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Dismissing the Myths
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Just as history has mixed up Thomas Vaughan and his contemporaries with regard to their military and administrative careers it has done the same with his family life. My research has found no mention of a wife, although a document in the Chancery records in the early reign of Henry VII shows a case of Raulyns Versus Boughchier where it states a Richard Raulyns, son and heir to Alice, late the wife of Thomas Vaughan, Knight.
All Thomas Vaughan’s, who were active at this time (there were five!!) wives are named, an Alice is not one of them. This is intriguing, but it is not proof.
No mention of a wife then, but there are a number of children that are stated as being the offspring of Thomas Vaughan, their names are Elizabeth Vaughan, Harry Vaughan, and Ann Vaughan. History has associated two of these children with Thomas Vaughan so it is easy to see (and is possibly the main reason why) he is thought to hail from Tretower.
Elizabeth and Harry Vaughan can be easily dismissed. Elizabeth Vaughan is Elizabeth Stanley, Lady Monteagle, daugher of Thomas Vaughan of Tretower and Cicely daughter of Morgan ap Jenkin ‘ap Philip’ of Gwent. Her link to Vaughan is in connection with his tomb at Westminster Abbey, its source is Harding’s 1825 book Antiquities of Westminster.
It is the following one reference, that perpetuated the myth that Vaughan was a member of the Tretower family.
“it is not very improbable, that at the expense of Lady Monteagle, this monument, to the memory of her father was erected”
Secondly, Henry Vaughan’s link is also via Vaughan’s tomb, although his parentage is only alluded to. However, the Vaughan/Tretower myth continues through his son, Thomas ap Harry/Parry, into the reign of Edward VI, even William Cecil, Lord Burghley, a relative of Parry, states he has a family connection to Thomas
Vaughan.
However, Anne Vaughan’s connection shows promise.
It is the Heralds Visitation of Wales that states that this Anne Vaughan, was the “sole heir to Thomas Vaughan knt” and if the visitations are correct (they are notably unreliable) and Anne was an only child then she is unlikely to be the daughter of Thomas Vaughan of Tretower, (he had three sons) this offers us the possibility that she was the daughter of our Thomas Vaughan.
Her marriage on the 15th March 1484 to John Wogan of Pembroke, a knight of the King’s Chamber adds some weight to this theory. Just nine months following the execution of Vaughan, and four months after their marriage, Richard III granted Anne and John and their male heirs the manor of Flete and Holbeton in Devon and lands in Ditteridge in Wiltshire. Was this the result of his order to execute her father? If so Richard’s intentions could be seen as providing recourse, giving her security in the form of a marriage and land. Or was she married to Wogan for the same reasons her ‘father’ had married Eleanor Browne?
However, the Wogan family, who were prominent in local government within Wales, had links with the Vaughans of Bradwardine, Anne’s husband John’s great grandfather was William Herbert, and John’s aunt had married Walter Vaughan, Thomas Vaughan of Tretower’s uncle. Such a close connection to the Vaughan family of Tretower does undermine the above theory somewhat.
Did Thomas Vaughan have any children? I do find it hard to believe that a man of Vaughan’s standing was not married and had no children prior to his marriage in 1460. Richard Raulyns and Anne Vaughan both look promising as candidates but sadly there is no proof that they were born to our Thomas Vaughan.
Vaughan’s marriage to Eleanor, who was aged about 30 and still of a child bearing age, must have given him some hope.
All Thomas Vaughan’s, who were active at this time (there were five!!) wives are named, an Alice is not one of them. This is intriguing, but it is not proof.
No mention of a wife then, but there are a number of children that are stated as being the offspring of Thomas Vaughan, their names are Elizabeth Vaughan, Harry Vaughan, and Ann Vaughan. History has associated two of these children with Thomas Vaughan so it is easy to see (and is possibly the main reason why) he is thought to hail from Tretower.
Elizabeth and Harry Vaughan can be easily dismissed. Elizabeth Vaughan is Elizabeth Stanley, Lady Monteagle, daugher of Thomas Vaughan of Tretower and Cicely daughter of Morgan ap Jenkin ‘ap Philip’ of Gwent. Her link to Vaughan is in connection with his tomb at Westminster Abbey, its source is Harding’s 1825 book Antiquities of Westminster.
It is the following one reference, that perpetuated the myth that Vaughan was a member of the Tretower family.
“it is not very improbable, that at the expense of Lady Monteagle, this monument, to the memory of her father was erected”
Secondly, Henry Vaughan’s link is also via Vaughan’s tomb, although his parentage is only alluded to. However, the Vaughan/Tretower myth continues through his son, Thomas ap Harry/Parry, into the reign of Edward VI, even William Cecil, Lord Burghley, a relative of Parry, states he has a family connection to Thomas
Vaughan.
However, Anne Vaughan’s connection shows promise.
It is the Heralds Visitation of Wales that states that this Anne Vaughan, was the “sole heir to Thomas Vaughan knt” and if the visitations are correct (they are notably unreliable) and Anne was an only child then she is unlikely to be the daughter of Thomas Vaughan of Tretower, (he had three sons) this offers us the possibility that she was the daughter of our Thomas Vaughan.
Her marriage on the 15th March 1484 to John Wogan of Pembroke, a knight of the King’s Chamber adds some weight to this theory. Just nine months following the execution of Vaughan, and four months after their marriage, Richard III granted Anne and John and their male heirs the manor of Flete and Holbeton in Devon and lands in Ditteridge in Wiltshire. Was this the result of his order to execute her father? If so Richard’s intentions could be seen as providing recourse, giving her security in the form of a marriage and land. Or was she married to Wogan for the same reasons her ‘father’ had married Eleanor Browne?
However, the Wogan family, who were prominent in local government within Wales, had links with the Vaughans of Bradwardine, Anne’s husband John’s great grandfather was William Herbert, and John’s aunt had married Walter Vaughan, Thomas Vaughan of Tretower’s uncle. Such a close connection to the Vaughan family of Tretower does undermine the above theory somewhat.
Did Thomas Vaughan have any children? I do find it hard to believe that a man of Vaughan’s standing was not married and had no children prior to his marriage in 1460. Richard Raulyns and Anne Vaughan both look promising as candidates but sadly there is no proof that they were born to our Thomas Vaughan.
Vaughan’s marriage to Eleanor, who was aged about 30 and still of a child bearing age, must have given him some hope.
