Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vaughan, William (1716?-1780?)
VAUGHAN, WILLIAM (1716?–1780?), Jacobite soldier and Spanish officer, born about 1716, was the third son of John Vaughan (1675–1752) of Courtfield, near Ross, Herefordshire, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Jones of Llanarth, Monmouthshire. Both families have always been Roman catholic, and to the former belonged Thomas Vaughan who entered Douay in 1622, and, having taken orders, was sent upon the English mission on 27 Aug. 1628, but ‘fell a victim to the persecution commenced in 1641’ (Challoner, ii. 210). After the landing of Charles Edward in Scotland in 1745, William Vaughan left Monmouthshire for the north, in the company of David Morgan (who was executed for high treason on 30 July 1746), and joined the prince's army at Preston on 27 Nov. (Cambrian Journal, viii. 310–11; Wales, January 1895, pp. 20–3; cf. Howell, State Trials, xviii. 372). Vaughan was at first attached to the prince's life-guards, but subsequently served as lieutenant-colonel in the Manchester regiment. He was present at Culloden, but succeeded in effecting his escape into France. Early in 1747 he accompanied Prince Charles on his journey from Paris to Madrid (see Charles's letter to his father, dated 12 March 1747, in Lord Mahon, Hist. of England, vol. iii. App. p. xxxviii, and Ewald, Life of Charles, ii. 147), and on Charles's recommendation was admitted into the Spanish service, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, in the regiment called Hibernia. In this he served over twenty-nine years, attaining in December 1773 the rank of brigadier-general. On 26 Oct. 1777 he was appointed major-general (mariscal de campo) of the royal armies, but towards the end of 1778 he joined the expedition to Buenos Ayres. He is last mentioned in the Spanish records under date of 29 March 1780 as being nominated to serve with the troops under the general command of Don Vittoria de Navia. He probably died soon after.
His elder brother, Richard Vaughan (b. 1708), the second son, also took part in the Jacobite rising, joined the Duke of Perth's division, and was likewise present at Culloden. He also subsequently entered the Spanish service, and died in that country, having married a Spanish lady, Donna Francesca, by whom he had a daughter Elizabeth (who was married to Colonel Count of Kilmallock, in the Spanish service), and a son William (1740–1796), who succeeded to the Courtfield estate, and continued the line, Cardinal Vaughan and Roger William Vaughan [q. v.] being his great-grandsons.
[Extracts from the Archives of the Spanish War Office at Simancas, kindly communicated by His Eminence Cardinal Vaughan. See also Burke's Landed Gentry, s.v. ‘Vaughan of Courtfield;’ Clark's Genealogies of Glamorgan, p. 267; Coxe's Monmouthshire, p. 346.]