MONTROSE MORGAN. 



673 



are in high estimation for our dock-yards. The 

 chief manufactures are those of woollens, made 

 from the fleeces of native sheep, and consisting 

 mostly of flannels. Farmers and cottagers make 

 these flannels, and they are collected by a sort of 

 middlemen, who bring them to the market at 

 Welshpool, whence they are distributed through, 

 out the kingdom under the name of Welsh flannels. 

 The borough and market-towns of Montgomery- 

 shire are, Montgomery (population of parish, 1188); 

 Machynlleth (population, 2381); Newtown, (popu- 

 lation, 4550) ; Welshpool (population, 4533) ; 

 Llanedloes (population, 4189) ; Llanfyllen (popu- 

 lation, 1836); and Llanfair (population, 2687.) 

 The county jail and house of correction are at 

 Montgomery, where the quarter sessions are held. 

 The assizes are held in the spring at Welshpool ; 

 in the winter at Newtown. The county returns 

 one member to parliament ; the boroughs another. 

 Population of the county in 1831, 66,482. 



MONTROSE; (called provincially Monross, 

 supposed from the Gaelic Moinh, back, and Ross, 

 promontory,) an ancient royal burgh and seaport 

 town of Scotland, in the county of Forfar, distant 

 from Edinburgh seventy and from Dundee thirty 

 miles north-east. It is situated on a peninsula 

 formed by the German ocean on the east, the South 

 Esk river on the south, and by a large expanse of 

 this river, called the Basin of Mont rose, on the 

 west. The basin is nearly dry at Low water, but 

 during high water it presents the appearance of a 

 vast lake, surrounded by numerous country seats, 

 and finely cultivated fields, and forming altogether 

 a very attractive scene. The town is well built, 

 and consists chiefly of one spacious main street, 

 from which smaller streets diverge. Among the 

 public edifices are, the town-house, a neat build- 

 ing, with an arcade below, and rooms for public 

 business over it ; the old parish church, to which a 

 tower, surmounted by a spire, was attached in 

 1835, said to form the highest steeple in Scotland; 

 St John's church, made a parish church in 1835; 

 St Peter's Episcopal chapel in the Links, founded 

 in 1722; the Lunatic asylum, erected in 1780, and 

 considered one of the best institutions of the kind 

 in Scotland ; the Academy, erected in 1814 ; a 

 spacious seminary erected in 1832, and a commo- 

 dious new-jail erected in 1833. In 1828-9, a mag- 

 nificent suspension-bridge, 432 feet in length, was 

 thrown across the South Esk, designed by captain 

 Samuel Brown, R. N., and finished at an expense 

 of 20,000. The harbour on the east side of the 

 bridge is commodious, and furnished with good 

 quays. It is a port of the custom-house, and in- 

 cludes the havens and creeks from Bervie Brow to 

 the Tay. Two light-houses, with fixed lights, 

 were erected on the north side of the river in 1818, 

 by which vessels are enabled at night to make the 

 harbour with safety. The number of vessels be- 

 longing to the port amounted in 1837 to 105, re- 

 gistering about 11,050 tons. Most of these are 

 engaged in the importation of flax from the Baltic, 

 and a number in bringing coal from Newcastle and 

 Sunderland. The export trade consists chiefly of 

 grain, cured salmon, herring, and cod. The manu- 

 factured goods are sent coastwise to London, Glas- 

 gow, Dundee, &c. A large steamer now sails 

 regularly between Montrose and London. The 

 principal manufactories of the town are those of 

 sail-cloth, sheeting, and linen, with which are con- 

 nected several flax spinning-mills. Ship-building 

 is carried on to some extent. Montrose abounds 



in benevolent and charitable institutions, and in 

 associations for religious, literary and scientific pur- 

 poses. Between the town and the sea, there are 

 extensive links or downs, where the game of golf 

 is played, and where horse races used occasionally 

 to take place. A small neat theatre, opened for the 

 amusement of the inhabitants, has been of late years 

 converted into dwelling houses. The town is 

 lighted with gas, and abundantly supplied with water, 

 brought in pipes from a distance of three miles. 

 Montrose unites with Foifar, Brechin, Arbroath, 

 and Bervie, in sending a member to parliament. 

 The population of the parish of Montrose, which 

 extends about three miles on either side, was in 

 1831, 12,055; and in 1841, 15,096 James 

 Graham, the celebrated marquis of Montrose, was 

 born in the burgh in 1612. Andrew Melville, the 

 father of Presbytery in Scotland, was born in the 

 neighbourhood, and received the early part of his 

 education at Montrose. 



MORGAN, WILLIAM, F. R. S., actuary of the 

 society for equitable assurances on lives and sur- 

 vivorships, was born at Bridgerid, in Glamorgan- 

 shire, on the 6th of June, 1750 ; and educated for 

 his father's profession, which was that of medicine. 

 By the kind assistance of his maternal uncle, Dr 

 Price, he was enabled to enter as a student at Guy's 

 and St Thomas's hospitals. There he continued 

 for three or four years, pursuing his medical studies 

 with great zeal, industry, and success. In 1770, 

 Dr Price published the first edition of his work on 

 " Reversionary Payments, on Schemes for provid- 

 ing Annuities for Widows and for Persons in Old 

 Age, and on the method of calculating the Value 

 of Assurances on Lives." This caused Dr Price 

 to be consulted by many societies instituted for 

 these purposes, as well as in cases for the valuation 

 of individual reversionary interests; and he sug- 

 gested to his nephew, that it might possibly be of 

 advantage to him to turn his attention to these 

 subjects. He accordingly commenced the study of 

 mathematics about this time (1772), and made an 

 extraordinary and rapid progress in them. In 

 February, 1774, he was, at the recommendation of 

 Dr Price, appointed to the office of assistant 

 actuary to the equitable society ; and succeeded to 

 the more important office of actuary, in February, 

 1775, the president and directors of which society 

 had frequently consulted Dr Price on the manage- 

 ment of their affairs. Here he bad an opportunity 

 of following the peculiar bent of his genius, and 

 he pursued his mathematical studies with great 

 ardour and an enthusiastic love of science. In the 

 year 1779, he published the first edition of his 

 work on the Doctrine of Annuities and reversion- 

 ary Payments, containing rules for solving all ques- 

 tions concerning the value of annuities and rever- 

 sions depending on any one, two or three lives, or 

 on any survivorships among them, most of which 

 had never before been answered. These solutions 

 were all derived from the hypothesis of De Moivre. 

 In 1781, he published an Examination of Dr Craw- 

 ford's Theory of Heat and Combustion (the first 

 edition). In 1788, he communicated, through Dr 

 Price, his first paper to the royal society, namely, 

 on the Probabilities of Survivorships between two 

 Persons of any given age, and the method of de- 

 termining the Value of Reversions depending on 

 those Survivorships (from tables of the real proba- 

 bilities of life : this had never been done before). 

 For this paper the president and council adjudged 

 to him the gold medal on Sir Godfrey Copley's do- 

 2 u 



