VAUGHAN, Henry (by 1586-1660/1), of Derwydd, Llandybie, Carm.

Vaughan was a scion of the Golden Grove family which dominated Carmarthenshire politics during the early Stuart period. As a younger son his prospects were not promising, but he acquired local standing through his marriage to the heiress of Derwydd, Llandybie. His wife, Sage, had been married briefly to one of his cousins, and after her father’s death in around 1610 she came into sole possession of an estate of at least 600 acres. Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 2/31. Even allowing for special pleading, Vaughan’s later claim to the parliamentary authorities that ‘the best part of my estate was my wife’s inheritance’ rings true. Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 22/658.

The Vaughan family operated as a cohesive political bloc within Carmarthenshire, and Henry’s parliamentary career was doubtless promoted by his elder brother, Sir John*. Henry was also closely allied to another brother, Walter of Llanelli, and the pair operated as deputy coroners under Sir John in Kidwelly lordship, which was reputed to contain one third of the county’s freeholders. STAC 8/289/7; 8/290/27, f. 3. After his marriage, Vaughan set about enlarging his estates, and achieved armigerous status in about 1617. Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 67/6717. At about this time he became a magistrate in Carmarthenshire, a development which may reflect Sir John Vaughan’s influence. In 1618 Vaughan and Thomas Aylesbury acquired the office of rhaglaw (bailiff) of the Cayo lordship from the Welsh property speculator Richard Budd and his associate Thomas Brinley. C54/2238/12; STAC 8/41/13, f. 2; M. Gray, ‘Mr. Auditor’s Man: the Career of Richard Budd’, WHR, xii. 307-23. Although Aylesbury became a Buckingham dependant, it is unlikely that Vaughan was a member of the favourite’s circle. Instead, his association with the mathematician Aylesbury was cultivated through his brother-in-law, John Protheroe of Nantyrhebog, a scientist and associate of Aylesbury who later claimed an interest in the office of rhaglaw. C78/255/4; PROB 11/144, f. 355; NLW, Derwydd 224; F. Jones, ‘Squires of Hawksbrook’, Trans. Hon. Soc. Cymmrodorion (1937), p. 345. After Protheroe’s death Vaughan was accused of having withheld the profits of his office, and for reneging on debts incurred by Protheroe for which he and his brother Walter had stood as sureties. C78/255/4; C2/Chas.I/C114/48, 2/Chas.I/F37/61; NLW, Derwydd 223-4, 662-70, 720.

In April 1620 Vaughan acquired a stake in the monopoly of the manufacture of coke from coal, along with the courtier (Sir) Giles Mompesson*, Walter Vaughan, Protheroe and local merchant Hugh Grundy, probably in the hope of utilizing the coal and mineral mines owned by the Vaughans in and around Llanelli. CD1621, vii. 340; STAC 8/288/5; M.V. Symons, Coal Mining in the Llanelli Area, i. 30-4. As rumours circulated that the forthcoming Parliament would investigate monopoly patents, Vaughan stood for election at Carmarthen, where he was probably already an alderman, possibly with an eye to defending this grant. Jones, 135. He and Walter Vaughan also witnessed the return of their elder brother Sir John for the county place. C219/37/342, 343v. Vaughan played no discernible role in the parliamentary debates over the patent, however, possibly because the Commons focused its attentions on his co-patentee, Mompesson, rather than the patent itself. CD1621, iv. 107; v. 520; vi. 13, 269; SP14/121/48. He occurred only once in the records of the session, being named to a committee for a naturalization bill (8 May). CJ, i. 614b.

In August 1623 Vaughan was chosen as mayor of Carmarthen, but this did not impede his election as borough Member the following February, a return which technically contravened the Commons’ ruling that mayors should not serve in Parliament. However, perhaps because the borough’s sheriffs had been returning officers at Carmarthen since 1614, the point was overlooked. C219/37/343d; 219/39/267; 219/40/8d; 219/41B/11. Vaughan played no recorded part in this Parliament. His re-election in 1625 was a confused affair, which remained unresolved. He was returned on 24 Apr. 1625, his indenture being witnessed by the mayor and members of the common council, but on 12 May another indenture was submitted in favour of Sir Francis Annesley*, principal secretary in Ireland. C219/39/267, 270. There does not appear to have been a contest, as Vaughan actually witnessed Annesley’s return, so it would seem that he was willing to step aside. His name was initially entered in the Crown Office list, but deleted following the arrival of Annesley’s indenture. However, Annesley’s name was not entered in its stead, presumably because the committee for privileges did not adjudicate on the case before the dissolution. C193/32/16, f. 13v.

Vaughan was returned for Carmarthen Boroughs for the fourth consecutive time in 1626, but once again he failed to make an impression on the parliamentary records. He evidently attended the Commons, however, as he later recalled missing an affray at Carmarthen due to his absence at Westminster. NLW, Derwydd 218; STAC 5/J16/39, f. 1v. During his fifth Parliament, in 1628-9, several Members with his surname sat. The only committee to which the Carmarthenshire man is certainly known to have belonged was ordered to investigate a claim for parliamentary privilege (24 June 1628). CJ, i. 908a, 919a. Most of the speeches attributed to ‘Mr. Vaughan’ in this Parliament concerned legal matters of more interest to the future chief justice, John Vaughan* of Trawscoed, Cardiganshire.

By 1628 Vaughan leased six Carmarthenshire rectories from Lord Henry Percy*; in the 1640s his one-time partner in the charcoal patent, Hugh Grundy, accused him of paying inadequate stipends to his curates. HLRO, main pprs. 1644; NLW, Derwydd 678; Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 1/16. In 1630 he obtained control of the Carmarthenshire estates of Edward [Chichester], 1st Viscount Chichester, a relation through his father’s second marriage. Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 50/5985. He transferred to the county seat in the Short and Long Parliaments, but left the Commons in 1642, joining his nephew, the 2nd earl of Carbery (Richard Vaughan I*), to raise forces for the king. He served as Carbery’s lieutenant colonel, and was appointed sergeant-major-general of south-west Wales in 1643. Disabled from his Westminster seat on 5 Feb. 1644 for attending the rival Oxford Parliament, he was subsequently taken prisoner at Naseby, and languished in gaol for many years. Jones, 136-40. Though his estates were valued at £600 a year, he claimed to have debts of over £3,600, and he was allowed to compound at £500. CCAM, 588, 829; Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 22/658. He had been released from prison by 1659, at which time he was said to have been involved in the Carmarthen election. The State of the Case Betwixt Major-General Rowland Dawkins and David Morgan ... (1659).

In his will of 27 Nov. 1660, Vaughan assigned lands to raise portions for his unmarried daughters, and appointed his eldest surviving son, (Sir) Henry†, as his executor. He was dead by 5 Jan. 1661, when an inventory of his goods was made at Derwydd. Carm. RO, Cawdor (Vaughan) 10/239; NLW, St. David’s PROB 1660/89. His heir represented Carmarthenshire in Parliament at the Restoration.