N A N N A U

Under the Auspices of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion

VAUGHAN family of Corsygedol, in the parish of Llanddwywe, Merionethshire

The pedigree of this illustrious North Wales family as given by Lewis Dwnn, deputy-herald-at-arms (q.v.) and the daughter and heiress of the old Welsh family of Corsygedol, this daughter being a ward of Llywelyn the Great. Details of the pedigree were given to Dwnn, when he visited Corsygedol in 1588, by GRIFFITH VAUGHAN, head of the house, and (in that year) high sheriff of Merioneth. This Griffith Vaughan rebuilt Corsygedol in 1592/3, added the Corsygedol chapel to Llanddwywe church, and died 9 November 1616, being buried at Llanddwywe. An earlier Griffith Vaughan was associated with Dafydd ap Ieuan ab Einion (q.v.), his cousin, in the defence of Harlech castle against the yorkists; it was this Griffith Vaughan who is said to have built 'Y Ty Gwyn yn Bermo' "in order to enable him to communicate more safely, relative to the invasion of England, with Jasper Tudor, earl of Pembroke, uncle of Henry of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII" (W.W.E. Wynne, quoted in E. Rosalie Jones, "History of Barmouth; see also 'Cywydd moliant Gruffydd Vychan ap Gruffydd ab Einion o Gorsygedol rhyfelwr gyda'r Brenin Henry VII', written by the bard Tudur Penllyn (q.v.). ROBERT VAUGHAN, the antiquary, of Hengwrt (q.v.), says that Jasper Tudor 'lay in Corsygedol, when he fled to France in the time of Edward IV', Vaughan adding that, 'as some say', Henry, earl of Richmond, was with him. Griffith Vaughan's wife was Lowry, niece of Owain Glyn Dwr.

Dwnn gives the following pedigree for the Griffith Vaughan of 1588: GRIFFITH VAUGHAN, son of RICHARD, son of RHYS, son of WILLIAM, son of GRIFFITH VAUGHAN, esquire of the body to Henry VII, and third son of GRIFFITH, son of EINION, son of GRIFFITH, son of LLYWELYN, son of CYNWRIG, son of OSBWRN WYDDEL. From the 16th century downwards to the end of the 18th century the pedigree can be seen in printed and manuscript sources, e.g. quite conveniently in J.E. Griffith, Pedigrees (1914), 279. There is also a general account of Corsygedol and the Vaughans in Arch. Cambrensis, vi (1875), 1-16; this account was edited and annotated by W.W.E. Wynne of Peniarth from a transcript by Angharad Llwyd (q.v.) froma Mostyn manuscript compiled in 1770 by William Vaughan (below). Various members of the family, as shown by Edward Breese in "Kalendars of Gynnedd", served as high sheriffs of Merioneth (and some of Caernarvonshire), or as knights of the shire or Custodes Rotulorum. Richard Vaughan became constable of Harlech castle in July 1704, his nephew, EVAN LLOYD VAUGHAN (died 1791) becoming constable fifty years later.

WILLIAM VAUGHAN (died 1633) was high sheriff of Caernarvonshire in 1613 and 1632; he rebuilt Plas Hen, Llanystumdwy, 1607, and the gate-house at Corsygedol, 1630. 'He was a great friend of Ben jonson, the poet, who made him apresent of his works.' (see also James Howell (q.v.) in "Epistolae Ho-Elianae). His son RICHARD VAUGHAN(died 1635) became well known in London as the abnormally stout Member of Parliament for Merioneth. He married ANNE, daughter of JOHN OWEN, Clenennau (q.v.). WILLIAM VAUGHAN (died 1669), their son, married ANNE, daughter of the house of Nannau (q.v.), and thus united two families which had already been on friendly terms. Their eldest son, GRIFFITH VAUGHAN, died without issue in 1697; the second son, RICHARD VAUGHAN (died 1734), maintained the line. By his wife MARGARET, daughter of Sir EVAN LLOYD of Bodidris, Denbs. (see article on that family), he became the father of WILLIAM VAUGHAN (1707-75) (BELOW), whose wife CATHERINE, daughter of HUGH NANNEY, became eventual heiress of Nannau. Their only child was ANN VAUGHAN, who married DAVID JONES GWYNNE, of Taliaris, Carms. She, the last heir in the direct line, died 16 March 1758, leaving no issue. The last male representative was EVAN LLOYD VAUGHAN, Member of Parliament for Merioneth, brother to William Vaughan. Upon the death of Evan Lloyd Vaughan on 4 December 1791, Corsygedol and the associated estates passed to his neice, MARGARET, wife of Sir ROGER MOSTYN, bart. (see article Mostyn).

