Hatchment 2

Jane Colchester was the daughter of  Maynard  Colchester M.P. and Jane Colchester (nee Clarke) of Westbury On Severn, Gloucestershire. She was married to Thomas Morgan and had five children: Thomas b.1727, Jane b.1731, Katherine b.1735, Charles b.1736, and John b.1742. All three sons failed to provide Jane with any grandchildren leaving the estate without a male heir.¹⁰

Jane’s mother (also Jane) was the daughter of Sir Edward Clarke, of St. Peter Cheap and Gutter Lane, London, Master of the Merchant Taylors Company, and Lord Mayor of London 1696. Sir Edward had bought the Brickendonbury Estate in Hertfordshire from the Soames family in 1682 and through Jane’s inheritance Brickendonbury ultimately passed into the control of the Tredegar Estate. The Morgans built extensions to the manor and laid out a fine avenue of trees which links the mansion to Hertford. To this day it is known as the “Morgan Walk”.  George Gould Morgan was the last Morgan to live at the mansion until he died in 1845.¹¹                                

Brickendonbury was then rented to tenants until the 1870s after which through numerous sales between 1878 and 1883 the Morgans finally disposed of the estate.  Jane is buried here in the Morgan Chapel with Thomas, her husband.