Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist Part 1

Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist.

by Henry Vaughan, et al.

Volume II.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE.

Recent inquiries into the life of Henry Vaughan have added but little to the information already contained in the memoirs of Mr. Lyte and Dr.

Grosart. I have, however, been enabled to put together a few notes on this somewhat obscure subject, which may be taken as supplementary to Mr. Beeching's _Introduction_ in Vol. I. It will be well to preface them by reprinting the account of Anthony a Wood, our chief original authority (_Ath. Oxon._, ed. Bliss, 1817, iv. 425):

"Henry Vaughan, called the _Silurist_ from that part of Wales whose inhabitants were in ancient times called Silures, brother twin (but elder)[1] to Eugenius Philalethes, alias Tho. Vaughan ... was born at Newton S. Briget, lying on the river Isca, commonly called Uske, in Brecknockshire, educated in grammar learning in his own country for six years under one Matthew Herbert, a noted schoolmaster of his time, made his first entry into Jesus College in Mich. term 1638, aged 17 years; where spending two years or more in logicals under a noted tutor, was taken thence and designed by his father for the obtaining of some knowledge in the munic.i.p.al laws at London. But soon after the civil war beginning, to the horror of all good men, he was sent for home, followed the pleasant paths of poetry and philology, became noted for his ingenuity, and published several specimens thereof, of which his _Olor Isca.n.u.s_ was most valued. Afterwards applying his mind to the study of physic, became at length eminent in his own country for the practice thereof, and was esteemed by scholars an ingenious person, but proud and humorous.... [A list of Vaughan's works follows.] ... He died in the latter end of April (about the 29th day) in sixteen hundred ninety and five, and was buried in the parish church of Llansenfreid, about two miles distant from Brecknock, in Brecknockshire."

Anthony a Wood seems to have had some personal acquaintance with the poet, for in his account of Thomas Vaughan (_Ath. Oxon._ iii. 725) he says that "Olor Isca.n.u.s sent me a catalogue of his brother's works."

(a) THE VAUGHAN GENEALOGY.

Henry Vaughan's descent from the Vaughans of Tretower, County Brecon, has been accurately traced by Dr. Grosart and others. Little has been hitherto known about his immediate family. Theophilus Jones, in his _History of Brecknockshire_ (1805-9), ii. 544, says: "Henry Vaughan died in 1695, aged 75,[2] leaving by his first wife two sons and three daughters, and by his second a daughter Rachel, who married John Turberville. His grand-daughter, Denys, or Dyenis, a corruption or abbreviation of Dyonisia, who was the daughter of Jenkin Jones of Trebinshwn, by Luce his wife, died single in 1780, aged 92, and is buried in the Priory churchyard.[3] What became of the remainder of his family, or whether they are extinct, I know not." To this statement Mr.

Lyte added nothing but some errors, and Dr. Grosart nothing but the following hypothesis:--

"I am inclined to think that William Vaughan, censor of the College of Physicians, physician to William III^d., was one of the sons of our worthy mentioned by Mr. Lyte.... William Vaughan's 'age 20' in 1668 represents 1648 as the birth-date, and that fits in with the love-verse of the Poems of 1646."

Mr. G. T. Clark, in his _Genealogies of Glamorgan_, p. 240, gives the following account:--

Henry [Vaughan], ob. 1695, aet. 75, father by first wife of (1) a son, s.p.; (2) Lucy ob. 29 Aug., 1780, aet. 92,[4] m. Jenkin Jones of Trebinshwn. Their d. Denise Jones, died single, 1780, aet. 92. By second wife (3) Rachel, m. John Turberville; (4) Edmund; (5) Alexander, ob.

1622 [!], s.p.; (6) Catharine, m. Wm. Harris; (7) Mary, m. John Walbeoffe of Llanhamlach; (8) Elizabeth, m. John Arnold; (9) Frances, m.

Wm. Johns of Cwm Dhu.

Unfortunately Mr. Clark is unable to remember his authority for this pedigree. I have found another, which differs from it in many ways, and is exceedingly interesting, inasmuch as it gives, for the first time, the names of Henry Vaughan's two wives, who appear to have been sisters.

It is in a volume of _Brecknockshire Pedigrees_ collected by the Welsh Herald, Hugh Thomas, and now amongst the Harleian MSS. Hugh Thomas was born and lived hard by Llansantffread, and must have known Vaughan and his family personally.

PEDIGREE OF VAUGHAN OF TRETOWER AND NEWTON.

(From Harl. MS. 2289, f. 81.)

Thomas m. Denis, d. and h. to Gwillims of Newton Skethrog.

Henry, of Newton.

Henry, of Newton Skethrog, Doctor of Phisick, m.

Catharine, d. to Charles Wise, of Ritsonhall, Staffordshire, and secondly Elizabeth, her sister.

Lucy, m. Ch. Greenleafe of Grisill, m. Roger Prosser.

Streton-upon-Trent, Staff.

Lucy, m. Jenkin Jones of Trebinshwn.

Catharine, m. Rachel, m. John Turberville Tho. Vaughan, of Newton of Llangattock.