Throughout the centuries, members of the family were patrons of Welsh literature and welcomed itinerant bards (see Mostyn MS. 165). As one might expect, some members of the group of bards known as 'Phylipiaid Ardudwy' (q.v.), whose homes were near Corsygedol, wrote poems to various Vaughans. Siôn Phylip (died 1620) wrote about sixteen, his son, Gruffydd Phylip (died 1666), who was bardd teulu at Corsygedol, wrote about nineteen, whilst another son, Phylip Siôn Phylip (died c.1677), wrote one. William Phylip (died February 1670), who lived at Hendre-fechan, close to Corsygedol, helped Siôn Bryncir to write a cywydd cyngor to William Vaughan, nephew to Siôn Bryncir. One poem by Gruffydd Phylip has an interesting title- 'I Wmffre Davies o Landyfrydog y Mon dros Rich: Vn o Gorsygedol i ofyn 100 o gywydde D[afydd] ap G[wilym].' That some of the Vaughans collected manuscripts and books is an established fact. The following manuscripts, formerly at Mostyn Hall, Flintshire, but now in the National Library of Wales, were at Corsygedol- Mostyn MSS. 115,130,131,144 ('Llyfr Coch Nannau'), 145 ('Llyfr Gwyn Corsygedol'), 147,160,162,163 ('Y Llyfr Gwyrdd'), 164 and 165 (this last an important volume from the family history standpoint). The literary tradition is continued in the 18th century in the person of WILLIAM VAUGHAN (1707-75), who was Member of Parliament for Merioneth from 1734 to 1768, lord-lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of that county, and the first 'Chief President' of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. Born in 1707, he attended schools in Chester and London and went to S. John's College, Cambridge. Huw Jones of Llangwm's anthology called Diddanwch Teuluaidd (London, 1763) is dedicated to William Vaughan, to whom there are numerous references in the correspondence of the Morris brothers of Anglesey. Diddanwch Teuluaidd includes 'Canaid y Gog i Feirionydd', the well-known poem by Lewis Morris, followed by an English version by William Vaughan. Vaughan's Welsh address in the Merioneth parliamentary election of 1747 is printed by E. Breese in "Kalendars of Gwynedd".

