VAUGHAN family, Pant Glas Ysbyty Ifan
the mansion disappeared a long time ago but the 'chapel of Pant Glas ' in the parish church retains its name). The family belongs to the same stock as those of Plas Iolyn, Voelas, Cernioge, and Rhiwlas; the genealogy is to be found in J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees, 44, where, however, it is incomplete and incorrect. THOMAS VAUGHAN (I) was the grandson of Rhys ap Meredydd of Ysbyty Ifan, and was the younger son of Robert ap Rhys; in his will (1534), Robert ap Rhys left his Dol-gynwal lands to ' Thomas Vichan ap Robert ap Rice.' This Thomas Vaughan was twice married, and the following line is descended from his second marriage, with Catherine Conway of Bryn Euryn, whose will was proved in 1588; as William Llyn (died 1580) wrote an elegy on him, he too must have died before 1580. His heir was THOMAS VAUGHAN (II), who is mentioned in cywyddau written by his friend Thomas Prys of Plas Iolyn; he is said to have died in 1654, but this is very doubtful, for a will proved in 1640 suggests that he was already dead. He was succeeded by his eldest son, JOHN VAUGHAN, who was alive in 1640; he, too, is said to have died in 1654 but, again, this is very doubtful, for he is referred to in a document dating from about 1636 as an 'old man' (additionally, it is stated that the estate is worth £400 a year), and according to the pedigree in ' Llyfr Silin ' he was survived by his son Henry; his widow Joan (Townshend, of Shropshire) died at Pant Glas at the end of 1663 or beginning of 1664, at the age of 74. John Vaughan was succeeded by HENRY VAUGHAN (I) who is, almost unanimously, stated to have been killed in the Civil War in the assault on Hopton castle, Shropshire, in the month of February 1644; but the author of The Garrisons of Shropshire, 1642-8, claims that the ' Captain Vaughan ' slain at Hopton was one of the unrelated Vaughans of Shropshire. At any rate, Henry Vaughan was 'deceased' before February 1654/5, when his eldest son became a member of Gray's Inn; his widow, Margaret, daughter of Bonham Norton of Church Stretton (some of that family are in the D.N.B.) died 8 December 1669, at Glyn in Llandrillo-yn-Rhos, at the age of 91. They had four children - not five as stated by Griffith. (1) THOMAS VAUGHAN (III); little is known about him. He became a member of Gray's Inn in February 1645/5; married Lucy, daughter of chief justice Sir John Vaughan, of Trawsgoed, Cardiganshire, and there are several references to him in the Gwydir papers; but the dates of his birth and death are alike unknown - it should perhaps be explained that the Ysbyty Ifan parish registers before 1731 have disappeared. Neither his name nor those of his sons occur in a family will signed in July 1699 and proved the following year, but he was certainly alive in 1681. He had two sons: JOHN (who was living in 1692) and THOMAS (IV); Thomas probably lived to inherit the estate, but by 1697 or 1698 he, too, was dead, for the head of the family in that year was (2) HENRY VAUGHAN (II). There was a ' Henry Vaughan ' who was churchwarden of the parish church at Llandrillo-yn-Rhos in 1677, and as the widow of Henry Vaughan (I) died at Glyn in that parish, it is reasonable to suppose that he also was living there about 1697 - he was sheriff in 1698, when he was referred to as ' Henry Vaughan of Pant Glas,' and so he was called in the will (1699) referred to above, and in the Parochialia of Edward Lhuyd. The date of his death is not known. (3) KATHERINE VAUGHAN died a spinster at Pant Glas shortly after 1700, leaving money for the building of alms-houses for women at Ysbyty Ifan. (4) ANNE VAUGHAN (who was possibly the elder daughter) who married into the Williams family of Marl; as her brothers and her sister died without heirs the Pant Glas lands were absorbed into the Marl estate, and the remainder of the story will be found under that heading.
Another member of the family is deserving of mention, namely RICHARD VAUGHAN (1621 - 1700) - erroneously stated by Griffith to be a son of Henry Vaughan (I), but it is by no means certain who he was. He fought in the Civil War, and was blinded. In July 1663 he was elected one of the ' Poor Knights of Windsor,' and died 5 June 1700, 'in his eightieth year,' in Windsor castle, where he was buried. He left money for the building of an alms-house for men at Ysbyty Ifan.
Author
- Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)
Sources
- Caernarvonshire Historical Society Transactions, 1949, 12-32, and 1950, 104-5, together with the references given therein
- later information from Prof. A. H. Dodd and Mr. Norman Tucker
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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