Morgan

Morgan, LADY, novelist, was born (Sydney Owenson) in Dublin on the Christmas-day of 1780 or thereby—‘cold, false, erroneous, chronological dates’ she protests against. Her father, a theatrical manager, fell into difficulties; and the clever, bold, lively young woman resolved to support the fortunes of the family, first as governess, afterwards as author. She had had ‘somewhat mysterious relations’ with at least one admirer, Sir Charles Ormsby, when in 1812 she was married off-hand to Thomas Charles Morgan, M.D. (1783-1843), whom the Lord-lieutenant knighted for the occasion. For the next quarter of a century, excepting two long visits to the Continent, the pair made Dublin their home; but in 1837 Lord Melbourne gave her a pension of £300, and next year they removed to London. Here she died on 16th April 1859, having continued busy with her pen and her tongue to the last. Her twenty-two works—rattling novels, verse, travels, &c.—include St Clair (1804), The Wild Irish Girl (1806), O'Donnell (1814), France (1817), and Italy (1821). Her silly but not unamusing Memoirs were edited by Hepworth Dixon (2 vols. 1862).