Skethrog, m. Frances, Henry, Parson of Penderin, d. to m. Janet, d. of Robert Walbeoffe of Talyllyn.

It will be observed that neither Mr. Clark's pedigree nor Hugh Thomas'

agrees with the number of children a.s.signed to each marriage by Theophilus Jones, and that neither of them helps out Dr. Grosart's hypothesis that Dr. William Vaughan was a son of the poet. Mr. W. B. Rye (_Genealogist_, iii. 33) has made it appear likely that this Dr.

Vaughan, who married Anne Newton, of Romford in Ess.e.x, belonged to a branch of the Vaughans who had been settled in Romford since 1571.

I now proceed to confirm and ill.u.s.trate the pedigrees by giving such further facts concerning Vaughan's immediate family as I have been able with Miss Morgan's a.s.sistance, to glean. I can trace no family of Wises in Staffordshire so early as the seventeenth century, nor any place in that county called Ritsonhall. It is possible that the R. W. of the _Elegy_ (vol. ii., p. 79, _note_) may have been a Wise, and also that the connection between Vaughan and the Staffordshire Egertons may have been through this family (vol. ii., p. 294, _note_). Vaughan's first wife Catharine was probably dead before 1658. Thomas Vaughan, in his diary (MS. Sloane, 1741, f. 106 (b)), makes mention in that year of "eyewater made at the Pinner of Wakefield by my dear wife and my Sister Vaughan, who are both now with G.o.d." The second wife, Elizabeth, survived her husband. Administration of his goods was granted to her as the widow of an intestate in May, 1695.[5] The fine old manor-house at Newton was pulled down by a stupid land-agent within the memory of man, but a stone has been found built into the wall of a house half-a-mile from the site, bearing the inscription "H^VE, 1689." This may well stand for H[enry and] E[lizabeth] V[aughan]. Newton probably pa.s.sed to the poet's eldest son Thomas and his wife Frances.[6] Of their descendants, if any, we know nothing. There was a William Vaughan of Llansantffread who, later than 1714, married Mary Games of Tregaer in Llanfrynach. But this was probably a Vaughan not of Newton, but of Scethrog, also in Llansantffread (_cf._ footnote to p. xxv. below.) In 1733 William Vaughan was churchwarden of Llanfrynach. In 1740 William Vaughan of Tregaer was high sheriff of Brecknock. In 1760 Tregaer had pa.s.sed by purchase to a Mr. Phillips. The registers of Llanfrynach from 1695-1756 are now lost. Lucy Greenleafe and her sister Catharine are quite obscure. One of them may have been the niece who was living with Thomas Vaughan when news came from the country in 1658 of his father's death (MS. Sloane, 1741, f. 89 (b)). Of the second family, Henry became Rector of Penderin in 1684, and vacated the living, probably through death, in 1713. A tablet to his memory hung during the present century in the church at Penderin, but when the church was restored the tablets were taken down and buried under the tiles of the chancel. His wife, a Walbeoffe of Talyllyn, belonged to the same family as the Walbeoffes of Llanhamlach (vol. ii., p. 189, _note_). The eldest girl, Grisill, married Roger Prosser. The Prossers were the younger branch of a Brecknockshire family who had become sadlers and mercers in Brecon. Many of their tombs are in the Priory church, but Theophilus Jones states that by his time they were extinct. Grisill Prosser was married a second time, in 1709, to Morgan Watkins, an attorney, and was buried on August 21, 1737. The second girl, Lucy, married Jenkin Jones of Trebinshwn, a cousin of Colonel Jenkin Jones, the local Parliamentary leader. Her daughter, Denise Jones, died single in 1780, as Theophilus Jones states, and her tombstone in the Priory church records her descent. The third girl, Rachel, married John Turberville, one of the Turbervilles of Llangattock, who claimed kinship with the Elizabethan poet of that name.

The following pedigree shows the descendants of the three daughters of Henry Vaughan's second marriage, so far as they can be traced.[7]

Henry Vaughan = 2. Elizabeth Wise.

_________________ ____________________ 1. Roger =Grisill ...=2. Morgan Lucy=Jenkin Rachel=John Prosser, Watkins, Jones, Turberville Mercer. Attorney. of Trebinshwn. of Llangattock.

_______ ___ Richard = Mary----?

of Llamwyse Walter, Elizabeth = Morgan Denise and Glan y bapt. 1693. bapt. 1686. Davies, nat. 1688, rhyd, ob. mercer, o.s.p. 29 1720. ob. 1727. Aug., 1780. John.

_________________ _________________ Thomas Morgan, Elizabeth, bapt. 8 July, bapt. 4 April, 1720, 1725, sep. 20 Nov., sep. 6 July, 1737. 1730. Margaret, o.s.p. 1765.

It will be seen that I can give no evidence of the existence of any living descendants of Henry Vaughan.

