Family and Education

b. c.1600, 5th but 3rd surv. s. of Owen Vaughan of Llwydiarth by Catherine, da. and h. of Maurice ap Robert of Llangedwyn, Denb. educ. I. Temple 1618, called 1635, assoc. bencher 1659. unm. suc. nephew Herbert 1650.2

Offices Held

J.p. Mont. 1624-6, 1643-9, Mar.-July 1660, chairman of accounts commission 1646, sequestrator by 1646-?48; commr. for assessment, Mont. and Merion. 1647-8, Mont. 1657, Jan. 1660, disbandment, Mont. 1647, N. Wales assoc. 1647, militia, Mont. and Merion. 1648, N. Wales Mar. 1660; sheriff, Denb. 1658-c. Nov. 1660; custos rot. Mont. Mar.-July 1660, dep.-lt. 1661-d.3

Biography

Vaughan’s ancestors had held property in Montgomeryshire since the 14th century, but they came into prominence only in Tudor times and no other member of the family sat in Parliament. A younger son, Vaughan became a lawyer, but laid claim to Llwydiarth after his brother’s death in 1625. His nephew was a Roman Catholic and a Royalist in the Civil War; hence Vaughan himself, though an Anglican, became an active supporter of Parliament, maintaining a garrison of musketeers in his house to the terror of the countryside. As principal sequestration agent in Montgomeryshire, he was accused of peculation. A recruiter to the Long Parliament, he was imprisoned at Pride’s Purge. After succeeding in an estate valued at £1,800 p.a., he was described as ‘one of the wealthiest persons in all Wales that is childless’. During the later years of the Interregnum, he was suspected of royalism, and was believed to have been party to a plot to overthrow Cromwell. He was arrested by John Manley during Booth’s rising and imprisoned in Shrewsbury for some weeks. He had designs on the Merioneth seat in 1660, but was surprisingly again arrested ‘as being dangerous to the peace of the nation’ and did not stand.4

After the dissolution of the Convention, Vaughan was involved in a dispute over the militia assessment. He was alleged to have said that there would be a Parliament soon, and that the constable would know then what power deputy lieutenants had. From this it was inferred that he agreed ‘with the Long Parliament that King and Council cannot raise men and arms without consent of Parliament’. However, Vaughan’s sufferings in the closing months of the Interregnum outweighed both his earlier political record and these alleged slights, and he was elected for Montgomeryshire in 1661. During his five months in the Cavalier Parliament, no committee work can be ascribed to him with certainty, due to the presence in the House of John Vaughan. He was buried in the Temple Church on 8 Oct. 1661. Under the terms of his will his estates eventually passed to Edward Vaughan III, a kinsman, though not of the same paternal stock.5

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

• 1. Secluded at Pride’s Purge, 6 Dec. 1648, readmitted 21 Feb. 1660.
• 2. DWB; Trans. Cymmrod. Soc. 1938, p. 155; Cal. Comm. Comp. 1627.
• 3. Mont. Colls. vi. 280; CSP Dom. 1645-7, pp. 461, 491; Cal. Comm. Adv. Money, 995.
• 4. Mont. Colls. v. 399; Cal. Comm. Comp. 1626-8; Trans. Cymmrod. Soc. 1938, pp. 155-6; CSP Dom. Add. 1625-49, p. 647; Thurloe, i. 749; A. H. Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales, 113, 122, 162, 167; Cal. Wynn Pprs. 358; HMC Portland, iii. 221.
• 5. CSP Dom. 1660-1, pp. 582, 594-5; Temple Church Recs. 15.