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Waters Upton memorial inscriptions: Morgan

IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF
SARAH THE BELOVED WIFE OF WILLIAM MORGAN OF WATERS UPTON
who departed this life November 9th 1860
AGED 34 YEARS.
[Illegible]

On the other side of the same chest tomb:

ALSO OF WILLIAM MORGAN,
OF BEFCOTE,
WHO DIED JAN. 2ND 1915,
AGED 85 YEARS.
PEACE, PERFECT PEACE.

The baptism of William Morgan took place at Tibberton on 16 Aug 1829, with parents named as William and Mary Morgan. The 1861 census shows William Morgan, widower, aged 31, farmer of 205 acres, born at Tibberton, residing at Waters Upton with his son William Walter Morgan, age 2, born at Edgmond. By 1871 William had re-married.

THREE CHILDREN OF
John and Elizabeth Morgan of this parish.
ARTHUR, DIED OCTOBER 16TH 1863,
aged 3 years.
SARAH DIED OCTOBER 23RD 1863,
aged 5 years.
GEORGE DIED NOVEMBER 20th 1863,
aged 14 months.
Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid them
not for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

The parents of the three Morgan children who died in 1863 were John Morgan, born about 1835 at Llandysilio, Montgomeryshire, and his wife Elizabeth, born about 1831 at Diddlebury, Shropshire. Elizabeth may have been the Elizabeth Carter whose marriage (along with that of a John Morgan) was registered at Ludlow in the December quarter of 1858.

The couple appear on the 1861 census at Waters Upton, with children Sarah (age 2, born at Munslow) and Arthur (written as Authur, 8 months old, born at Waters Upton). John was employed as a farm bailiff at that time. George Morgan, dying in infancy, never appeared on a census, and his parents seem to disappear from UK census returns after 1861.

An explanation for this is provided by a family tree at Ancestry, which shows John and Elizabeth Morgan living in the USA at Geneva, Ashtabula, Ohio. The 1880 USA census shows the couple with three children born in that state, the birth of the first having taken place in about 1864 (which must have been very soon after John and Elizabeth’s arrival). Records show that John Morgan died at Geneva on 14 Sep 1912.