BIOGRAPHIES

Source:
History of Berks County, Pennsylvania
 in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783,
by Morton L. Montgomery,
Vols. I & II,
publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets,
1894

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David Morgan	DAVID MORGAN was a brother of Col. Jacob Morgan.  He was born on the Morgan homestead and raised on the farm.  He participated in the Revolution by acting on several local committees, being one of the Committee to seize the property of Tories in the county, and one of the Committee to vest the title to forfeited estates.  Upon the decease of his brother, the Colonel, he was appointed to the office of justice of the peace of the district, and he continued to fill his position until his decease.  He always resided at Morgantown, and died there in July, 1812.  Four children survived him, Elizabeth (married to Michael Bower) James, David, and John. Source:  History of Berks County, Pennsylvania in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783, by Morton L. Montgomery, Vols. I & II, publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets, 1894 - Page 253
Jacob Morgan	JACOB MORGAN was the most prominent Revolutionary character of Berks County from 1777 to 1780,and as such brought great credit to the county and great honor to himself.      He was born in the district or shire of Caernarvon, in the northern part of Wales, in 1716, and emigrated with his father, Thomas Morgan, to Pennsylvania some time previous to 1730.  About that time a colony of Welsh people, including Thomas Morgan and his family, migrated up the Schuylkill Valley from Philadelphia to the mouth of the French Creek, and thence along and beyond the headwaters of that creek until they reached the headwaters of the Conestoga Creek, in Caernarvon township.  There they settled and took up large tracts of land.  That section of territory was then a part of Lancaster County, but since 1752 a part of Berks County.  The tract taken up by his father was in the vicinity of Morgantown.  It included the town plan which he subsequently came to lay out in 1770, and which he named after the family, a custom quite common in that day throughout the county.      When the French and Indian War came to affect Pennsylvania in 1755, Jacob Morgan was 39 years old, and until that time had been engaged at farming.  In December of that year, he was commissioned as a captain under the Provincial Government, and he continued actively engaged in this military service until 1760, when he returned home and resumed farming.  For his services he became entitled to 3000 acres of land by proclamation of the King of Great Britain in 1763, but it would seem that he did not take up the land, for in his last will he devised his right to the grant ot four of his children.      When the Revolution began, he was nearly 60 years of age.  In June, 1776, he was selected to represent the county as a delegate to the Provincial Conference, and in July following as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention; and in 1777, upon the creation of the office of Lieutenant of the several counties for the purpose of aiding the Executive Council in effectively prosecuting the war, he was selected by the Council to fill this very important position.  This evidences his distinguished character, for at that time Berks County possessed a number of prominent and influential men.  In the prompt and faithful performance of his duties, he was very successful, the Executive Council in their letters to him frequently complimenting his energy in having the county to promptly fill the numerous order for troops.  He resigned in December, 1780.  While filling this office, he was always recognized as a colonel, and was addressed as such by the Executive Council.      He officiated as a judge of the county for the years 1768 1769, 1772, and from 1774 to 1777; and as a justice of the peace for the southern district of Berks County, which included Caernarvon township, from 1777 to 1791, by appointment for two consecutive terms of seven years each.      A story, illustrating his courage and self-possession at an advanced age, is told of him after his retirement to Morgantown.  About the year 1784, one evening, while seated in his sleeping room on the first floor, three masked men entered and demanded his money or his life.  He refused in a positive manner, and one of his life.  He refused in a positive manner, and one of them struck him on the head with a club, which caused him to fall and roll under the bed.  In falling the table (at which he sat) was upset and the light extinguished.  Just then an indentured girl, "Patty Barefoot," who was in the room, hid from fear behind the bed, took his sword (which lay on the projecting ledge of the partition several feet from the floor and handed it to him, when he arose suddenly, struck out violently in the darkness to the right and left upon the heads and across the backs of the intruders, and thus drove them away.      He died at Morgantown on Nov. 11, 1792, at the age of 76 years, and was buried in the graveyard of the St. Thomas Episcopal Church at that place.  He left a last will, by which it appears that he died possessed of a large estate, including over 700 acres of farming and wood land in Berks County, and the right to over 7000 acres of land by virtue of grants from the Government.      He had two sons, Jacob and Benjamin; and three daughters, Sarah (married to ___ Jenkins), Mary (married to Nicholas Hudson), and Rebecca (married to John Price, an attorney at Reading).  Rachel, a daughter of John Price, was married to Samuel Wetherill in 1788. Source:  History of Berks County, Pennsylvania in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783, by Morton L. Montgomery, Vols. I & II, publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets, 1894 - Page 247
Jacob Morgan, Jr.	JACOB MORGAN, JR.  Jacob Morgan, a son of Jacob Morgan, and commonly known as Jacob Morgan, Jr., was born in Caernarvon township, Berks County, in 1842.  At the age of 16 years, he was appointed an ensign, and served in the French and Indian War at Fort Augusta, then on the extreme northern frontiers of Berks County.  He also accompanied the second expedition against Fort Duquesne; and in 1760, he was a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of Associators, acting as an adjutant under the command of Col. Hugh Mercer.      At an early age he went to Philadelphia, and, after clerking for a while, became a successful merchant.  When the Revolution began, he was a man of prominence.  On Dec. 4, 1776, the Executive Council of Pennsylvania appointed him Colonel of the 1st Battalion of Associators of the City of Philadelphia and Northern Liberties.  He and his battalion were engaged in the Battle of Princeton, and there on the field, he received the sword of his friend, Gen'l. Mercer, while attending him in his dying moments; and shortly afterward they also participated in the Battle of Monmouth.      The Executive Council selected him for the position of Lieutenant of the City of Philadelphia, but he declined this appointment, doubtless, because he contemplated changing his residence to Reading, for I find that, in September, 1777, he became the representative from Berks County in the Board of Executive Council.  This election would indicate that he had moved there some time in April 14, 1778, when he was selected to be the Quartermaster-General of the county, and then, thinking that by accepting this appointment he could render more service to his country, he resigned.  In 1780, he was also appointed Superintendent of the Commissioners of purchases for the army, and of the Wagon-Masters of the State; and he served these three highly responsible positions in a most faithful and satisfactory manner until the close of the Revolution.      Certain deeds, conveying real estate in Berks County to and from him in 1779, describe his residence as of Reading.  The letters to him from the Executive Council, which are published in the Colonial Records, were addressed to him at Reading, and those from him to the Council were dated at Reading, the dates of both extending from 1777 to 1782.      Shortly after the war, he returned to Philadelphia.  A deed from him for land in Berks County, dated in 1791, describes him as a merchant at that place.  He was then, and continued until the time of his decease, engaged in business with his son-in-law, Andrew Douglass, under the firm name of Douglass & Morgan.  It is said that this firm was one of the first to manufacture refined sugar at Philadelphia.      He died on Sept. 18, 1802, in the 61st year of his age, and his remains were interred in the burying-ground of Christ Church, at the corner of Fifth and Arch streets, in which were buried the remains of many distinguished men.      Col. Morgan was married to Barbara Jenkins, of Reading, by whom he had six children: Rachel (married to Andrew Douglass), Elizabeth (married to William Sergeant), George, John, Jacob and Hannah - the last three dying, while young, of yellow fever at Philadelphia in 1793. Source:  History of Berks County, Pennsylvania in the Revolution from 1774 to 1783, by Morton L. Montgomery, Vols. I & II, publ. Reading, PA: Chas. F. Haage, Printer, Seventh and Court Streets, 1894 - Page 250