As Morgan Lewis became a clergyman there is more information about him available on the internet than there is for most ancestors.

He graduated at St John’s College, Cambridge and consequently a potted history is available on http://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/Documents/acad/intro.html . The entry for him reads as follows:

Adm. sizar at ST JOHN'S, May 8, 1779. S. of John, of Nethey, Radnorshire. B. there. School, Shrewsbury. Matric. Michs. 1779; Scholar, 1782; B.A. 1783; M.A. 1786. Ord. deacon (Chester) June 6, 1784; priest (Lincoln, Litt. dim. from London) May 22, 1785. V. of Great Sampford with Hempstead, Essex, 1801-34. Married and had issue. Died May 22, 1834, at his residence at Lambourne, Essex. (St John's Coll. Adm., IV. 359; G. Mag., 1834, II. 440 (b).)

I spent a lot of time looking for Nethey but it appears that this is an anglicised spelling of a Welsh name which I have found as Neuddu (in the baptism reords for 2 siblings), Neiddu and Nuddy. It would appear that this is a farmhouse somewhere near the A470 between Rhayader and Llangurig but in the district of Saint Harmon. The references to Chester and to Lincoln appear to be indicating which Bishops carried out the Ordinations.

It seems curious that for a period he was both Vicar of Great Sampford and Curate at Lambourne, particularly as the two parishes are 25 miles apart and motorised transport was not available! However, from parish registers of the time one gets the impression that it is generally the curate that does most of the work and it appears that he spent most of his time at Lambourne.

In 1808 at Lambourne he married Margaret Oram from the Parish of Chigwell.

During much of his period as Curate at Lambourne the Rector was Robert Sutleffe (or Sutliffe). Robert’s daughter, Judith, was the third wife of Morgan’s son Henry.

Lambourne Church

Morgan Lewis’ gravestone, one of the more substantial graves in the churchyard.

I have attempted to decipher the inscription on the gravestone but some of it is too weathered to read.