Morgan, Joseph

Morgan, Joseph a minister of the (Dutch) Reformed Church, was born of Welsh parentage in 1674, and ordained in 1697 in Connecticut. After settlements at East Chester, N.Y., from 1699 to 1704, and Greenwich, Connecticut, from 1704 to 1708, he became pastor at Freehold and Middletown, N.J., where he served both the Dutch and Presbyterian churches (1709-31). He gave to the former church about three fourths of his services, although he was a member of the Philadelphia Presbytery. A revival of religion followed his labors in 1721. His last settlement was at Hopewell and Maidenhead, N.J., where he preached from 1732 to 1737. Although his library was very small, he seems to have been a studious man and a voluminous author. He was a correspondent of Cotton Mather. One of his Latin letters to Mather, dated in 1721, is still preserved at Worcester, Mass. In addition to several printed sermons, he published treatises on Baptism, Original Sin, Sin its own Punishment, Election, etc. His latter years were sadly overcast with trials and sorrow. In 1728 he was charged with having "practiced astrology, countenanced promiscuous dancing, and transgressed in drink." These charges were not proved. In 1736 he was suspended from the ministry for intemperance, but was restored in 1738. He died in 1740. See Webster, Hist. Presb. Ch.; Corwin, Manual Ref. Ch. s.v. (W.J.R.T.)