Thomas Lawrence - Portrait of William Morgan (1750-1833)

William Morgan, FRS (26 May OS? 1750 – 4 May 1833) was a British physician,

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and statistician, who is considered the father of modern actuarial science. He is also credited with being the first to record the "invisible light" produced when a current is passed through a partly evacuated glass tube: "the first x-ray tube".

Life

He was born in

Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the medieval bridge over the River Og ...

, Glamorgan, son to physician William Morgan and Sarah (sister of

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer, pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the French ...

). William's brother was George Cadogan Morgan. At eighteen he received medical training at Guy's Hospital, London, working also as an

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Amer ...

to pay his way. He did not complete his training, but after one year returned to Bridgend to join his father's practice. He was not popular with his father's patients: they thought him inexperienced and they resented receiving treatment from someone with a deformity—Morgan suffered from a

club foot Clubfoot is a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. In approximately 50% of cases, clubfoot aff ...

. After his father's death he left medicine and in 1774, on the recommendation of his mother's brother, the renowned

, he was appointed Assistant Actuary of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. In February 1775, after the death of John Pocock, he was elected Actuary. By the time he retired on 2 December 1830, 56 years later at the age of 80, he had laid the foundations of the actuarial profession —in fact the term "actuarial" became attached to the profession because of his title. He won the Copley Medal in 1789, for his two papers on the values of Reversions and Survivorships, printed in the last two volumes of the ''

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'', in the field of actuarial science: * "On the Probabilities of Survivorships Between Two Persons of Any Given Ages, and the Method of Determining the Values of Reversions Depending on those Survivorships", 1788–1794 * "On the Method of Determining, from the Real Probabilities of Life, the Value of a Contingent Reversion in Which Three Lives are Involved in the Survivorship". ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London'', vol. 79 (1789) pp. 40–54 He was elected a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Society, in May of the following year. Advised by

Joseph Priestley Joseph Priestley (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, natural philosopher, separatist theologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator, and liberal political theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted exp ...

, a family friend, he developed an interest in scientific experimentation and is credited with being the first to record the "invisible light" produced when a current is passed through a partly evacuated glass tube: "the first x-ray tube". Later in life, through his uncle,

, he became friends with noted radicals, including

Tom Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

and

Francis Burdett Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (25 January 1770 – 23 January 1844) was a British politician and Member of Parliament who gained notoriety as a proponent (in advance of the Chartists) of universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vo ...

. He escaped with only a warning when in 1794, the authorities rounded up members of the movement and charged them with treason. He died at

Stamford Hill Stamford Hill is an area in Inner London, England, about 5.5 miles north-east of Charing Cross. The neighbourhood is a sub-district of Hackney, the major component of the London Borough of Hackney, and is known for its Hasidic community, the ...

on 4 May 1833, and was buried at Hornsey. Other publications: * ''The Doctrine of Annuities and Assurances on Lives and Survivorships'', 1779 * (Discusses the work of

Adair Crawford Adair Crawford FRS FRSE (174829 July 1795), a chemist and physician, was a pioneer in the development of calorimetric methods for measuring the specific heat capacity of substances and the heat of chemical reactions. In his influential 1779 bo ...

) ** – translation into Italian * ''Computation of Premiums for Life Assurance on the Basis of the Northampton Table of Mortality'', manuscript * ''Valuation (Individually) of the Assurance Contracts in Force in 1786'', manuscript * ''Yearly Computation of Expected Deaths and Accounts Showing the State of the Equitable Life Assurance Society According to the Plan Suggested by Richard Price'', manuscript * ''Nine Addresses to the General Court of the Equitable Society Covering the Years 1793 to 1830'', 1833

References

;Attribution *

External links

Royal Society citation

Some family connexions

Catalogue of an exhibition illustrating the history of actuarial science in the United Kingdom
1973 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, William 1750 births 1833 deaths 18th-century Welsh people 19th-century Welsh people People from Bridgend British actuaries British physicists British statisticians Fellows of the Royal Society Recipients of the Copley Medal 19th-century British scientists