Robert Vaughan (antiquary)

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Robert Powell Vaughan (1592? – 16 May 1667) was an eminent

antiquary and collector of manuscripts. His collection, later known as the Hengwrt–Peniarth Library from the houses in which it was successively preserved, formed the nucleus of the National Library of Wales, and is still in its care.[1]

Biography

Hengwrt, the seat of the Vaughan family, 1793

Vaughan was born at Gwengraig,

Commission of the peace.[2]

Vaughan's main interests lay in the early

calligrapher and manuscript collector John Jones of Gellilyfdy, Flintshire, in which one would combine both collections on the other's death.[3] Vaughan also transcribed texts himself, carried out genealogical research, made an English translation of the Brut y Tywysogion (or Chronicle of the Princes), and wrote several short historical tracts as well as the book British Antiquities Revived, first published at Oxford in 1662.[4]

He died in 1667 and was buried at Dolgellau. Vaughan had four sons and four daughters, and his descendants remained prominent in the area and its politics for many years. His daughter Jane was amongst the

Quakers who emigrated to Pennsylvania in the late 17th century under the leadership of Rowland Ellis.[5] His son, Griffith Vaughan (died c. 1700), settled at the Dolmelynllyn estate in the late seventeenth century; his great-grandson, also Robert Vaughan, sold it approximately a century later.[6]

The Hengwrt–Peniarth Library

Main article: Peniarth Manuscripts
Opening folio of the Hengwrt MS. of the Canterbury Tales, preserved in Vaughan's manuscript collection

Vaughan's remarkable collection of manuscripts remained at Hengwrt in the care of his descendants, though his collection of early printed books was dispersed by a

Member of Parliament for Merioneth.[7][8] The Hengwrt–Peniarth library was then moved to Aberystwyth
, where the National Library of Wales was to be established.

Vaughan's collection contains several texts of great historical or literary importance, such as the

Hendregadredd manuscript for a period, though this was to disappear from Hengwrt before the end of the 17th century.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ The Peniarth Manuscripts, National Library of Wales
  2. ^ a b Robert Vaughan: Dictionary of Welsh Biography, National Library of Wales
  3. ^ John Jones, of Gelli Lyfdy: Dictionary of Welsh Biography, National Library of Wales. The story of Jones and Vaughan's "arrangement" is given by Saunderson in his 1834 edition of Vaughan's book British Antiquities Revisited, but it is also suggested that Vaughan may have obtained the manuscripts as payment for a debt (Jones, a lawyer by profession, was heavily in debt and repeatedly incarcerated in the Fleet Prison).
  4. ^ British Antiquities Revived, or a Friendly Contest touching the Soveraignty of Three Ancient Princes of Wales in Ancient Times, Bala: R. Saunderson, 1834
  5. ISBN 978-0-8063-0430-4
    , pp. 57-59
  6. ISBN 978-0-8063-1314-6. Archived
    from the original on 28 August 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  7. ^ Wynne family, of Peniarth: Dictionary of Welsh Biography, National Library of Wales
  8. ISBN 978-1-85109-440-0
    ,p.905
  9. ^ The Book of Aneirin, National Library of Wales Blog
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