George Morgan (merchant)

George Morgan (1743 – March 10, 1810) was a merchant, land speculator, and United States Indian agent during the American Revolutionary War, when he was given the rank of colonel in the Continental Army. He negotiated with Lenape and other Native American tribes in western Pennsylvania to gain their support during the American Revolutionary War. An associate of the Lenape chief White Eyes, Morgan cared for his son George Morgan White Eyes for several years after White Eyes died.

George Morgan was born in Philadelphia to Evan Morgan, an immigrant from Wales, and Joanna Biles. Like his older brother John Morgan, who became a physician and the co-founder of the University of Pennsylvania Medical College, George was likely educated at the classical Nottingham Academy in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (Princeton).

George Morgan worked as a clerk for John Bayton and Samuel Wharton at the mercantile firm Bayton & Wharton in Philadelphia. After receiving inheritance, he became a junior partner at Baynton, Wharton & Morgan in 1760. In 1764, he married John Baynton's daughter Mary. Enjoying the patronage of Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, the firm started to trade with Illinois Country ceded to Great Britain by France after the end of the French and Indian War, using Fort Pitt Trading Post in present-day Pittsburgh as a forward base. Morgan made frequent business trips to the frontier and developed good relations with Native Americans. Lenape made Morgan a member of their tribe naming him Tamanend in honor of one of their great warriors.

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