do, or can. It is a great loss to me – Let us take consolation from this consideration, none could have given her to us but the Lord, none could have taken her from us but the Lord – The Lord hath given her, and the Lord hath taken her, and blessed be the name of the Lord.
My health was (I thought) a little better, but I cannot tell what effect this shock may have on it. – I feel thankful and do rejoice with you on account of your safe deliverance and good health. I had not rec. your letter nor Mr. D.s when he passed here – All with whom I advised opposed my attempting to go to Rochester in my present feeble debilitated situation – My Doctors opinion was that it would inevitable produce a relapse that would probably terminate my existence – Those are the reasons together with some others (tho these are sufficient) which prevented my attempting to come – I trust they will be satisfactory. I shall expect a few lines from you next Sunday. Do not conceal my letters from Kessrs, Green & Wilson families lest some suspicious wicked spirit should propagate some falsehood to my injury and your peace of mind. –
O! for the exhilarating support & sweet consolations of religion I pray God.
My sorrows I then might asperage,
In the ways of religion & truth;
I might learn from the wisdom of age
And be cheerd by the sallies of youth.
Religion what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word
‘Tis more precious than silver or gold
Or all that this earth can afford.
Mr. Loring has a few little jobs to do about his House. I wish to do them for him if my strength will permit and asked Mr. D if he would try to send me some tools for that purpose – he told me he thought he could contrive them to Brook-Port, I only spoke to him about a Trowel, I find I shall want others, ask him if he will be good enough to send a bag that is in your room as far as Brock-Port, I can get them from there any day – I wish to make Loring some compensation for his great kindness if I possibly can. I do not recollect to have seen my Water-Pot after we left Dr. Strong, if it was left there please send for it.
It gives me great pleasure to hear that you are so pleased with the people where you live and that they are so very kind to you – every favour confered on you is honored confered on me.
Have you seen ‘Esq. Walker I believe is the name – I mean the gentleman who lived in the Country & made Brick. –
My attention is arrested by the Toling of the Bell – On inquiring the cause I am told that an infant 17 months old has just left this Tabernicle of clay. Who knows but she and Harriett are traveling companions to the Shores of eternity. As they wing their way through the vast unmeasured, and unmeasurable space me thinks I hear them praising their heavenly father for having taken them from this lower world, taken them from the tempter and from temptation, snatched them as a brand from the fire. Methinks I hear the sanctifyd millions who surround the throne of the great. I am with joyous acclamations waiting the approach of my little infant on the way thro’ the trackless expanse
Saying. –
Child of the summer, charming rose,
No longer in confinement lie,
Arise to light, thy form disclose
Rival the spangles of the sky.
Thy rains are gone the storm is over
Winter retired to make the way
Come then, thou sweetly blushing flower
Come, lovely stranger come away.
The sun is drip’d in beaming smiles
To give thy beauties to the day
Young zephyrs wait, with gentlest gales
To fan thy bosom as they play.
Since all the downward track of time
Gods watchful eye surveys
O! who so wise to choose our lot,
And regulate our ways?
Since none can doubt his great love
Immeasurably kind;
To his unwing, gracious will,
Be every wish resigned
Good when he gives, supremely good,
Nor less when he denies,
Ev’n crops from his sovereign hand
Are blessings in disguise
Then let us take consolation from considerations of this kind my dear wife, always taking care to discharge our duty towards all that is committed to our care, so that we escape self-condemnation and leave the rest with God. May I hope that Harriett yet lives. You will think me tedious, perhaps troublesome. I have the subject, but I shall not live to forget it.
Do excuse me for saying a word or two more on the subject of self-condemnation – Of all the afflictions on earth self-condemnation is the greatest and on the other hand a self approving conscience affards us the most perfect & lasting happiness.
We need not regard the oppressions and calumnies of mankind when we know that our God knows that we are innocent – The innocent are often censured and the guilty escape, but a steady perseverance in well doing will bring us at last to the full enjoyment of ceaseless and imperishable happiness.
