BIOGRAPHICAL PREFACE

The Vaughan family is of old repute in history—in that of England as well as Wales. It is said that an early representative, Sir David Vaughan, fell at the Battle of Agincourt. The branch with which I am concerned had Tretower Castle—by the Usk—in Brecknockshire as its ancestral seat. This is now in ruins and was perhaps falling into decay at the end of the sixteenth century, for it was left by the master of the place about that period in favour of a residence at Newton, near Seethrog, in the parish of Llansaintffraid, some five miles away in the same shire. This is Newton-St-Bridget, also on the banks of the Usk. In the next generation Henry or Thomas Vaughan1 was of Tretower and Llansaint-ffraid. At the latter place, and in what has been called the farmhouse at Newton,2 there were born to him—of a wife about whom there is no record—the twin boys Thomas and Henry Vaughan. The traditional or accepted date, as I must term it, is between 1621 and 1622, but the tradition may be regarded as sound, since it rests on the authority of Wood,3 who—almost unquestionably—had for his informant the younger of the two brothers.4

1 The Rev. A. B. Grosart, who first edited the complete writings of Henry Vaughan in the FULLER WORTHIES LIBRARY, four beautiful volumes—exceedingly valuable for the lives of both brothers—says that the father was Henry and that he was a magistrate in 1620. The Register of Oxford University describes him as "Thomas of Llansaintffraide, co. Brecon, pleb."
2 See Theophilus Jones : HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF BRECKNOCK, vol. ii, part 2, p. 540. He speaks of a farmhouse at Newton, once "occupied by two brothers of the name of Vaughan, of very eccentric character."
3 ATHENÆ OXONIENSES, edited by Philip Bliss, vol. iii, p. 722.
4 Ibid., sub nomine Olor Iscanus.