Threedecks Forum

Following the capture of John Callis in 1576 examinations were carried out in the Cardiff area and list of pirates and their associates drawn up:

http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT7/SP12/112_%281577%29/SP12_112_05_f10v.htm
http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT7/SP12/112_%281577%29/SP12_112_05_f11.htm

Unsurprisingly the list is headed by John Callis but does the third name on the list John Morgan alias Vaughan suggest the Morgans were involved in piracy long before Henry Morgan?

It would be interesting if you could establish a link between the two, but Morgan is quite a common Welsh name so it might not be possible.
However I don't consider him a pirate and I don't believe his contemporaries did either, remember that Henry Morgan was governor of Jamaica, he certainly didn't consider himself a pirate and operated under a letter of marque as a privateer or legally as commander under martial law.
Even after being replaced as governor he remained a member of the Jamaican Legislature.

As I understand it in the original Letter of Marque granted to Henry Morgan it did not include the right to attack cities, therefore as he attacked both Puerto Principe and Porto Bello in 1667-68 he carried out piratical acts. Letters of Marque granted from 1670 onwards allowed for attacks on cities, so the sack of Panama was legal.

Wikipedia notes that 'Henry Morgan was born around 1635 in Wales, either in Llanrumney, Glamorgan or Pencarn, Monmouthshire'. If Llanrumney, which is now a suburb of Cardiff, was the birthplace of Henry Morgan, evidence of earlier pirate activity by the Morgan family in the Cardiff area does seem significant.