Henry's grandfather, Thomas Vaughan, a younger son of Charles Vaughan of Tretower, seems to have come into the possession of Newton through his marriage with an heiress of the family of Gwillims or Williams. Newton, or in Welsh Trenewydd, is a farm of about 200 acres in the manor or lordship, and near the village of Scethrog, both being in the parish of Llansantffread and hundred of Penkelley. Williams is a common name in Breconshire, and I cannot trace the descent of Thomas Vaughan's wife. In the sixteenth century Newton belonged to a family who finally settled on the name of Howel, ap Howell or Powell.[8] The last of these is described on his tombstone in Llansantffread Church as "David Morgan David Howel, who married ... William of Llanhamoloch: and they had issue one daughter called Denys. He died 2nd June, 1598." Perhaps Newton pa.s.sed in some way from David Morgan David Howel to his wife's family, and so to Thomas Vaughan, who married Denise Gwillims. Theophilus Jones (ii. 538) records that at a later date other Williams's, also apparently connected with Llanhamlach, were succeeded by other Vaughans at Scethrog, hard by Newton. His account is that David Williams, youngest brother of Sir Thomas Williams of Eltham, married a daughter of John Walbeoffe of Llanhamlach (_cf._ pedigree in vol. ii., p. 189, _note_), and bought Scethrog. Their son Charles died without issue, and the property pa.s.sed to his wife Mary (Anne in Harl. MS., 2289, t. 39; _cf._ vol. ii., p. 204, _note_), the daughter of Morgan John of Wenallt.... She afterwards married Hugh Powell, clerk, parson of Llansanffread and precentor of St. David's, and her daughter Margaret married Charles Vaughan, son to Vaughan Morgan of Tretower.[9]

A trace of Thomas Vaughan is probably preserved in a window-head from the old church of Llansantffread, now destroyed, which has the inscription:--

1626. E. G. T. V. W. T.

W. F. I. [bold reversed 'D'].

T. V. may stand for T[homas] V[aughan].[10]

Of Henry Vaughan, the poet's father, very little is known. His name appears in a list of Breconshire magistrates for 1620. And we learn from Thomas Vaughan's diary in Sloane MS. 1741, f. 89 (b), that he died in August 1658.

The only additional definite fact which I can here record of the poet himself is that in 1691 he entered a caveat against any inst.i.tution to the vicarage of Llandevalley, he claiming the next presentation under a grant from William Winter, Esq.[11] Mr. Rye has shown that the specimen of handwriting facsimiled by Dr. Grosart in his edition of Henry Vaughan's _Works_ cannot possibly be the poet's. The signatures, however, on the margin of a copy of _Olor Isca.n.u.s_, once in the library of Lady Isham, might be genuine.

(b) VAUGHAN AND JESUS COLLEGE, OXFORD.

Anthony a Wood's statement as to Vaughan's residence at Jesus College, Oxford, has been generally accepted, but I venture to doubt it on the following grounds:--

(1) Vaughan's name does not occur in the University Matriculation Register, although his brother Thomas Vaughan is duly entered as matriculating from Jesus on 14th December, 1638. The only College records which help us are the Battel-books for 1638 and 1640. That for 1639 is unfortunately missing. The Rev. Llewellyn Thomas kindly informs me that he can only trace one undergraduate Vaughan in the two books in question. The Christian name is not given, but I think that we must a.s.sume it to be Thomas.

(2) Vaughan does not describe himself on any t.i.tle-page as of Jesus College; nor does he ever speak of himself as an Oxford man. This omission is the more noticeable as he would naturally have done so in the lines _Ad Posteros_ (vol. ii., p. 51), and might well have done so in those _On Sir Thomas Bodley's Library, the Author being then in Oxford_ (vol. ii., p. 197).

(3) Anthony a Wood cannot be depended on. He describes Thomas Carew, for instance, as of C.C.C., whereas he was a most certainly of Merton. And there was another Henry Vaughan of Jesus, who may have been confused with the poet. This Henry Vaughan, a son of John Vaughan of Cathlin, Merionethshire, matriculated at Oriel on July 4, 1634. He afterwards became a Scholar and Fellow of Jesus, taking his B.A. in 1637 and his M.A. in 1639. In 1643 he became vicar of Penteg, co. Monmouth, and died at Abergavenny in 1661. (Wood, _Ath. Oxon._, iii. 531; Foster, _Alumni Oxon._)

(4) The only confirmation of Anthony a Wood's statement is the poem (vol. ii., p. 289) taken by Dr. Grosart from the _Eucharistica Oxoniensia_ (1641), and signed "H. Vaughan, Jes. Col." If I am right, this may be by Vaughan's namesake. He has indeed another poem in that volume signed "Hen. Vaugh., Jes. Soc." but that is in Latin, and it is not unexampled for one man to contribute more than one poem, especially in different tongues, to such collections. Or it may be by Herbert Vaughan, who was a Gentleman-commoner of the College in 1641, and has, with Henry Vaughan the Fellow, verses in the [Greek: proteleia] _Anglo Batava_ of the same year.

(c) VAUGHAN IN THE CIVIL WAR.

There are several pa.s.sages which make it probable that Vaughan, like his brother Thomas, bore arms on the King's side in the Civil War. The most important is in the poem _To Mr. Ridsley_ (vol. ii., p. 83), where he speaks of the time

"when this juggling fate Of soldiery first seiz'd me."

In the same poem he mentions