I shall if able to be at Rochester on the 14th inst. as a witness at Hearts tryal. If you can send the tools please send my old hat for if I spoil this I shall not be able to purchase one shortly & 3 or 4 days work in the Mortar would comfortably do it.
Please send for Mr. Dyer when you receive this, you may let him read it, there are no secrets in my letters. – Mr. Bates is just starting, & I must close this as usual
Yours affectionately
W. Morgan
Mrs. Luccinda Morgan
Please give my gaugles to
Mr. D. & put my old blue
pantaloons in the Bag”
This was written by a man who was neither an uneducated nor an illiterate person . The original letter is in his own handwriting ,which was very poor- a fact that would later turn out to be highly significant.
Neither does it appear that he was a drunkard or scoundrel as he was accused of being by the same misguided and disgruntled Masonic writers. In fact when later questioned about Morgan this is what his neighbor, Samuel D. Greene , had to say about him:
“At the time I joined the Masons, Captain William Morgan was my neighbor, and I was in free and daily intercourse with him. He was a man of fine personal appearance, about fifty years of age, of remarkable conversational powers, so that he was everywhere known as a good talker. He was a native of Culpepper County, Virginia, and was, by trade, a bricklayer; but for several years before coming to Batavia, he had been otherwise employed. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and brought his title of Captain from the army during that war. He had served under General Jackson, at New Orleans, and was a man of fine soldierly bearing.
He was gentlemanly and agreeable in his manners. In later years the Masons charged him with being a drunkard, but in my judgment, without reason. He was a convivial man, and at times would drink freely, according to the fashions of the day. I myself have seen him when he had been drinking, more than was good for him; but he was not what, in the general acceptation of the word at that time, or at any time, would be called a drunkard. It was the period of hard and general drinking, and certainly it ill becomes Freemasons to charge men on this score, for no body of men among us have done more, from generation to generation, to promote drinking habits than they."
William Morgan was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, on or about August 7, 1774. His parents appear to have been killed by Indians and he was then tied in to close family in the area. He was apprenticed as a mason in bricklaying and stone cutting in Hap Haphazard, Madison County, Virginia. He also worked as a mason in Richmond, Virginia and later in Lexington, Kentucky. He traveled to Europe several times and traveled with the military in Central America. He was about 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighed about 135 lbs and had brown hair and a high forehead. He was a Methodist. In those days there were several William Morgan's in Virginia .Some of whom were orphaned by Indian attacks. (John Morgan : killed by Indians 11 APR 1777 in Cheat River, Monongalia, Va, his children Hugh Morgan b: 1 JAN 1759 in Cheat River, Monongalia, VA, William Morgan b: ABT 1777, James MORGAN b: 1755-01-10 in Cheat River, Monongalia, Virginia ,http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/morgan/17215/ ) .
John Day, a Freemason, of Gordonsville, Kentucky, is quoted as saying that Morgan served his apprenticeship as a bricklayer with Day's brother at Hap Hazard Mills, Madison County, Virginia. Reaching his majority, Morgan is said to have left for Kentucky, returning to Virginia after four years. He worked on the Orange County Courthouse, Virginia, and subsequently moved to Richmond.
Morgan said that he traveled to Europe by sailing ship many times and read classical literature on the voyages during the down time. He also traveled in the Caribbean Sea with the US Military when he was young.
In April of 1814 the British had defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and were free to focus their attention and military strength against the Americans in North America. The War of 1812 was not going well for the U.S. In August 1814, after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg , the British marched on and occupied Washington D. C. They burned several governmental buildings including the White House and the Capitol building.
Many Americans were justifiably enraged and concerned. It appears that around this time William Morgan decided to join General Andrew Jackson’s forces traveling to New Orleans to face British Forces fresh from their defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, and who were then intending to attack and occupy New Orleans in order to cut off US trade routes along the Mississippi River. If successful the British would have stricken a major blow to the US economy and possibly to the continued existence of the Republic itself as a free and independent nation.
