Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Vaughan, Thomas (d.1483)
VAUGHAN, Sir THOMAS (d. 1483), soldier, was probably youngest illegitimate son of Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower, son of Sir Roger Vaughan (d. 1415), by an illegitimate daughter of Prior Coch (the redheaded) of the monastery of Abergavenny (Meyrick in Dwnn's Heraldic Visitation of Wales, i. 42; Jones, Brecknockshire, iii. 506; Nichols, Grants of Edward V, p. xv; but cf. Poems of Lewis Glyn Cothi, ed. Jones, p. 44). He must be carefully distinguished from the Thomas Vaughan of the true line of Herast who was killed at the battle of Banbury, 1469, and is celebrated by Glyn Cothi (Poems, p. 16); from the Sir Thomas Vaughan who distinguished himself at Bosworth (cf. Campbell, Materials for the History of Henry VII, ii. 126, 157, 252); and seemingly from a Thomas Vaughan who was master of the ordnance in 1450.
Vaughan was a great warrior in the wars of the roses, taking the Yorkist side. Glyn Cothi (Poems, p. 47), writing in 1483, speaks of his having fought eighteen battles for Edward IV. In 1455 he was exempted from an act of resumption; he had then two houses in London. He was attainted, like other Yorkists, in 1459. When Edward became king, Vaughan was made a yeoman of the crown, a squire of the king's body, and then treasurer of the king's chamber. He also held at some time the office of comptroller of the coinage of tin in Cornwall and Devonshire. He was exempted from an act of resumption in 1464, and from an act of apparel in 1482. On 4 Feb. 1470 he was appointed one of the commissioners to deliver the Garter to Charles the Bold. That Edward trusted him entirely may be seen from his having appointed him in 1471 chamberlain and councillor to the young Prince Edward, and he carried the prince in September 1472 at the ceremonial attending the reception of Lewis de Bruges Seigneur de la Gruthuyse at Windsor. He was knighted on Whitsunday 1475. At the time of Edward IV's death, Vaughan was with the young prince at Ludlow, as were Rivers, Grey, Haute, and others. On the journey to London, by order of the council, they were met by Richard and Buckingham, who seized them at Stony Stratford, and hurried them off to the north of England. Vaughan was tried before the Earl of Northumberland and a court probably of northern peers, and executed at Pontefract about 23 June 1483. The matter was managed, doubtless roughly enough, by Sir Richard Radcliffe [q. v.] Vaughan was buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist, Westminster Abbey, where there is a monument to his memory. It is curious that Glyn Cothi, who wrote two odes to him in 1483, thought that he was about to support Richard. But it may be that the words were really addressed to the Sir Thomas Vaughan of the right line, as Jones assumes, which we may accept without following Jones to the extent of regarding that Sir Thomas as the chamberlain of Edward V.
Vaughan married Alianor or Eleanor, daughter and coheiress of Sir Thomas Arundel of Betchworth, Surrey, and widow of Sir Thomas Browne, under-treasurer of the household to Henry VI. By her he had a daughter Anne, married to Sir John Wogan, and a son Henry, whose son, Sir Thomas, taking the name of Parry [q. v.], is separately noticed.
[Authorities quoted; More's Life of Richard III, ed. Lumby, p. 18; Polydore Vergil's Hist. Engl. ed. 1557, p. 540; Acts of the Privy Council, vi. 94; Stanley's Memorials of Westminster Abbey, p. 180; Metcalfe's Knights, p. 5; Lodge's Illustrations of British Hist. i. 302, iii. 388; Cal. of Inquisitions post mortem, Hen. VII, p. 256; Gairdner's Richard III; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, vol. ii.; Markham in Engl. Hist. Rev. vi. 264; Rot. Parl. v. 316, 349, 350, 369, 534, 587, 590, 592, vi. 93, 221.]