(1735 - 89), physician, e. s. of Evan Morgan of Philadelphia; London 1760; Edinburgh U. 1761, MD 1763; FRS; 1772 American Phil. Soc.; dir.-gen. American military hospitals 1775 - 7.
1764 Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa, Florence, Rome, Naples ( - 25 Apr.), Rome (by 21 May - 6 Jul.), Bologna (14 Jul.), Padua (24 Jul.), Venice (27 Jul. - 5 Aug.), Parma (10 - 13 Aug.), Milan (15 - 20 Aug.), Turin (24 Aug. - 7 Sep.) [London 31 Oct.]
Towards the end of 1763, after he had received his MD from Edinburgh University, John Morgan of Philadelphia set out with an American colleague, Samuel Powel, on a tour of France, Switzerland and Italy. It lasted ten months, of which his journal (Morgan Jnl.) covers the last four in some detail. His correspondence reveals that he had come to Italy from France, and that he travelled via Genoa, Leghorn, Pisa and Florence to Rome. In the last three places he found himself in the suite of the Duke of York, which brought access to 'all the grand entertainments'. They had travelled from Rome to Naples and back with Martens, son of the Danish consul at Venice (see Mrs Conrad Martens); a 'Morgan' had passed through Capua on 25 April on his way to Rome.1 They were back in Rome by 21 May, when they embarked on a course of antiquities under James Byres with their compatriots, John Apthorp and Thomas Palmer.2 On 8 June Morgan, with Powel, James Martin and a Mr Hayes, had a private audience with the Pope,3 whom he found 'affable and courteous'. Morgan was received into the 'Belles Lettres Society of Rome' and he sat to Angelica Kauffman (NPG Washington), who in 1766 sent him her Self-portrait (untraced) in payment for his medical advice.4 His journal opens on 6 July, the day he and Powel left Rome.
In Bologna they admired Guido Reni's SS Peter and Paul, which Benjamin West was then stealthily copying, and Morgan heard Laura Bassi lecture on 'Light and Colours and Electricity'. Morgan always attended to his scientific interests: in Parma he visited the hospital and the faculty of medicine at the University, meeting the physician Flaminio Torrigiani, and in Padua he discussed medicine with Morgagni, professor of anatomy (whose eight daughters had all entered convents). In Venice they were attended by the British representatives John Murray and Joseph Smith, but in Turin Morgan's desire to see the fortifications led to an incident with Louis Dutens, who was 'of more difficult access than any English Minister we had seen in Italy'. When they had established their worth, however, Dutens treated them respectfully, introducing them to the King of Sardinia and the Royal family, as well as to Mme de St Gilles. But 'being urgent to return to London' they resisted an invitation to a concert given by Lord Mountstuart 'at w'ch all the fine Ladies of Turin are to be present'.
It is evident that Morgan and Powel were determined travellers; when disrespectfully treated by customs at Buffalora, twenty miles from Milan, they returned to Milan and successfully obtained redress, and their coachmen said that their spirited behaviour led to their receiving 'good rooms and deferential treatment'. Morgan's journal concluded with a list of 'Articles Collected by Dr Morgan during his travels', which were shipped from Venice to England; they included ten paintings (one by Albani, the only artist named) and a number of prints after Roman, Bolognese and Venetian masters.
1. ASN cra 1277. 2. Powel 1764 mss. 3. Martin jnl.mss. 4. Copley, Letters, 282 - 4.