Dr John Morgan was a Bridgwater physician and landowner, who died in 1723. His will left a substantial endowment for the establishment of a school ‘for the education of the sons of decayed tradesmen, resident within the borough’ (alongside a settlement for his widow, Melior). Decayed tradesmen here referred to businessmen, as the will explicitly excluded families on parish relief, i.e. the destitute. The ‘undecayed’ tradesmen would be expected to pay for their children to attend the grammar school, or else get private tuition.
By 1810 the school was held in King Square and in 1816 a large schoolhouse was built on the Mount, to which this plaque is affixed. It could hold up to 300 boys. In the 1850s there are around 150 pupils, of whom 30 were ‘clothed’ by the school.
From this time to 1860 the school took on children of all classes in the town, and taught young and older boys. In 1860, with the opening of various other schools around the town, the decision was made to raise fees and concentrate on the children of the town’s middle classes. Dr Morgan’s became a secondary school in 1871. In 1910 it became an aided secondary school and in 1930, becoming a maintained school, moved to new buildings in Durleigh Road. It was replaced in 1973 by Haygrove comprehensive school.
The plaque was unveiled in October 2014, attended by representatives of the Bridgwater and District Civic Society and the Old Morganians Association.
