VAUGHAN, JOHN (Siôn Grythor ; d. 1824), artist and violinist,
and a native of Conway. W. D. Leathart says that he used to play the violin to the accompaniment of the harp at some of the meetings of the Gwyneddigion Society of London, c. 1776. It was he who painted the portrait of Owen Jones (Owain Myfyr, q.v.), which used to hang in the rooms of the Society. He d. in 1824 at a great age.
His brother, WILLIAM VAUGHAN, described by Leathart as a native of Conway, was one of the earliest members of the Society. Leathart says that he was looked upon as ‘a dandy of the first order, a distinction he was not a little proud of’, and adds that he was related to lady Mostyn, mother of the Sir Thomas Mostyn, who d. in 1831. This lady Mostyn was Margaret, daughter of Hugh Wynn, D.D.; she was heiress of Bodysgallen (near Conway), Plas-mawr (Conway), Bodidris (Denbighshire), and of the Vaughan house (q.v.) of Corsygedol (Merioneth). William Vaughan d. at Hammersmith, c. 1827, at a great age.
Bibliography:
- Leathart, Origin and Progress of the Gwyneddigion Soc. (London, 1831);
- M. O. Jones, Byw. Cerdd. Cymr.;
- Cymm., 1951, 96, 117.
Author:
Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952), Aberystwyth
