Henry Vaughan (Royalist)
Sir Henry Vaughan the elder (1587? – 1660/61?) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1621 and 1644. He was a Royalist leader during the English Civil War. He was extremely tall, 6 ft 7 to be precise.
Vaughan was the son of Walter Vaughan of Golden Grove, and settled at Derwydd, Llandybie in Carmarthenshire. He was a younger brother of John Vaughan, 1st Earl of Carbery.[1]
In 1620, he was High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire[1] In 1621 he was elected Member of Parliament for Carmarthen. He was re-elected in every election until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament.[2]
In April 1640, Vaughan was elected MP for Carmarthenshire in the Short Parliament and again in November 1640 for the Long Parliament.[2] From November 1642, Vaughan began raising a regiment in Carmarthenshire to fight for the Royalist cause under his nephew, the Earl of Carbery. He was knighted by the King at Oxford on 14 January 1643, and was disabled from sitting in parliament on 5 February 1644. He was Major-General of the Royalist forces in Pembrokeshire from 1643 until he was defeated at Pill in February 1644 by the Parliamentary leader, Rowland Laugharne. He left Haverfordwest and went to Carmarthen.
He was captured at Bampton in the Bush and taken to London, where he was brought before the house at the same time as the Prisoners from the Battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645, and was sent to the Tower of London [1] where he was a prisoner, allegedly as late as 1659, although he was reported on as a potential Royalist activist in Carmarthenshire in 1658. He made his will when living at Derwydd on 27 November 1660 and was dead before a probate inventory of his estate was made on 5 January 1661, prior to proof of his will at Carmarthen on the 22nd.[3]
Vaughan's fellow prisoner, Sir Francis Wortley, in his "Loyall Song of the Royall Feast kept by the Prisoners in the Towre" (1647), described Vaughan:
- Sir Harry Vaughan looks as grave
As any beard can make him,
Those [who] came poore prisoners to see
Do for our Patriarke take him,
Old Harry is a right true blue,
As valiant as Pendraggon,
And would be loyal to his king
Had King Charles ne'er a rag on.
- Sir Harry Vaughan looks as grave
Vaughan's son, Sir Henry Vaughan the younger, was MP for Carmarthenshire for some years after the Restoration.
References
- 1 2 3 Dictionary of Welsh Biography - Vaughan Family
- 1 2 Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp. 229–239.
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 56. Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 170. ISBN 0-19-861406-3.Article by Lloyd Bowen.
- Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
- British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website
External links
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Robert Mansell |
Member of Parliament for Carmarthen 1621-1629 |
Succeeded by Parliament suspended until 1640 |
| Preceded by Parliament suspended since 1629 |
Member of Parliament for Carmarthenshire 1640-1644 |
Succeeded by Sir John Lloyd, 1st Baronet |