VAUGHAN
,
RICE
(d.
1672
or a little earlier),
lawyer and author
;
second son (and, from
1654
, heir) of
Henry
Vaughan
,
Gelli-goch
,
Machynlleth
, and his wife
Mary
, daughter of
Maurice
Wynn
,
Glyn
, near
Harlech
. He went to
Shrewsbury school
in
July 1615
, was admitted to
Gray's Inn
,
13 Aug. 1638
, and was
called to the Bar
on
20 June 1648
. In the meantime he had been assisting the Parliament side, e.g. in
June 1644
he was appointed a member of the committee for
Cardiganshire
,
Pembrokeshire
, and
Carmarthenshire
. Having failed to get himself elected
Member of Parliament
for
Merioneth
,
1654
, he petitioned the
Council of State
, alleging irregularities on the part of the
sheriff
(
Maurice
Lewis
); the member elected was
John
Vaughan
,
Cefnbodig
(see summary account in
W. R.
Williams
,
Hist. of the Great Sessions in Wales
, based on
Cal. S.P. Dom.
,
1654
.) The previous year (
18 Aug. 1653
)
Vaughan
had been appointed
prothonotary
for the counties of
Denbigh
and
Montgomery
in the
court of Great Sessions
in place of
John
Edisbury
; for details, see
W. R.
Williams
, op. cit., and
Cal. S.P. Dom.
,
1653-4
. He
served the commissioners for sequestrations
(from
March 1649
) and did some business on behalf of the
Council of State
in
1656
. He appears to have been a prisoner in the
Tower of London
for some time from
May 1665
and probably remained there for about two years.
Vaughan
was the
author
of (at least) three works: (
a
)
A Plea for the Common Laws of England
(
London
,
1651
), a pamphlet dedicated to the
House of Commons
, replying to a book by
Hugh
Peters
called
A Good Work for a Good Magistrate
; (
b
)
Practica Walliae: or the Proceedings in the Great Sessions of Wales: containing the Method and Practice of an Attorney there, from an Original to its Execution. Whereunto is added, The Old Statute of Wales at large; And an Abridgement of all the Statutes uniting Wales to England; with Tables of the Fees, and the Matters therein contained
(
London
,
1672
); and (
c
)
A Discourse of Coin and Coinage
(
London
,
1675
). As ‘T.M.’, the
editor
of (
b
), refers to
Rice
Vaughan
as the ‘late Author’ of ‘this Tract,’ it is evident that
Vaughan
d. in
1672
or a little earlier.
Bibliography:
-
To the references already given add
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
Foster
,
Register of Admissions to Gray's Inn,
1521–1889…
, 1889
;
-
W. R. Williams
,
The History of the Parliamentary
Representation of Wales
, 1895
;
-
R. Williams
,
Montgomeryshire Worthies
, second ed.,
1894
;
-
‘Dictionary of Welsh Biography.’ 27
vols., N.L.W. MSS. 9251–77
.
Author:
Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952),
Aberystwyth
