1Ezra S. Stearns, William F. Whitcher and Edward E. Parker, Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the . . ., Vol. 1, p. 56 (1908).
"(I) Miles Morgan emigrated from Bristol, England, to Boston, Massachusetts, in January, 1636. Soon after reaching this country, in company with anumber of other colonists, under the command of Colonel William Pynchon, he set out for western Massachusetts. They were attracted by reports they had heard of the exceedingly fertile meadows in the "ox-bows of the long river" (the Connecticut). Of this company Miles Morgan, though the youngest and the only one under twent-one years of age, soon became second in command. The party settled in what is now the city of Springfield, Massachusetts. They gave it the name of Agawam, which it bore until 1640, when for some unexplained reason the name of Springfield was bestowed. Miles Morgan speedily became one of the most valued men in the colony, an intrepid Indian fighter, a sturdy husbandman, and a wise counsellor in the government. In the practical division of the sumptuary duties of the colony he became the butcher, while Colonel Pynchon was the grocer and justice of the peace. Miles Morgan's allotment comprised the lands now occupied by the car and repair shops of the Boston & Maine railroad, and they remained in the family at least two hundred years before the alienation. In the early days of our country it was customary to seat persons in the meeting-house according to their rank; so when we find that in 1663 Sergeant Miles Morgan was given the third seat from the pulpit in the Springfield meeting-house, that fact sufficiently attests his dignity in the infant colony. There is a pretty romance connected with Miles Morgan's marriage. Captain Morgan, as he soon began to be called, came over in the same ship wth Prudence Gilbert. In fact there is tradition to the effect that it was on her account that he embarked. It is said that he first saw the fair Prudence while he was wandering about the wharves of Bristol, and that he decided at short notice to sail with the ship on which she was going, that he did not even have time to send word to his parents. Her people settled in Beverly, now a suburb of Boston. As soon as Captain Morgan had received his allotment of land in Springfield he started back to Boston on foot with an Indian guide to claim his bride. After the wedding the return trip was made, also on foot, but, in addition to the bridal pair and the Indian, a horse, bought in Beverly, was brought along, which like the Indian was loaded down with the household goods of the newly married couple. The two burden-bearers walked in front while Captain Morgan, matchlock in hand, followed with his bride. The town of Springfield was sacked and burned by Indians in King Philip's war in 1675. Colonel Pynchon being absent, the command devolved upon Captain Morgan. Among the killed was his own son, Peletiah, only fifteen years of age. The housless colony took refuge in the stockade about Morgan's house. A Friendly Indian in Captain Morgan's employ made his escape to hadley, where Major Samuel Appleton, commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts Bay troops happened to be stationed at the time. Major Appleton was able to spare fourteen men, who returned to Springfield, and dispersed the Indians. Eight children were born to Miles and Prudence (Gilbert) Morgan: Mary, Jonathan, David, Peletiah, Isaa, Lydia, Hannah and Mercy. Mrs. Prudence (Gilbert) Morgan died November 14, 1660; more than eight years after, February 15, 1669, her husband married Elizabeth Bliss, of Springfield. They had one child Nathaniel, born June 14, 1671. Captain Morgan died May 28, 1699, aged eighty-four years.".