The story of Davy Morgan - the thief and murderer hanged in Powys

However much of his life was spent as a criminal in the 17th century in London.

Morgan was born in Brecon in 1669 and moved to London when he was around 18 years old to work as a servant to a Welsh knight.

While the name of the knight is not known it is recorded had soon tired of service and absconded with more than ten pounds of his former master.

Morgan became a housebreaker, pickpocket and shoplifter.

A painting of the London which Davy Morgan lived. Picture: Wikimedia.

Soon he broke into the house of a Venetian ambassador in Pall Mall and made off with 200 pounds worth of plates before being captured and committed to the Gatehouse of Westminster.

Morgan was soon free again and joined his gang of criminals in raiding the house of Doctor Titus Oates in Westminster who was tied ‘neck and heels’ and soon repeated the act while robbing a soldier’s home.

However Morgan did not just rob houses.

He once robbed the infamous London gambler Bully Dawson in a capital gaming house.

Dawson had followed Morgan into a room where the Welshman brandished a pistol and declared ‘I want money sir, for a very extraordinary occasion, therefore deliver what you have without any resistance, for if you make the least noise I’ll shoot you through the heart though I were sure to die on the spot.’

The famous gambler reasoned Morgan was desperate and surrendered 18 guineas before being bound hand and foot.

Dawson’s companions eventually released him and said ‘Dawson, twas a fair nick.'

Pall Mall in London. Picture by Thomas Bowles/Wiki.

While enamouring himself as a good thief with London’s gamblers, Morgan’s life of crime was about to catch up with him and - after stealing more than two thousand pounds in Duke’s Place in London, he had been forced to flee London.

Perhaps Morgan had been headed for home for he is next known to have been in Presteigne.

There he stole the communion plate from the town church but his final crime would prove to be his worst.’

Presteigne's Judge's Lodging in 1910. Picture by Percy Benzie Abery.

Morgan broke into the home of Edward Williams of Presteigne and murdered the man.

Morgan was captured in Bristol and sent back to Radnorshire where he had committed his most serious crime and executed in Presteigne in April 1712, aged 43 years and his body hung in chains.