VAUGHAN, ETC NEWSLETTER
November 1985
EDITOR; Verna Baker Banes
Page 52
BILLIE M. GOLDWIRE, 819 Elizabeth Drive, Forest Park, GA 30050 spent 5 days last spring doing research at the Society of Genealogists in London. She found this book review in the Family Records file there. Even though the bottom is cut off she though that if any of you have connections in Courtfield you might find it interesting. She also recommends the book "Scottish Roots" by Alwyn James to those doing Scottish research. It can be had from The Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies, Northgate, Canterbury, Kent CT1 1BA, England for Pounds 6.63 \which includes air mail postage. Put it to attention of Miss Sally Fincher.
She also sent this pedigree chart:
MORE ABOUT WILLIAM T. VAUGHAN --
See NEWSLETTER, p. 36, Jul. 1984 and p. 46, Oct. 1984:
A close reading of his will adds this:
Parish of St. James, Mecklenburg Co VA.
Wife: Mildrage/Mildredge/Mildrege.
Grandson: William Overby.
TABLET Saturday, March 23, 1912.
REVIEWS
THE VAUGHANS OF COURTFIELD.
The Vaughans of Courtfield A Study in Welsh Genealogy and some other Subjects.
By JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS London: Sands.
On reading that we were to find a study in such a large subject as Welsh genealogy, an account of the family of the Vaughans of Courtfield--by no means a small subject --and, as if this were not enough, a study also in "some other subjects," within the limited space of forty-eight pages, we were fairly astonished. In a prefatory note the author tells us that his book is neither a history, nor a genealogy, nor a bit of chatty writing, but a blend of all three, and that it has the "merit of being accurate--a thing which in chats, genealogies, and histories is rare to be heard and seen." Fortunate indeed is the author who can confidently assert that his book is a work of rare merit! Considering the small space which he has allowed himself, we think that Mr. Matthews has given us about as much as we could fairly expect; and, allowing for the concise style usually entailed by brevity, that he has given it in a very readable form. It may surpprise Saxon readers to learn that "the genealogical chief of the illustrious tribe of Herbert" was a gentleman bearing the name of Proger, and that he lived near Ysgyryd Fawr. The Vaughans of Courtfield and Proger himself were descended from Gwilym ap Jenkin of Wern-ddu, who lived in the middle of the fourteenth century. But the author says that "the whole question of the origin of this family is too complicated for full discussion here, and still awaits elucidation." A footnote informs us that "the atual stem-father of the race" was Adam ap Herbert. Now Burke calls Gwilym ap Jankin of Wern-ddu "alics Herbert, Lord of Gwarindee"; and, under "Herbert of Llanarth," he traces the family back to Henry FitzHerbert, Chamberlain to Henry I, who lived two hundred years earlier than Gwilym ap Jenkin of Wern-ddu. Mr. Matthews declares that "there is no proof that Gwilym ap Jenkin of Wern-ddu was descended from FitzHerbert or from any other Norman. He was a plain Welsh esquire of good parentage." Moreover, he maintains that it was not the elder but only the younger branches of the family descended from Gwilym ap Jenkin of Wern-ddu, who called themselves by the name of Herbert.
The most interesting part of this little book is that describing the persecutions for the faith suffered by the Vaughans of Courtfield. In the reigns of James I and Charles I the Catholic body in England was used as a "milch cow of the State, the source from which was drawn a regular and rich supply of the money so constantly needed by Stuart kings." The Vaughans suffered very great losses in these reigns by having to give up two-thirds of their estates, and paying £20 a month to compound for a far worse punishment. Mr. Matthews estimates £20 of that period as the equivalent of £200 in our own. It may have been: some authors would rate it higher still; but one of the greatest authorities on history of our time told the reviewer that he would put the difference lower by one-half. The persecution was even worse during the Commonwealth than under the Stuarts. In 1651 the Commissioners for Sequestration leased Courtfield, with the adjoining manor, to a tenant on their own account; and a Protestant seized "all the goods, cattle, and stock at Courtfield," being the property of "Richard Vaughan, a Papist and Delinquent," and sold them. "All that was left to the owner of that estate was a nominal possession of the freehold, together with the income of one-third of the land. This poor remainder had, in most cases, to be heavily mortgaged in order to pay the numerous fines and the double income tax levied on Catholics." In the year 16**, priest-hunters invaded Courtfield, tied its squire to his bedpost, and left him there while they plundered his house. Two Vaughans of Courtfield fought at Culloden for Prince Charlie, and, after the defeat, fled to Spain. One of them became a general in the Spanish army. This little cloth-bound pamphlet makes one think what an interesting work would be a full and detailed history of a family which underwent so many persecutions for its religion as that of the Vaughans of Courtfield.
If you have any questions, suggestions, corrections, and/or additional information contact me,
Linda CONAWAY Welden at:
Linda_Welden@Vaughan-Vaughn.org
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