Many thought that it was going to be a massacre for the Americans at New Orleans who had amassed a ragtag force of about 4,500 men including ordinary citizens, Militia (of which Morgan was one) , Regular Army and Pirates to face the 7,500 professional , battle hardened and experienced British Troupes acknowledged to be the best fighting force in the world at that time . On January 8, 1815 British forces led by General Edward Pakenham, the brother in law of the Duke of York, attacked the American position in Chalmette just down river from New Orleans. The Battle lasted about 30 minutes. The British suffered over 2000 casualties; the Americans suffered 8 killed and 13 wounded. It remains the greatest land victory in war by Americans to this day.
William Morgan later reported that he had been granted a Battlefield commission to the rank of Captain by General Jackson and that he had helped coordinate the troops of the Pirate Jean Lafitte with the American troops during the battle, most likely because he spoke some French.
William Morgan returned to Richmond ,Virginia after the War of 1812 ended. In October 1819, when he was 44, Morgan married the then 16-year old Lucinda Pendleton, eldest daughter of the Rev. Joseph Pendleton of Richmond Virginia, the Pastor of one of the largest Methodist Churches there . He reportedly attended Church services in his Captain’s uniform which impressed the young ladies of the Church . The couple had several children together including their surviving children, Lucinda Wesley Morgan and Thomas Jefferson Morgan. He referred to himself as Capt. Morgan.
In 1821 he briefly owned a brewery in York, Upper Canada but his business there was destroyed by a fire and he returned to work as the principal mason on the last home owned by Col. Nathaniel Rochester, founder of Rochester, NY. He left there in 1823 and moved to Batavia, NY to continue his work as a stone and brick mason.
William Morgan, claimed to have become a member of the Secret Society of Masons when he was young and given his lifelong occupation as a stone and brick mason it would be hard to imagine that he had not, at some point during his life, been introduced to the Free Masons by his fellow workers or family, who were also stone and brick masons. After moving to New York Morgan reportedly joined the LeRoy, NY, Masonic Lodge, but also sought admission to the newly formed lodge in Batavia, where he was then living, and he was able to gain admittance to the Lodge there as a visitor.
At that time Western New York was the frontier of the country and was filled with the type of diverse people one might expect to find in a frontier area. It was home to many traveling evangelist, self proclaimed prophets and a host of dreamers and pioneers. The Erie Canal was under construction nearby and the land was being converted from a wilderness area to farmland.
The decision on who was able to join the local Lodge in Batavia was made by Masonic leaders in Rochester, NY and they rejected Morgan's application. It was reported later that it was because of his heavy drinking, an odd charge because many Freemasons were then known for their heavy drinking. It seems more probable that he had experienced some type of disagreement with one or more members of the local Lodge there while living and working in Rochester. In any event, he was denied admission to the new Masonic Lodge in Batavia.
Morgan was, at that time, in financial difficulty. His brewery in Canada had been destroyed; at near 50 years of age he had to re-enter his old trade as a stone and brick mason. No doubt a difficult task. He had a wife and a young child to support and was a proud man who had been a hard worker in difficult trades all of his life. As his later life would reveal, he was a determined man who was not afraid of work, was extremely intelligent, industrious and resourceful. He had learned to be flexible and to roll with the punches rather than to be crushed by them.
