Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/296

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268
VAUGHAN
VAUGHAN

trade with ports of England and of the East and West Indies, exporting chiefly the products of the Kennebec region. He was one of the trustees of Hallowed academy, incorporated in 1791, and one of the founders of the Boston library society, in- corporated in 1794. He built, in Hallowed, houses, mills, stores, a distillery, a brewery, and a printing- office, and established a seaport at Jones's Eddy, near the mouth of the Kennebec, where he con- structed a costly wet dock for ship-timber. In Boston he was associated with Charles Bulfinch (his brother-in-law) and William Scollay, in the important Franklin street improvement in 1793, where they drained and graded a boggy pasture, and built a block of sixteen houses, known as the " Crescent," which was the first brick block erected in Boston. A semi-oval space was inclosed in the middle of the street, which Mr. Vaughan, convey- ing in 1791 a part of his interest in the block, pro- vided should forever remain unoccupied by build- ings. Meeting with serious reverses in 1798, he surrendered his property to his creditors, and in 1799 returned to Hallowed, engaged actively in agricultural pursuits, being also employed as agent for large non-resident owners of land in various parts of Maine, and devoted his energies to pro- moting the prosperity of the region. His impor- tations of horned cattle, sheep, and swine, of the most approved breeds, as well as of choice varie- ties of wheat and other seeds, had a marked influ- ence in the development of the agricultural and stock-breeding interests of Maine.

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VAUGHAN, Daniel, scientist, b. in Ireland about 1821 ; d. in Cincinnati, Ohio, in Aprd, 1879. He received an excellent education, and possessed great mathematical ability. When about sixteen years of age he came to this country and taught in Bourbon county, Ky., meanwhile studying the higher branches of science by himself, but he sub- sequently settled in Cincinnati, where he devoted himself mainly to astronomy and the larger aspects of natural phenomena. He mastered the German, French, Italian, and Spanish languages, and also ancient and modern Greek. He contributed nearly fifty papers to the proceedings of learned societies and to scientific periodicals at home and abroad. The last work of his life was a series of astronomi- cal articles that were published in the "Popular Science Monthly." He issued in book-form " Popu- lar Physical Astronomy, or an Exposition of Re- markable Celestial Phenomena" (Cincinnati, 1858).


VAUGHAN, Sir John, British soldier, b. in 1738 ; d. in Martinique, W. I., 30 June, 1795. He was the second son of Wilmot, 3d Viscount Lis- burne, and entered the army in 1746 as cornet in the 10th dragoons. He was captain in the 17th foot in 1750, and afterward, as lieutenant-colonel, led a division of grenadiers with great credit at the capture of Martinique. On 11 May, 1775, he was made colonel of the 40th regiment, which had been ordered to this country, and he served here on the staff with the ranks of brigadier- and major- general, and from 1777, with the latter commission in full, in the British regular army. He led the grenadiers in the battle of Long Island, and at the landing at New York he was wounded in the thigh and for a time disabled from active service. He commanded the right column of attack at Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery, where his horse was killed under him, and was particularly men- tioned in orders by Sir Henry Clinton, who gave the latter work the name of Fort Vaughan in his honor. With Sir James Wallace he sailed up Hudson river in October, 1777, on a marauding expedition on which he destroyed the town of Kingston. In May, 1779. he captured Stony Point and Verplancks ; but after the campaign of that year he returned to England, where, in December, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Lee- ward islands. On 3 Feb., 1781, with Admiral Rodney, he took St. Eustatius, and in 1782 he was made lieutenant-general. Gen. Vaughan had been made governor of Fort William in Scotland, but shortly afterward obtained the more lucrative post of Berwick, which he represented in four successive parliaments. In 1793 he received the order of the Bath. His death was sudden, and not without suspicion of poison.


VAUGHAN, John, physician, b. in Uchland, Chester co., Pa., 25 Julie, 1775; d. in Wilmington, Del., 25 March, 1807. His father, John, was a Baptist minister. The son was educated at Old Chester, studied medicine in Philadelphia under Dr. WilMam Currie, and at the University of Penn- sylvania in 1793-'4, and in 1795-'9 practised in Christiana Bridge, Del., after which time he re- sided in Wilmington. He attained note in his profession, and numbered among his intimate friends and familiar correspondents Thomas Jeffer- son, Aaron Burr, John Dickerson, Caesar A. Rod- ney, and Dr. Benjamin Rush. He was a member of many scientific bodies, and in 1799-1800 deliv- ered a course of lectures on chemistry and natural philosophy at Wilmington. After 1800 he officiated occasionally as a Baptist preacher. Besides numer- ous articles in periodicals, Dr. Vaughan published an edition of Dr. Smith's " Letters," a " Chemical Syllabus," and " Observations on Animal Electricity in Explanation of the Metallic Operation of Dr. Perkins," a defence of Dr. Elisha Perkins's "metal- lic tractors," of which he was a zealous advocate.


VAUGHAN, John Apthorp, clergyman, b. in Little Cambridge (now Brighton), Mass., 13 Oct., 1795; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., 5 June, 1865. His father, Charles, came from England to this coun- try, and removed to Hallowed, Me., where the son received his first education. After graduation at Bovvdoin in 1815, he went to London, and was for a time employed in the banking-house of his uncle, William Vaughan. Subsequently he took charge of a plantation that belonged to the Vaughan family in Jamaica, W. I., but returned to Hallo- well and opened there a school for girls, also study- ing divinity. In 1833 he was ordained deacon, and held charge of Trinity church in Saco, Me., and, after receiving priest's orders in 1834, he became rector of St. Peter's church, Salem, Mass. From 1836 till 1842 he was secretary of the Protestant Episcopal board of foreign missions. Owing to impaired health he resigned this post, went to Georgia, and in 1844 settled in Philadelphia, where he was superintendent of the Institution for the blind in 1845-8. In 1848 he established in that city a school for girls, which he abandoned in 1854. From 1861 until 1865 he was professor of pastoral theology in the Philadelphia divinity- school, to which he presented a library of 1,200 volumes. Kenyon gave him the degree of D. D. in 1839. He published pamphlets, including one " On the General Missions of the Church " (1842).


VAUGHAN, Sir William, poet, b. in Wales in 1577: d. in Newfoundland about 1640. He was a physician, and in 1605 received the degree of LL. 1). from Oxford. After purchasing land in Newfoundland, he removed there about 1625, and established a plantation which he called Cambriol. To invite settlers from England he wrote his "Golden Fleece" (London, 1626). This is dedicated to King Charles I. and is written under the pen-name of Orpheus, Jr. It is a curious produc-