Born Caernarvon Townshop, Berks County, he served as as Ensign in the British during the French and Indian War, stationed at Fort Augusta in Northumberland Conty, a fortress that effectively held the Susquehanna Valley for the British colonist and limited French incursions deep into Pennsylvania. He later took part in the second expedition against Fort Duquense (in what is now Pittsburgh), and rose to the rank of Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion of Regulators, serving as an aide to the Battalions commander, Colonel Hugh Mercer. Becoming a resident of Philadelphia after the war, he became a successful merchant. He wholeheartedly threw his support in the cause of Indpendence at the start of the Revolutionary War, and on December 4, 1776 he was appointed by the Philadelphia Executive Council as Colonel and commander of the 1st Battalion of Associators of the City of Philadelphia and Northern Liberties, and later became Colonel of the 3rd Battalion, Philadelphia County Militia.. His command became part of General George Washington's Army, and he fought in the Battles of Princeton and Monmouth. At Princeton, he was with Hugh Mercer, now a General in the Continental Army, as he lay dying from the severe wounds he received in the engagement, and received General Mercer's sword in the last gesture of the General's life. In 1780 he was appointed as Superintendent of the Commissioners of Purchases for the Continental Army, and was the Wagon-Master for the State of Pennsylvania - two duties he performed until the end of the war. Returning to Philadelphia after Independence was won, he engaged in a sugar refinery business (one of the first in the country) with his son-in-law, Alexander Douglass. His father, Jacob Morgan Sr., was a prominent figure in Berks County, and in the Revolutionary War.

Source: History of Berks County, Pennsylvania: in the Revolution, from 1774 to 1783 by Morton Luther Montgomery, Reading PA, 1894.