People Australia

William Morgan (1764-1828) was a private in the New South Wales Corps when he arrived at Sydney aboard the Neptune in June 1790.

He began living with convict Ellen Fraser after the death of her husband in June 1791; they had five children. Morgan was granted 25 acres at Concord in February 1794 and was discharged from the Corps in November. He was granted a further 55 acres at Concord in July 1795. In November 1798 he was ordered by the court to return some pigs claimed by Fraser to have been her property (she had her own separate property). Although he lost the case the couple continued to live together.

By 1802 Morgan held 100 acres and employed 3 free workers. Morgan and Fraser separated permanently after 1806. In 1809 Morgan leased his Concord farm to his stepson John Fraser and had sold the land by 1814. He was described as a wheelwright and was living in the Windsor area in that year. In 1819 he was employed by John Blaxland as a wheelwright, and was a carpenter at Appin in 1822.

William Morgan was buried at St Luke's Cemetery, Liverpool, on 27 October 1828; his age was given as 64.

* information from Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain’s Grim Convict Armada of 1790 (1993), pp 442-443