The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography

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VAUGHAN family, of Trawsgoed (Crosswood ), Cards. Until 1947, when the family residence, Trawsgoed, in the parish of Llanafan, Cards., became the headquarters of the agricultural advisory service for Wales, the Vaughan family could claim continuous residence on the same site for six centuries. Although it is a South Wales family (apart from inter-marriages with Welsh and English families) the pedigree is traced to Collwyn ap Tangno, who is usually associated with Caernarvonshire. It is claimed that the first member of the family to settle at Trawsgoed was ADDA AP LLEWELYN FYCHAN (c. 1200); the older pedigrees agree in stating that he m. Tudo (or Dudo), daughter and heiress of Ieuan Goch of Trawsgoed. Their great-grandson, MORUS FYCHAN AP IEUAN, is said to have stabilised the Fychan, hence Vaughan, as surname. Among the family muniments (in the National Library of Wales) is an indenture of 1547 whereby RICHARDE AP MORIS VAUGHAN, father of MORIS AP RICHARD AP MORIS of Llanafan, in consideration of the intended marriage between the son and Elliw, daughter and heiress of Howell ap Jenkin, covenants, with other persons, to assure to the use of the son and Elliw two messuages, etc.. one of which is ‘the place at Trausgoed’, i.e. ‘Plas Trawsgoed.’ Thereafter the family muniments supply much material as to the succeeding members of the family and the estate (N.L.W. Calendar of Crosswood Deeds, 1927). The first Vaughan to marry a Stedman of Strata Florida appears to have been EDWARD VAUGHAN (d. 1635), who m. Lettice, daughter of John Stedman. (For the probate of the will of Edward Vaughan, see Crosswood Calendar, 59-60). They were the parents of Sir John Vaughan (1603-1674) (q.v.), chief justice.

The eldest son of the chief justice and Jane (Stedman) was EDWARD VAUGHAN (d. 1683), who in 1677 edited his father's Reports. He was member of Parliament for Cardigan, 26 Feb. 1678/9 to 28 March 1681, and was for a short me one of the Lords of the Admiralty. His wife was Letitia, daughter of Sir William Hooker. Their son, JOHN VAUGHAN (1670?-1721), was created (by William III, in 1695) baron of Fethard, Co. Tipperary, and viscount Lisburne, Co. Antrim, in the peerage of Ireland. He m. (1), 18 Aug. 1692, Malet, third daughter of the 2nd earl of Rochester, and (2) Elizabeth (d. Aug. 1716). By his first wife Malet, he was the father of JOHN VAUGHAN, the second viscount Lisburne, and by Elizabeth, the father of WILMOT VAUGHAN, the third viscount; both of them were successively lords-lieutenant of Cardiganshire. Wilmot Vaughan, the third viscount, m. Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Thomas Watson, Berwick-on-Tweed (see index to the Calendar of Crosswood Deeds under ‘Berwick’). The eldest son of this marriage was Wilmot Vaughan, created earl of Lisburne in 1776. The career of their second son, Lieutenant-General Sir John Vaughan (1748?-1795), K.B., is described in D.N.B. He served in Germany, in America (as lieutenant-colonel, 1760-7, and is major-general, 1776-9), and in the West Indies, 1780-2. He was governor of Berwick, 1779-95, commander of the Leeward Islands, and d. at Martinique.

WILMOT VAUGHAN, 1st earl of Lisburne, d. in 1813 and was succeeded as 2nd earl by his elder son, also WILMOT VAUGHAN. The 2nd earl d. unmarried in 1820 and was succeeded by his half-brother JOHN VAUGHAN (1769-1831), 3rd earl of Lisburne, colonel in the army, and Member of Parliament for Cardigan, 1796-1818.

Bibliography:

D.N.B., and the sources listed therein;
Burke's…Peerage;
Debrett;
Nicholas;
N.L.W., Pen. MS. 156 (see W. Wales Hist. Records, i);
N.L.W. Calendar of Crosswood Deeds;
E. D. Jones, ‘The Book of Llandaff,’ in N.L.W. Jnl., iv, 123-57;
Arch. Camb., 1853, 62-7;
W. R. Williams, Parl. Hist.;
Trans. Cymm., 1938, 171-9.

Author:

Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952), Aberystwyth