Morgan, Sylvanus (1620 -1693)

Sylvanus Morgan, born in London in 1620, was brought up as a herald painter. In 1648 he wrote a poem London, King Charles his Augusta, or City Royal of the founders and in 1652 a work on dialling. In 1661 he published The Sphere of Gentry. This is a treatise on heraldry, of great eccentricity and with curious allegorical plates. The work was slighted by Sir William Dugdale, Garter King of Arms, and the other heralds. It was also alleged that it was the work not of Morgan, but of Edward Waterhouse, who seems to have supplied Morgan with information about his own family, but the extreme peculiarity of the work, that makes it a curiosity rather than a serious contribution to the subject, is clearly Morgan’s own. In 1666 Morgan published a supplement entitled Armilogia, sive Chromocritica: the language of Arms by the Colours and Metals. He died on 27 March 1693. His library was sold on 5 April 1693 at Tom’s Coffee-House adjoining Ludgate, and his large collection of heraldic manuscripts passed by marriage to Josiah Jones, herald painter, and were, according to Moule, sold at auction in 1759.