MORGAN, Lady (SYDNEY OwENsox) ?17S3 1559). A novelist, daughter of Robert Owen son, a theatrical manager. and of his wife, Jane Mill, She Was born in Dublin. on Christ mas Day, 1753. if we are to believe her. Croker mischievously alleged that she was born on the Dublin packet in 1775. Fo• a while she mingled with theatrical people, or with the variegated society frequented by her father in Doblin. Her father's affairs becoming involved, the (lever girl resolved to support the family. first as governess and then as author. In 1812 she married Thomas Charles. Morgan. a distin guished surgeon, who was knighted on the occa Sion. Though the Morgans lived for the most part in Dublin, they made two Continental tours, and often visited London, where they settled in 1839. For her services to literature a Govern ment pension was granted to Lady Morgan in 1837. She died April 14. 1839. Throughout her life Lady Morgan was widely known in soviety for her wit and her affectations. 11er works, com
prising novels, comic operas. travels, and biog raphies, were savagely attacked by the reviewers, but they brought her about £25.000: They were indeed ephemeral. Ailtolig her novels are: Saint ('lair, or the Heiress of Desmond 11504), a sorry imitation of Goethe's Sorrows of Werther: 7'he Wild Irish Girl, a silly rhapsodical book not without descriptive power I 1806) ; Florcncc M'Carthy (1816) and The linricus owl the O'Plaherties (1827). Of her travels. France (1817) was much read and criticised, Her main right to consideration is that she wrote English words for Irish melodies. an example soon followed to their great advantage by Thomas Moore and Stevenson. Consult Fitzpatrick, Lady Morgan (London. 1860), and Memoirs of Lady Morgan (an autobiography), edited by Dixon (London. 1862).