Genealogy of the Morleys in South Wales: Expansion of the Family in the Nineteenth Century

Morley, John O

Annals of Genealogical Research > Vol. 8, No. 1 (2012)

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Genealogy of the Morleys in South Wales: Expansion of the Family in the Nineteenth Century

John O Morley, Swansea University

Abstract
By the middle of the nineteenth century the Morley family was well established in the counties of Glamorgan and Carmarthen. In the Vale of Neath, the first identified ancestor of this branch of the family, William Morley (L), born around 1726, had several children whose lives have been described previously. This account describes William’s descendants especially his grandson Thomas Morley (N1), whose life is well documented in the parish records. He married Anne Hopkin in Llantwit Juxta Neath in 1803 and they had eight children. Thomas (N1) was originally employed in the coal mines but later he became a fireman and then a doubler in a tinworks. About 1825 he moved with his family to Cwmavon where he worked for the Copper Miners Tinplate Works. His life and the lives of his children, especially his third son Thomas (O1), are described also in this article. At the time of the 1841 census there were only 74 Morleys in Wales with 60 of these living in Glamorgan. A brief account of some of these who were related to the lineal descendants of William Morley (L) is also presented here. Thomas Morley (O1), who is described as an engineer, married Margaret Benjamin in 1844 in Cwmavon and they had two children but sadly Margaret died in April 1848 during a widespread cholera epidemic. Thomas (O1) remarried in December that year to Anne Pierce from Ludgevan (in Cornwall) and together they had a total of eleven children over the next 21 years. In the early 1850s, Thomas (O1) and his family moved from Cwmavon to Pontardawe where he was employed as a roll turner at the Ystalyfera Iron and Tinplate Company. In 1861 he again changed jobs and moved from Ystalyfera to Seaton, near Workington in Cumberland where one of his sons, William Henry Morley, was born. His work at Seaton was short-lived as he rejoined the Ystalyfera Works in late 1862 and remained there for at least another 13 years before moving once again to work in Morriston, Swansea.

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Cite as: John O Morley, "Genealogy of the Morleys in South Wales: Expansion of the Family in the Nineteenth Century," Annals of Genealogical Research Vol. 8, No. 1 (2012) at http://www.genlit.org/agr/viewarticle.php?id=38

Subject areas: Morley Family; Nineteenth Century; Glamorgan; South Wales, UK

Annals of Genealogical Research - ISSN 1555-9904