He was later (and is still) defamed by disgruntled Masonic writers who portrayed him to be an uneducated and illiterate drunkard, a liar and a scoundrel. However, as the following letter written by Morgan to his wife shows he certainly did not appear to be as the disgruntled Masons described him:
“Batavia Sept 4th 1824
Dear wife,
How shall I begin? O! afflicting thought, ere this reaches you my daughter, my Harriett will be no more, (if I can depend on what I have heard) my Harriett did I say? My all I might have said, for I feel like there was nothing left to supply her place; with delightful anticipation I had looked forward to her for consolation & comfort in the wane of life. But alas! It has pleased the divine disposer of all human events to take her to himself. Grant me I pray O! God a spirit of Christian resignation to all Thy holy dispensations. My dear wife I pray God that you may be able to bear this loss better than I do, or can. It is a great loss to me – Let us take consolation from this consideration, none could have given her to us but the Lord, none could have taken her from us but the Lord – The Lord hath given her, and the Lord hath taken her, and blessed be the name of the Lord.
My health was (I thought) a little better, but I cannot tell what effect this shock may have on it. – I feel thankful and do rejoice with you on account of your safe deliverance and good health. I had not rec. your letter nor Mr. D.s when he passed here – All with whom I advised opposed my attempting to go to Rochester in my present feeble debilitated situation – My Doctors opinion was that it would inevitable produce a relapse that would probably terminate my existence – Those are the reasons together with some others (tho these are sufficient) which prevented my attempting to come – I trust they will be satisfactory. I shall expect a few lines from you next Sunday. Do not conceal my letters from Kessrs, Green & Wilson families lest some suspicious wicked spirit should propagate some falsehood to my injury and your peace of mind. –
O! for the exhilarating support & sweet consolations of religion I pray God.
My sorrows I then might asperage,
In the ways of religion & truth;
I might learn from the wisdom of age
And be cheerd by the sallies of youth.
Religion what treasure untold
Resides in that heavenly word
‘Tis more precious than silver or gold
Or all that this earth can afford.
Mr. Loring has a few little jobs to do about his House. I wish to do them for him if my strength will permit and asked Mr. D if he would try to send me some tools for that purpose – he told me he thought he could contrive them to Brook-Port, I only spoke to him about a Trowel, I find I shall want others, ask him if he will be good enough to send a bag that is in your room as far as Brock-Port, I can get them from there any day – I wish to make Loring some compensation for his great kindness if I possibly can. I do not recollect to have seen my Water-Pot after we left Dr. Strong, if it was left there please send for it.
It gives me great pleasure to hear that you are so pleased with the people where you live and that they are so very kind to you – every favour confered on you is honored confered on me.
Have you seen ‘Esq. Walker I believe is the name – I mean the gentleman who lived in the Country & made Brick. –
My attention is arrested by the Toling of the Bell – On inquiring the cause I am told that an infant 17 months old has just left this Tabernicle of clay. Who knows but she and Harriett are traveling companions to the Shores of eternity. As they wing their way through the vast unmeasured, and unmeasurable space me thinks I hear them praising their heavenly father for having taken them from this lower world, taken them from the tempter and from temptation, snatched them as a brand from the fire. Methinks I hear the sanctifyd millions who surround the throne of the great. I am with joyous acclamations waiting the approach of my little infant on the way thro’ the trackless expanse
Saying. –
Child of the summer, charming rose,
No longer in confinement lie,
Arise to light, thy form disclose
Rival the spangles of the sky.
Thy rains are gone the storm is over
Winter retired to make the way
Come then, thou sweetly blushing flower
Come, lovely stranger come away.
The sun is drip’d in beaming smiles
To give thy beauties to the day
Young zephyrs wait, with gentlest gales
To fan thy bosom as they play.
Since all the downward track of time
Gods watchful eye surveys
O! who so wise to choose our lot,
And regulate our ways?
Since none can doubt his great love
Immeasurably kind;
To his unwing, gracious will,
Be every wish resigned
Good when he gives, supremely good,
Nor less when he denies,
Ev’n crops from his sovereign hand
Are blessings in disguise
Then let us take consolation from considerations of this kind my dear wife, always taking care to discharge our duty towards all that is committed to our care, so that we escape self-condemnation and leave the rest with God. May I hope that Harriett yet lives. You will think me tedious, perhaps troublesome. I have the subject, but I shall not live to forget it.
