Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan. With an account of the English settlement of the island of Jamaica онлайн

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Henry Morgan in fact claimed rather close relationship as in his will he made a bequest to his sister, Catherine Lloyd "to be payed into the hands of my ever-honest Cozen, Mr. Thomas Morgan of Tredegar."

Members of his family had already earned much distinction in recent continental wars, notably Sir Thomas Morgan in command of the regiment afterwards known as "The Buffs", who was governor of the fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom in 1594, and General Sir Charles Morgan, who took part in the siege of that place in 1621. Later two of Henry Morgan's uncles, Edward and Thomas Morgan, younger brothers of his father, had become soldiers of fortune under foreign flags. Both won considerable renown in Germany and Holland and eventually attained high rank in England, having returned to engage in the civil war on opposite sides. Edward Morgan, who figures in Dutch records as "Heer van Lanrumnij", entered the royal army and in 1649 was given a commission as Colonel-General of the King's forces in South Wales under the Earl of Carbery. While in Germany he had married Anna Petronilla, the only sister of Johan Ernst, Freiherr von Poellnitz, governor of Lippstadt in Westphalia. When the triumph of the Parliament was seen to be complete, he fled to the Netherlands and afterwards lived in exile for several years with his brother-in-law on the family estates at Aschbach near Bamberg. After the restoration he returned to London to seek official favour and compensation for his losses. In a memorial addressed to Mr. Secretary Bennet in 1663, he asserted that he had forty years experience as a soldier.[3]