Religious vocations flourished
in this atmosphere. Edward’s daughter Sylvia, by his first wife, Elizabeth
Smith of Long Ashton, Bristol, became Dame Anastasia of the English
Benedictine Sisters who were exiled in Belgium. Another relative, George
Morgan, became a Jesuit priest.
A portrait of Edward, painted in
1627 when he was already in his 79th year, has a Welsh inscription at one
side,
“Y ddioddeuoedd y oruy”, “He who
suffered, prevailed.”
This was possibly the motto of
the original Abbey but it seems far more likely that Edward intended it as a
record of what he himself had suffered for the faith during his long life.
Edward worked in close
collaboration with his son William, “the younger” , who married Lady Frances
Somerset of Raglan. William was often in the company of Father Robert Jones,
the Jesuit. Records tell us that "Mr Morgan, the younger, of Llantarnam
with whom Jones the Jesuit is very often, sometimes for a month together."
Edward, William and Lady Frances
together undertook to win Wales back to the Catholic faith. They assumed
responsibility for the maintenance of two priests in North Wales and another
two in South Wales. They also helped to found the Jesuit College at the Cwm
near Monmouth. William the younger lived only one year after his father’s
death but his son Edward continued to work for the Catholic cause in the
tradition of his father and grandfather. It is probable that Edward added to
the original Tudor house built from the remains of the Abbey. The Coat of
Arms, which now hangs on the exterior wall above the front door, is dated
1637 which points to some rebuilding at that time.