Do excuse me for saying a word or two more on the subject of self-condemnation – Of all the afflictions on earth self-condemnation is the greatest and on the other hand a self approving conscience affards us the most perfect & lasting happiness.
We need not regard the oppressions and calumnies of mankind when we know that our God knows that we are innocent – The innocent are often censured and the guilty escape, but a steady perseverance in well doing will bring us at last to the full enjoyment of ceaseless and imperishable happiness.
I shall if able to be at Rochester on the 14th inst. as a witness at Hearts tryal. If you can send the tools please send my old hat for if I spoil this I shall not be able to purchase one shortly & 3 or 4 days work in the Mortar would comfortably do it.
Please send for Mr. Dyer when you receive this, you may let him read it, there are no secrets in my letters. – Mr. Bates is just starting, & I must close this as usual
Yours affectionately
W. Morgan
Mrs. Luccinda Morgan
Please give my gaugles to
Mr. D. & put my old blue
pantaloons in the Bag”
This was written by a man who was neither an uneducated nor an illiterate person . The original letter is in his own handwriting ,which was very poor- a fact that would later turn out to be highly significant.
Neither does it appear that he was a drunkard or scoundrel as he was accused of being by the same misguided and disgruntled Masonic writers. In fact when later questioned about Morgan this is what his neighbor, Samuel D. Greene , had to say about him:
“At the time I joined the Masons, Captain William Morgan was my neighbor, and I was in free and daily intercourse with him. He was a man of fine personal appearance, about fifty years of age, of remarkable conversational powers, so that he was everywhere known as a good talker. He was a native of Culpepper County, Virginia, and was, by trade, a bricklayer; but for several years before coming to Batavia, he had been otherwise employed. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and brought his title of Captain from the army during that war. He had served under General Jackson, at New Orleans, and was a man of fine soldierly bearing.
He was gentlemanly and agreeable in his manners. In later years the Masons charged him with being a drunkard, but in my judgment, without reason. He was a convivial man, and at times would drink freely, according to the fashions of the day. I myself have seen him when he had been drinking, more than was good for him; but he was not what, in the general acceptation of the word at that time, or at any time, would be called a drunkard. It was the period of hard and general drinking, and certainly it ill becomes Freemasons to charge men on this score, for no body of men among us have done more, from generation to generation, to promote drinking habits than they."
The Disappearance of Morgan
Things in Morgan’s life were then difficult. Morgan lived in the home of John Davids, whom he had met in March 1826. His other associates at that time were David C. Miller, editor of the Batavia Advocate newspaper and Russell Dyer. Later associates were George W. Harris, a silversmith who lived with the Morgan’s for a time, and Edward Giddins, an innkeeper who also was the keeper of the abandoned Fort Niagara and its Magazine (where Morgan was later imprisoned by the local Mason’s). Giddins was additionally responsible for running the ferry at that point across the Niagara River to Canada.
A few days after July 5, 1826, Morgan reportedly told a local Mason in Batavia Lodge, that he planned to publish a book on certain Secrets of Masonry. This likely started the panic among the local rank and file Masons. Many of Morgan’s associates at that time reported that he was writing another book containing something about the story of Prince Madoc of Wales, and eleventh century seafarer who landed ships and personnel in Mobile Bay and established Forts and settlements along the Mississippi River and tried to bring Christianity to the native Indians.
