This chapter traces the aftermath of the trial at King's Bench and Edward Morgan's pardon. As Cynthia Herrup has written in the context of another early Stuart prosecution, for the families involved, ‘trials do not end with verdicts or even with the punishment or release of defendants’, and this chapter considers the familial epilogues of the Morgan–Egerton affair. It examines Sir John Egerton's initial attempts to continue his offensive against the Morgans and their allies and the subsequent collapse of that effort. It then considers the histories of the Morgan and Egerton families in years following the trial, exploring their different paths which were influenced, sometimes subtly, sometimes more profoundly, by the legacy of the duel. Sir John Egerton would only survive for another three years but his death would spark off what has been described as ‘one of the most celebrated inheritance disputes of the age’. He disinherited his eldest son, Rowland, and turned his estate over to his cousin Edward Egerton, precipitating a titanic legal struggle which eclipsed even the battle over Talacre in its scope and longevity. Edward Morgan (I) only outlived the King's Bench case by a year or so and here too the eldest son was not destined to inherit his father's mantle. Edward Morgan (II) instead allowed his younger brother Robert to take charge of Goldgreave while he pursued the relatively obscure life of a coal entrepreneur. The chapter traces these various developments and demonstrates how issues of honour and litigation remained crucial elements to both these family histories.

As the trial against Edward Morgan stood suspended between the appeal of murder and the trial upon the indictment, Sir John Egerton did not sit idle. As we saw in the last chapter, he revived a lawsuit against Edward Morgan (I) accusing him of defrauding a ‘weake simple man’ in Flintshire. He also commenced another Star Chamber suit (in the name of the Attorney General) against several of the parties who had been involved in the machinations surrounding the coroner's inquest and the return of the trial jury in King's Bench.