Family and Education

1st s. of Roger Vaughan by Margaret, da. of Sir William Vaughan of Talgarth, Brec. m. Margaret, da. of Richard Monington of Herefs., at least 1s. John.1

Offices Held

J.p. Rad. from c.1573, Brec. from c.1591, Herefs. from c.1591; sheriff, Rad. 1576-7, Brec. 1585-6, 1595-6; dep. lt. Rad. by 1601.2

Biography

The Vaughans of Clyro were a branch of a clan with wide ramifications, through frequent intermarriage and common descent, in Herefordshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire. They owed their position in Radnorshire to judicious purchases and leases from the dissolved abbey of Cwmhir, and Vaughan’s own house was former monastic property.3

Since 1553 the representation of Radnorshire and its boroughs had, for the most part, been shared between the families of Lewis of Harpton and Price of Mynachdy, with their subordinate branches. It may have been his kinship with the sheriff, Edward Price, that induced Roger Vaughan to challenge this. At any rate in the Star Chamber action brought against the sheriff in 1573 by the defeated candidate, Thomas Lewis of Harpton—Vaughan’s inveterate foe—it was alleged (with some probability) that the return of Vaughan was contrary to the evidence of the voting. When in 1597 Vaughan challenged again for the county seat one of the arguments used against him was that he lived in Herefordshire. After this, the Vaughans of Clyro fade out of the parliamentary picture, but not out of local politics, where ‘the great Vaughan’, as he was known, with an estate reckoned at £1,000 a year and key offices in three shires, remained a formidable figure. His ‘familiar friend’ (Sir) Gelly Meyrick, who was behind his attempt on the county seat in 1597, was alleged to have ‘estated’ his lands in trust to Vaughan a month before the Essex rising, ‘doubting what might ensue’. Vaughan accompanied him to London, but returned before involving himself irretrievably. He was denounced by neighbours as a ‘favourer’ of the rising, a crypto-papist and a shelterer of priests (it is true that a ‘Vaghan’ appears on a list drawn up in the interest of Mary Queen of Scots in 1574 and that his wife and sons were recusants in the reign of James I), with the usual allegations of misuse of his authority, but he appears to have escaped unscathed. He was dead by 1615.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: A.H.D.

Notes

• 1. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 258; Exchequer Proc. Jas. I, ed. T. I. J. Jones (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xv), 33-7.
• 2. Star Chamber, ed. Edwards (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. i), 138-140; Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 237; HMC Hatfield, xi. 43; Neale, Commons, 80-1.
• 3. DWB, 993; Arch. Camb. (ser. 1), iv. 259; D. Mathew, Celtic Peoples and Renaissance Europe, 356; RCAM Rad. 35.
• 4. Star Chamber, loc. cit.; HMC Hatfield, xi. 43, 107, 133; CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 443; Cath. Rec. Soc. Misc. viii, 111; Exchequer, ed. T. I. J. Jones (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xv), 33.