Morgan had allegedly learned of a plot by the Rothschild family , acting through a group known as the Illuminati , to control the Federal government by taking control of American the Masonic Lodges of the Scottish Rite. The same as the Rothschild family had done in England after the Battle of Waterloo . Morgan was one of the first to try and warn the World of the Illuminati ,according to Fagan, and that is why he was kidnapped and supposedly killed by them. For an excellent explanation of that incredible story one can listen to the 1968 speech of Myron C. Fagan titled "History of the Illuminati" and the part about Morgan can be found at the 27:40 to 30:00 mark in the following:
Things in Morgan’s life were then difficult. Morgan lived in the home of John Davids, whom he had met in March 1826. His other associates at that time were David C. Miller, editor of the Batavia Advocate newspaper and Russell Dyer. Later associates were George W. Harris, a silversmith who lived with the Morgan’s for a time, and Edward Giddins, an innkeeper who also was the keeper of the abandoned Fort Niagara and its Magazine (where Morgan was later imprisoned by the local Mason’s). Giddins was additionally responsible for running the ferry at that point across the Niagara River to Canada.
A few days after July 5, 1826, Morgan reportedly told a local Mason in Batavia Lodge, that he planned to publish a book on certain Secrets of Masonry. This likely started the panic among the local rank and file Masons. Many of Morgan’s associates at that time reported that he was writing another book containing something about the story of Prince Madoc of Wales, and eleventh century seafarer who landed ships and personnel in Mobile Bay and established Forts and settlements along the Mississippi River and tried to bring Christianity to the native Indians.
Morgan had allegedly learned of a plot by the Rothschild family , acting through a group known as the Illuminati , to control the Federal government by taking control of American the Masonic Lodges of the Scottish Rite. The same as the Rothschild family had done in England after the Battle of Waterloo . Morgan was one of the first to try and warn the World of the Illuminati ,according to Fagan, and that is why he was kidnapped and supposedly killed by them. For an excellent explanation of that incredible story one can listen to the 1968 speech of Myron C. Fagan titled "History of the Illuminati" and the part about Morgan can be found at the 27:40 to 30:00 mark in the following:
The abduction and kidnapping of William Morgan by 69 local rank and file Masons from New York, led by one Richard Howard, ( an English Illuminist who had been ordered by the Illuminati to kill Morgan ) ,who participated in some way, the scheme has been well documented and will not be repeated here in detail. Suffice it to say that after his abduction by local Masons he was eventually taken to Canandaigua where he was briefly imprisoned on some trumped up charges, released and then carried by horse drawn carriage over 100 miles to Fort Niagara the point where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario. There the Niagara River forms the boundary between the USA and Canada. He was imprisoned for a few days in the Fort’s abandoned Powder Magazine (which was controlled by his old friend and innkeeper Edward Giddins) while local low-level and visiting higher level Masons supposedly decided what to do with him. From there the stories of what happened to him vary greatly. http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/morgan_theory.html and http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/morgan_notes.html#7
Some say that he was drowned in Lake Ontario or the Niagara River by the Masons, others that he was released in Canada after having been offered the option of a farm at Breede’s Hill or a horse and $500 in gold, Morgan took the gold in exchange for leaving the country forever. Colonel King, John Whitney, Richard Howard, Jared Darrow and Sammuel Chubbuck accompanied Morgan across the river. Given the horse and gold, Morgan was offered an escort which he declined. John Whitney’s deposition on these events can be found in Rob Morris' William Morgan; Or Political Anti-masonry, Its Rise, Growth and Decadence, p. 195. [3]
Sheriff Elli Bruce hired two trackers to find Morgan. They reported that Morgan had travelled to the settlement that would later become Hamilton, then to York where he visited Richmond Hill and finally to Point Hope where he sold his horse and embarked on a steamer bound for Boston, Massachusetts. [p. 137, supra] . Sheriff Bruce was later removed from office by Governor Clinton on September 26, 1827 and received a 28 months sentence. An appeal failed and he was jailed from May 20, 1829 to Sept 23, 1831. Loton Lawson received two years in the County jail; Nicholas G. Chesebro, one year , Edward Sawyer, one month; and John Sheldon, three months. Colonel William King died before trial. All of them made depositions prior to trial date; confessing their guilt in holding Morgan against his will for five days but denyed that he had accompanied them against his will or that they had killed him. https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/morgan_notes.html
