VAUGHAN, John II (c.1654-?1713), of the Inner Temple

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Feb. 1701 - 1705

Family and Education

b. c.1654, 2nd s. of Howel Vaughan of Glan-y-Llyn, Merion., and bro. of Edward Vaughan*.  educ. Wem sch.; St. John’s, Camb. matric. 23 Mar. 1674, aged 19; I. Temple 1675, called 1680.  unm.1

Offices Held

Attorney-gen. for Anglesey, Caern. and Merion. 1700–13.2

Biography

Vaughan proved to be just as firm a High Churchman as his elder brother Edward, on whose nomination he was returned for Montgomery Boroughs in January 1701. The following month he was listed as likely to support the Court in agreeing with the supply committee’s resolution to continue the ‘Great Mortgage’. Classed with the Tories by Robert Harley* in December 1701, he was listed as having voted for the motion of 26 Feb. 1702 vindicating the Commons’ proceedings in the previous Parliament in the impeachments of the four Whig lords, and was thought by Lord Nottingham (Daniel Finch†) in March 1704 to be a likely supporter in the proceedings upon the Scotch Plot. Later the same year he was forecast as a probable supporter of the Tack, and voted for this measure on 28 Nov. Aside from a grant of leave of absence for three weeks on 18 Jan. 1703, he is impossible to distinguish in the Journals from the several other Vaughans in the Commons. In the 1705 election he was edged out by the last-minute intervention of the Whig Charles Mason*, petitioning without success. Subsequently there appeared ‘a general aversion’ in the county to his being put up again, and he seems to have let drop any parliamentary ambitions. In July 1713 his successor was appointed attorney-general of the North Wales circuit, and, it being highly improbable that he would have been dismissed for political reasons, he may well have died by this date.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. J. E. Griffith, Peds. Anglesey and Caern. Fams. 386.
  • 2. CSP Dom. 1699–1700, p. 405; W. R. Williams, Parlty. Rep. Wales, 144.
  • 3. Bull. Bd. of Celtic Studies, xx. 298–9; Luttrell, Brief Relation, v. 624; PRO 30/53/8/108; W. R. Williams, Gt. Sess. Wales, 120–1.