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CreativeGraces.net - GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH INDEX - Captain Sir Henry MORGAN & the “BIDMEAD Girl” This synopsis reviewed and fully updated by “The Geneal Geologist”, 1 Dec 2016 Additional information, comments and corrections welcome. Captain Sir Henry MORGAN As indicated on the BIDMEAD webpage, there are independent tales surviving along many BIDMEAD family lines (that connect back more than 250 years to a common ancestor, based on research and unknown to each other) that relate some form of connection between Captain Sir Henry MORGAN, Privateer & Governor of Jamaica and the BIDMEAD family. This is true both for BIDMEAD families that were proven on paper historically to be connected and now also lines that were unconnected by research until as recently as 2016. This does suggest that any group of BIDMEAD families that remain unconnected in my One-Name Study that have these tales are likely to be connected to the common tree out of Gloucestershire. In my study, I refer to this group of families as the “Pirate Group”. I have been trying to locate a researcher related to the BIDMEAD family in Wales (possibly Glamorgan area), who had reportedly researched and traced the family line back to Captain Sir Henry MORGAN. The MORGAN family is believed to be traced back to 1089. The researcher may have been in correspondence with the BIDMEAD family in New Zealand in the 1980's, based on my correspondence with them in the same period. This enquiry has been running for more than 30 years without any leads. It is worth noting that there is a BIDMEAD – MORGAN family relationship known from emigrants to Australia, and this is indicated below for completeness. The stories have a similarity, but it not clear if these are misremembered stories from an earlier time as the story along other lines is unlikely to have been preserved if it occurred only around the turn of the C19th in this one branch. Henry MORGAN was reportedly born in Llanrumney (Cardiff) in Glamorgan, Wales in 1635. By 1655 he is noted as having arrived in Jamaica and by 1672 commanding his own privateer against the Spanish in the Caribbean. Becoming a wealthy man, he married his cousin and settled in Jamaica until his death in 1688. His relationship with the BIDMEADs evolves around the theme of a daughter of a BIDMEAD innkeeper running away, presumably with a young Henry. She later returned to her family with a BIDMEAD child. Whether this reported relationship went as far as Henry’s early days in Jamaica, it is unclear, but if true, would provide an estimated birth date for this illegitimate child as 1655 +/- 2 years. There was no acknowledgement of a surviving child in his Will. This date will be used in trying to identify the innkeeper, daughter and child in the BIDMEAD One-Name Study. While it remains unlikely the truth behind this story will ever be known, it remains remarkable that it has survived independently for so many centuries. BIDMEAD MORGAN in Australia & New Zealand · Information from Liz WILLANSKI nee LOKAN, Australia - Richard Bidmead MORGAN, her 2xGGF. Descendants of Richard MORGAN (Bachelor of the Parish of St Michael, Gloucester) & Hester BIDMEAD (m. by Licence at St Catherine, St Mary De Lode 15 Nov 1804). Both parties signed. Son Richard Bidmead MORGAN ("the first", Oct 1808) Gloucester St Michael and daughter Sarah (c1814? = Felix JONES of Bristol, also went to Australia). Richard Bidmead MORGAN ("the first") = Charlotte WILLSON/WILSON (c1823) at St. Leonard, Shoreditch, London in 1848. Their children included 2 boys & maybe also a girl Eileen. Charles (Chas) MORGAN (1849) & Henry Bidmead MORGAN (GGF, Nov 1851 at 29 Little Windmill St., Golden Square, St. James, Westminster, London). This appears to be Richard's second marriage (see below). Richard Bidmead MORGAN ("the first") & family arrived in Adelaide, South Australia on the ship "Shackamaxon" from Cardiff in 1853. Also with another Richard Bidmead MORGAN ("the second", c1831) & Lydia Hester MORGAN (c1834) assumed from a previous marriage occurring sometime between 1825 & 1831. [Lydia married Joseph EDWARDS at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kooringa 22 Aug 1856. They had five children. After Joseph's death Lydia married George DAVIS 16 Jan1882 at her house in Wallaroo.] Family hearsay: Richard MORGAN was born on the family estate of Lilydale, Glamorgan, Wales and given his patrimony because he ran off with the innkeeper’s daughter. Liz's aunt (who also has BIDMEAD as a second name) said that it was important because there is a Sir Henry BIDMEAD in the family. · Rebecca MARTIN - descendant of Richard Bidmead MORGAN's sister, Sarah (nee MORGAN) JONES (1814 - 1871). Her grandfather was Harold Morgan BIDMEADE (1881–1949). The family were originally unaware that his father and grandfather were born JONES, and still have no clue as to why GGF Frederick JONES/BIDMEADE (sic) (1845) changed the family's surname to BIDMEADE. The name change coincided with the family's relocation to New Zealand from South Australia in the late 1870's, and all seven issue of Frederick and his wife Mary Ann were raised there as BIDMEADE. Home Page & Contact Info The outline above is indicative only and not necessarily fully correct or complete. The CreativeGraces family tree can be found here on Ancestry: http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/pt/pedigree.aspx?tid=9072976 This is where you can find the most up-to-date information. Contact me for Guest access.