The scheme which had started the whole incident was when Morgan and David C Miller (the local newspaper publisher) along with a few others, decided to publish one of the books Morgan was writing, a Book revealing some of the secrets of Freemasonry.Morgan, William (1827), Illustrations of Masonry by One of the Fraternity Who has Devoted Thirty Years to the Subject: "God said, Let There be Light, and There was light", Batavia, N.Y.: David C. Miller Morgan (who was Welch) was reportedly writing another book based in part on Prince Madoc of Wales. Morgan may have been attempting to explain that Prince Madoc had found examples of even earlier, or Biblical, influences in America. http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/IL/sain1872.htm#060181-162
It is interesting to note that when Lewis & Clark later were exploring the land included in the Louisiana Purchase they found a fair skinned tribe of Indians some with light hair and blue and green eyes living on the Missouri River in the Dakota Territory (now North Dakota). These were the only Indians known to organize their villages into “streets” and to build permanent residences. They spoke an Indian language which included many Welch words. They were called themselves the Mandan (possibly a mispronunciation over 600 years of their founder, Madoc). They believed that they were originally descended from a man who had been saved during a great flood which had killed most people in the world. He was spared by riding out the great flood in a big canoe. He landed on a mountain top and released a dove to look for dry land. When the dove returned with a willow branch in his beak the man knew the flood was receding.
Meriwether Lewis was later said to have been delivering information to President Thomas Jefferson when he was killed or committed suicide in on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Some accounts state that he was carrying information with him in the journals of his travels with Clark which proved ancient, pre-Columbian, possibly biblical influences in America. Lewis died in 1809, only 15 years prior to Morgan writing his books. Some of the men that took part in the expedition were undoubtedly still traveling around the frontier of the country at that later time when Morgan was in Batavia.
Meriwether Lewis was later said to have been delivering information to President Thomas Jefferson when he was killed or committed suicide in on the Natchez Trace in Tennessee. Some accounts state that he was carrying information with him in the journals of his travels with Clark which proved ancient, pre-Columbian, possibly biblical influences in America. Lewis died in 1809, only 15 years prior to Morgan writing his books. Some of the men that took part in the expedition were undoubtedly still traveling around the frontier of the country at that later time when Morgan was in Batavia.
About one year after Morgan’s disappearance the body of a badly decomposed Canadian fisherman, a Timothy Monroe (sometimes spelled Munro or Monro), was found on the shores of Lake Ontario. At first the body was thought to be that of William Morgan, but was later established to be that of Monroe. Many believed that it was Monroe's, thought to be accidentally drowned body, that had been chained and sank by the Masons in Lake Ontario as a substitute for Morgan. One of the reasons some use to argue that the body pulled from the Lake was that of Morgan was that it had a double set of teeth, as did Morgan. What is an interesting speculation is that a double set of human teeth is today believed by some to be a distinguishing genetic characteristic of the descendants of the Nephilim. http://thenephilimchronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/giants-with-double-row-of-teeth-flavius.html . Many believe that it was actually Timothy Monroe who was thrown overboard and killed by the Masons and in Lake Ontario , not William Morgan. As stated previously, some Masons envolved denied that Morgan was ever killed. Ellis, Edward Sylvester (1920). Low Twelve: "By Their Deeds Ye Shall Know Them". New York, NY: Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. p. 247.
In the meantime there was a terrible backlash from the general population against the Freemasons due to the kidnapping and disappearance of Morgan. The number of Masonic Lodges in New York dwindled from over 500 in 1826 to just 65 by 1846 with a resulting membership decrease from 30,000 to 300 in that state alone . Over 2,000 Masonic Lodges closed in the USA. A new Political Party was formed, the Anti-Masons, and it ran a candidate for President of the USA, William Wirt, and it even carried one State. It was the first 3rd Political Party in the Country. Some of the Masons that had participated in Morgan’s abduction were put on trial and some were convicted and served jail time.
