William Morgan

Background

William Morgan was born in 1774, in Culpeper, Colony of Virginia (now Virginia, United States). His birth date is sometimes given as August 7, but no definite source for this is cited.

Education

Morgan served an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Madison County, removed to a western state, possibly Kentucky, returned to Orange County, Virginia, and then went to Richmond.

Career

It has been claimed that he fought with Jackson in the War of 1812. For all these as well as for most of the other statements about his life there seems to be no proof and many of them have been denied in the course of the bitter, long-extended controversy over the circumstances of his death.

It is agreed that in 1823 he was in Rochester, New York, and that shortly afterward he went to live in the neighboring town of Batavia as a brick-and-stone mason. It has been asserted that at this time he was a respectable though not distinguished member of the community and, on the other hand, that he was a drunken knave. It has been denied that he was ever properly initiated into Freemasonry but there is no doubt that he gained admittance to the order and took an active part in its proceedings and that, on May 31, 1825, at Leroy, New York, he became a Royal Arch Mason.

The next year there were rumors that he was writing a book, to be published by David C. Miller of Batavia, in order to expose the secret ritual of the Masonic order. The records of the copyright office show that on August 14, 1826, he made copyright registration of the title of the book, Illustrations of Masonry. That summer he was several times sued and imprisoned for small debts.

On September 11, arrested on a charge of petty theft, he was taken to Canandaigua to answer the charge. He disappeared soon after, and was believed to have been kidnapped and killed by Masons from western New York.

Achievements

• William Morgan was a central figure in the anti-Masonic agitation, whose disappearance and presumed murder ignited a powerful movement against the Freemasons, a fraternal society that had become influential in the United States.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Mysteries of Free Masonry Containing All the Degrees of the Order Conferred in a Master's Lodge

Connections

About 1819, William Morgan was married to Lucinda Pendleton.

Wife:

Lucinda Morgan (Pendleton)

Daughter:

Lucinda Wesley Morgan

Son:

Thomas Jefferson Morgan