ROBERT VAUGHAN (1592?-1667), antiquary, collector of the famous Hengwrt library

He was the only legitimate son of HOWELL VAUGHAN (died 1638), of Gwengraig, in the township of Garthgynfor and parish of Dolgelley on the eastern slope of Cader Idris, who traced his ancestry from Cadwgan, lord of Nannau, son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (q.v.), prince of Powys. His mother was MARGARET, daughter of EDWARD OWEN of Hengwrt, parish of Llanelltyd, and granddaughter of LEWIS OWEN (q.v.), baron of the Exchequer of North Wales. Robert Powell Vaughan, or Robert Vaughan as he came to be known, was born at Gwengraig, about 1592, judging by the record of his entry into Oriel College, Oxford, at the age of 20, in 1612. He left college without taking his degree. The early period of his life is obscure, but it can be argued from his friendship with Rhys and Siôn Cain (q.v.), whom he acknowledged to be his tutors in genealogy, that he spent some time at Oswestry. The date of his marriage to CATHERINE (1594-1663), daughter of GRIFFITH NANNEY (born 1568) is not known, but he was living at Gwengraig in 1624 and it is likely that he settled at Hengwrt soon after his marriage. Between 1608 and 1612 Hengwrt had been mortgaged by Robert Owen to his brother-in-law, Howell Vaughan. Robert Vaughan was on the commission of the peace for Merioneth and took an active part in local affairs. He appears to have acted as receiver of bridge mises in the county during the Commonwealth. The controversies of that period do not seem to have greatly disturbed his life. His chief interests were genealogy, early Welsh history and antiquities, and the collection of books and manuscripts. In these pursuits he corresponded with Rhys and Siôn Cain. Dr. John Davies of Mallwyd, Evan Lloyd Jeffery of Palé, John Jones of Gellilyfdy (whose manuscripts became his property in 1658), Meredith Lloyd of Welshpool, William Maurice of Cefn-y-braich, the Wynnes of Gwydir, Sir simonds d'Ewes, John Selden, James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh, and others. The library of manuscripts which he collected at Hengwrt is the finest collection of Welsh manuscripts ever assembled by an individual. It remained at Hengwrt until 1859, when it passed by the will of Sir Robert Williams Vaughan to W. W. E. Wynne of Peniarth (q.v.). The purchase of the reversion of the Hengwrt-Peniarth library to Aberystwyth by Sir John Williams in 1905 was one of the deciding factors for establishing the National Library of Wales there. Robert Vaughan also collected books, but they were dispersed by Thomas Kerslake, a bookseller of Bristol, early in the 19th century. The catalogue which Robert Vaughan compiled og his library is extant (N.L.W. MS. 9095). He transcribed a large number of literary and historical texts, compiled a concordance of scripture, genealogical books, notably the great collection of Peniarth MS. 287, and tracts on early Welsh history and chronology, and translated 'Brut y Tywysogion' into English. He published at Oxford in 1662 a small book entitled 'British Antiquities Revived', containing a refutation of Sir Thomas Canon's arguments that Cadell was the eldest son of Rhodri Mawr (q.v.) and that, subsequently, the princes of Deheubarth had superiority over those of Gwynedd, a correction of the pedigree of the earl of Carbery as given in Percy Enderbie's 'Cambria Triumphans', distinguishing between Gwaethfoed of Powys and Gwaethfoed of Ceredigion, and a short tract on the Five Royal Tribes of Wales.

Robert Vaughan died on Ascenion Day (16 May) 1667. Anthony Wood, on the authority of Thomas Ellis, rector of Dolgelley, states that he was buried in the church of that parish in 1666. The burial is not recorded in the parish register, but in a draft will, made 1 May 1665, he left instructions for his burial there. He left four sons and four daughters. HOWELL VAUGHAN, of Vanner, sheriff of Merioneth, 1671, who married (1) JANE, daughter of ROBERT OWEN, Ystumcegid, and relict of Hugh Tudor of Egryn, and (2) LOWRY, daughter of GRIFFITH DERWAS of Cemes, and widow of Humphrey Pugh of Aberffrydlan; YNYR VAUGHAN, who was unmarried but who had issue JOHN AB YNYR, who emigrated to Pennsylvania; HUGH VAUGHAN, who married ELIZABETH, daughter of EDMUND MEYRICK of Ucheldre; and GRIFFITH VAUGHAN who had Dolmelynllyn and who married CATHERINE, daughter of JOHN AP ROBERT AP JOHN AP LEWIS AP MEREDITH of Glynmaelda; MARGARET, who married (1) WILLIAM PRICE, rector of Dolgelley, and (2) ROBERT VAUGHAN, son of TUDOR VAUGHAN of Caerynwch; JANE, who married ROBERT OWEN (died 1685) (q.v.), of Dolserau; ELIN, who married DAVID ELLIS, son of ROWLAND ELLIS of Gwanas; and ANN, who married HUGH EVANS of Berth-lwyd in Llanelltyd.