VAUGHAN, Sir Roger (by 1522-71), of Porthaml, Talgarth, Brec.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Mar. 1553
Oct. 1553
Apr. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1522, 1st s. of Sir William Vaughan of Porthaml by Catherine, da. of Jenkin Havard of Brec. m. (1) Catherine, da. of (Sir) George Herbert of Swansea, Glam., 5s. inc. Rowland; (2) Eleanor, da. of Henry Somerset, 2nd Earl of Worcester. suc. fa. 1546 or later. Kntd. 1551.2

Offices Held

J.p. Brec. 1543, 1555, q. 1558/59-?d.; commr. relief, Brec. 1550, goods of churches and fraternities, Brec. and Herefs. 1553, felons, Herefs. 1555, armour, Brec. 1569, musters 1570; chancellor and receiver, lordships of Brecon and Hay, Cantref Selyf, Pencelli and Alexanderstone, Brec. July 1546-d.; sheriff, Brec. 1551-2; steward, lordships of Huntington and Kington, Herefs. May 1554-d.; custos rot. Brec. by 1559.3

Biography

The Vaughan family of Porthaml was a cadet branch of the Vaughans of Tretower, Breconshire, themselves an offshoot of the line established at Bredwardine, Herefordshire, by the Sir Roger Vaughan who was killed at Agincourt. It was this Sir Roger’s great-great-grandson Sir William Vaughan who gave importance to the Talgarth branch by his leasing of the lordship of Dinas in 1529 and his appointment in 1538 as chancellor and receiver of the lordships of Brecon and Hay, in the hands of the crown since the attainder of the 3rd Duke of Buckingham. This office Sir William Vaughan surrendered in 1546 in favour of his heir Roger. He seems to have died soon afterwards, leaving the younger Vaughan to maintain the family’s progress.4

Vaughan was helped to do so by his marriage to a niece of William Herbert I, 1st Earl of Pembroke. He may have served under Herbert against the western rebels in 1549, and he was probably knighted in October 1551 on the occasion of Herbert’s ennoblement and before his own shrievalty. As a past sheriff he was a suitable choice for the knighthood of the shire in March 1553, but Pembroke presumably lent him support as president of the council in the marches; three Herberts were returned to this Parliament, two in Montgomeryshire and another for Wenlock, as were Vaughan’s near kinsman John Vaughan II, his cousin from Tretower Thomas Parry and possibly also his brother-in-law David Evans. Vaughan is unlikely to have been called upon to declare himself in the succession crisis of the following July and the pardon which he sued out from Queen Mary was probably a conventional safeguard. Re-elected to the first two Parliaments of the reign, he did not oppose the initial measures towards the restoration of Catholicism (as did his brother-in-law Charles Vaughan) and he was given local office and included in the new commission of the peace. In 1557 he commanded 250 men in the French campaign under the Earl of Pembroke.5

Vaughan’s father had acquired the wardship of the coheirs of Henry Miles alias Parry of Newcourt in Bacton, Herefordshire (brother-in-law to John Vaughan II); Sir Roger Vaughan evidently used this as one of his residences for it was as of Porthaml and Newcourt that he received a general pardon at Elizabeth’s accession. He sat in the first three Elizabethan Parliaments and died a few days after the last of them ended, on 6 June 1571. His widow married Sir Henry Jones.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

  • 1. Only the christian name remains on the indenture, C219/20/176.
  • 2. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Jones, Brec. iii. 43; Dwnn. Vis. Wales, i. 189; DWB; CPR, 1553, pp. 364, 376. (Vaughan fam. of Porthaml).
  • 3. C193/12/1; SP11/5/6; 12/17, ff. 18-20; CPR, 1550-3, p. 394; 1553, pp. 364, 414, 419;l 1553-4, p. 161; E179/219/38; APC, v. 135; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 176; R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 60, 69; LP Hen. VIII, xxi.
  • 4. Jones, ii. 193; LP Hen. VIII, xiii, xxi.
  • 5. CPR, 1553-4, p. 430; HMC Foljambe, 6.
  • 6. CPR, 1558-60, p. 207; Wards 7/14/91.