After Morgan had been first abducted several local Masons went to his home in Batavia in an attempt to retrieve all of his remaining manuscripts but the manuscripts were missing. The newspaper publisher, David Miller, had hired a local man, Oliver Cowdery, to prepare a Printers Manuscript of Morgan’s book. Morgan’s handwriting was very poor, a fact which made it necessary for Morgan and Cowdery to work together to prepare the printers manuscript for publication.
The fact that Cowdery assisted Morgan is strengthened by something Morgan’s widow related in a statement made on September 22, 1826. She is quoted as saying: “that the papers (of Morgan)… were numerous and formed a very large bundle: they were written in the handwriting of (her husband), excepting a few, which were written by a person who sometimes assisted her husband in copying, or taking down as he dictated to him.” Samuel D. Greene’s 1870 book, “The Broken Seal”, pg 89-90.
Oliver Cowdery was second cousins to a man who lived in nearby Palmyra, NY, a Joe Smith, who had in March of 1826 been convicted in Court in New York of being a “money dancer” or “glass looker”. That was an outlawed practice in New York where a man would put “seer stones” in a hat and charge landowners a fee to look into the hat in order to find gold and buried treasure on their property.
After Morgan’s disappearance it is most likely that Cowdery was in possession of Morgan’s handwritten manuscripts. Cowdery was then reportedly living with his brother, Warren, in Batavia. It has been alleged that Morgan’s book on the expose of Masonic Rites and Rituals was eventually published by David Miller after Morgan’s disappearance. However, Miller may have published another book when he saw the opportunity of publishing a supposedly another book written by Morgan , but which was not.
In the meantime there was a terrible backlash from the general population against the Freemasons due to the kidnapping and disappearance of Morgan. The number of Masonic Lodges in New York dwindled from over 500 in 1826 to just 65 by 1846 with a resulting membership decrease from 30,000 to 300 in that state alone . Over 2,000 Masonic Lodges closed in the USA. A new Political Party was formed, the Anti-Masons, and it ran a candidate for President of the USA, William Wirt, and it even carried one State. It was the first 3rd Political Party in the Country. Some of the Masons that had participated in Morgan’s abduction were put on trial and some were convicted and served jail time.
After Morgan had been first abducted several local Masons went to his home in Batavia in an attempt to retrieve all of his remaining manuscripts but the manuscripts were missing. The newspaper publisher, David Miller, had hired a local man, Oliver Cowdery, to prepare a Printers Manuscript of Morgan’s book. Morgan’s handwriting was very poor, a fact which made it necessary for Morgan and Cowdery to work together to prepare the printers manuscript for publication.
The fact that Cowdery assisted Morgan is strengthened by something Morgan’s widow related in a statement made on September 22, 1826. She is quoted as saying: “that the papers (of Morgan)… were numerous and formed a very large bundle: they were written in the handwriting of (her husband), excepting a few, which were written by a person who sometimes assisted her husband in copying, or taking down as he dictated to him.” Samuel D. Greene’s 1870 book, “The Broken Seal”, pg 89-90.
Oliver Cowdery was second cousins to a man who lived in nearby Palmyra, NY, a Joe Smith, who had in March of 1826 been convicted in Court in New York of being a “money dancer” or “glass looker”. That was an outlawed practice in New York where a man would put “seer stones” in a hat and charge landowners a fee to look into the hat in order to find gold and buried treasure on their property.
After Morgan’s disappearance it is most likely that Cowdery was in possession of Morgan’s handwritten manuscripts. Cowdery was then reportedly living with his brother, Warren, in Batavia. It has been alleged that Morgan’s book on the expose of Masonic Rites and Rituals was eventually published by David Miller after Morgan’s disappearance. However, Miller may have published another book when he saw the opportunity of publishing a supposedly another book written by Morgan , but which was not.