Richard Morgan (Ceylonese judge)

{{Short description|Ceylonese lawyer}}

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = Hon. Sir

|name = Richard Morgan

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|office = Acting Chief Justice of Ceylon

|term_start = 1874

|term_end = 1874

|order2 = 13th

|office2 = Queen's Advocate of Ceylon

|term_start2 = 1 January 1863

|term_end2 = 1876

|predecessor2 = Henry Byerley Thomson

|successor2 = Richard Cayley

|office3 = Acting Deputy Queen's Advocate of Ceylon

|term_start3 = 1 May 1862

|term_end3 = 1 January 1863

|office4 = Acting Queen's Advocate of Ceylon

|term_start4 = 16 April 1861

|term_end4 = 1 May 1862

|term_start5 = 19 November 1857

|term_end5 = 1858

|office6 = Judge of the District Court of Colombo

|term_start6 = 6 November 1860

|term_end6 = 16 April 1861

|term_start7 = 1858

|term_end7 = 21 May 1859

|term_start8 = 1 October 1856

|term_end8 = 1 January 1857

|office9 = Acting Senior Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Ceylon

|term_start9 = 1 January 1860

|term_end9 = 6 November 1860

|office10 = Acting Second Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Ceylon

|term_start10 = 1 January 1857

|term_end10 = 19 November 1857

|birth_date = 21 February 1821

|birth_place = Colombo, Ceylon

|death_date = 27 January 1876 (aged 54)

|death_place = Colombo, Ceylon

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|nationality = Ceylonese (Sri Lankan)

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|residence = Whist Bungalow

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Sir Richard Francis Morgan (21 February 1821 – 27 January 1876){{cite book |title=Reports of Cases Heard and Determined by the Supreme Court of Ceylon: Sitting in Appeal in the Year 1877 |date=1878 |publisher=Columbo Print. Office |page=291 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T0hHAQAAMAAJ&q=Sir+Richard&pg=PA291 |accessdate=16 April 2019 |language=en}} was a Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) lawyer, who served as the 13th Queen's Advocate of Ceylon and acting Chief Justice of Ceylon. He was the first Asian in the British Empire to receive a Knighthood and first Ceylonese to be a member of the Governor's Executive Council and was an unofficial (Burgher) member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon. He was the Crown Advocate who prosecuted famed bandit Saradiel.{{Citation | author1=Amerasinghe, A. Ranjit B | title=The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka : the first 185 years | year=1986 | publication-date=1986 | publisher=Sarvodaya Book Pub. Services|isbn=978-955-599-000-4}}

Sir Richard was the 11th and youngest child of Owen Richard Morgan, port magistrate of Colombo, and Behrana Lucretea Lourensz. He was educated at the Colombo Academy.{{cite book |last1=Walford |first1=Edward |title=The County Families of the United Kingdom Or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland |date=1876 |page=693 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wt2wGQa8iDUC&pg=PA693 |accessdate=16 April 2019 |language=en}}{{cite journal |title=The Genealogy of the Dutch Burgher Union |journal=The Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union |pages=62–64 |url=http://thedutchburgherunion.org/genealogy/ancestry-m/JDBU%201918%20Vol%2011%20No%203-4%20p62-65%20-%20Morgan%20Ancestry%281%29.pdf |accessdate=16 April 2019}}

Morgan was knighted in 1874, while serving as Crown Advocate of Ceylon.{{cite web |title=The London Gazette 21 July 1874 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/24115/page/3621 |website=thegazette.co.uk |publisher=The London Gazette Publication date:21 July 1874 |access-date=7 January 2022}} He was made acting Chief Justice of Ceylon, after E. S. Creasy had returned to England on sick leave.[http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18787077#pstart137549 India and the East], The Maitland Mercury & Hunter River General Advertiser, 22 August 1874, p.2 His son was Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hillebrand Morgan.