John Vaughan
1st Yoeman of Bathwick, Somerset
Born about 1690
Submitted by Roy Vaughan
We start first with JohnVaughan. Circa 1690 who is currently being researched
JOHN VAUGHAN 1st Yoeman of Bathwick, Somerset DoB unknown but about 1690. Until
further research is done he is only noted as the father of James Vaughan who was born in
1733 and is recorded as the father of his son James on James entering Colston School Bristol
aged 10 in 1743 with a grant from the Colston charitable fund. A yeoman in those days was a
person who owned rural property like a farmer.
JAMES VAUGHAN 1st Merchant ships officer Born 1733 wife unknown. He entered Colston
School aged 10 in 1743 and apprenticed as a mariner to ship owner Mathiuas WHELAN
(mariner) for seven years. Apprenticeship paid as a gift of Edward Colston in 1750.
Colston was a major benefactor in the city of Bristol at the time. A very rich man ( see web site
of Colston of Bristol) who made a fortune out of slavery and donated heavily to local ( Bristol)
charities especially the school which he founded. We have a copy of the apprenticeship indentures
signed by James Vaughan which states his 7 year apprentiship was paid for as “a Gift of Colston”.
Little is known of MathiusWhelan and his ships at this time. It is being researched but from
internet searches it seems several Whelans were shipowners over a 100 year period from about
1740 to about 1850 and there is mention of Whelan in the Newfoundland settlement archives and
a connection with Waterford. It is an Irish name
JAMES VAUGHAN assumed descendant Commissioned Lieutenant RN on board HMS ANSON
1780 being researched Full details of his pre commissioning sea career available and details of
HMS Anson and her voyages in Wikipedia.
JAMES VAUGHAN Master Mariner ( assumed descendant ) unproven DoB estimated 1753-1773.
Married ( Evidence by Banns notice) 1792 at St James Bristol to Ann George.
A James Vaughan mariner was found living at 14 Culver Street Bristol in 1814-1815 according
to the Trade Directories. That street adjoins Trenchard Street where James Vaughan mariner
lived at the time of his marriage to Ann George so it is assumed the couple moved to a new address.
We have a number of mariners in the family possibly a James and a John who were brothers which
has led to some confusion.
Later a “ John “ possible a misprint for “James” Vaughan and wife Ann baptised a son John on 2
October 1814 at the Parish of St Augustine the Less Bristol and James was described as a Mariner
living at Trenchard St ( Avon or Clifton ) Bristol at the time.
The only one child known for certain is John Mintorn but almost certainly he had others as well.
Its possible that “Mintorn” was the surname of a Vaughan wife. A number of Mintorns were
dwelling in and around Bristol at that time including John Mintorn was alive and operating a
Revolving Library and Bookshop at Bristol in 1790 who could have been an in-law of some kind
no evidence available yet! A William Henry Mintorn was First Mate of the ship Thomas Lauri in
the mid 1800 and had family at Bristol
1841 Bristol Census found
This family our ancestors living at Avon Crescent , Bedminister
Ann VAUGHAN aged 50 Independent means
John Vaughan aged 20 carpenter
William VAUGHAN aged 19 ship’s carpenter
Emma VAUGHAN aged 20 Independent
The ages given at this time tend to be rounded off so the candidates listed were probably a bit older
or younger than the ages given
JOHN MINTORN VAUGHAN 1st - EMMA JONES John was baptised about 1819 maybe at Bristol.
Date of death 1854 at Bombay, India. He was a man of many parts . His occupations were variously
architect, carpenter, builder and later Marine Engineer with P and O Line. He and his mother Ann
Vaughan and two siblings Emma and William are recorded in the 1841 Bristol Census. John married EMMA JONES of Bedminster 20th March 1845 Parish Church Bedminster. Emma was the daughter
of Thomas Jones Accountant of Bedminister Bristol. They lived at 80 Herman Terrace Bristol. From
1846 to 1847 John held Pre-Registration Deeds for 33 Worrall Rd, Clifton a place he had possibly
designed and was building commercially. Children John Mintorn ; Thomas Walter. William Henry;
and Frances Edmund. John Mintorn and family lived at Southampton from about 1848 until at least
1858 , the family appear on the 1851 Census at Herman St Terrace, St Marys Southampton then and
he was described as a carpenter and joiner
A some period shortly after that in the early 1850s he joined P and O as an “ engineer ” and shipped
out of Southampton with P and O Line . A search of P and O Line records ( P and O/88/3 the death
Book) an entry for John Vaughan Fourth Engineer in the ship Norna who was drowned on 29
January 1854, the body was not found. As his death took place between the end of one voyage (19
January from Southampton and the beginning of the next 1 February to Hong Kong This incident
is recorded by the British Consulate at Bangkok Vol 2 page 913 in Consular deaths register as
occurring on 29 Januay 1854. The registers of Wages and effect of Deceased Seamen has a
reference to John Vaughan serving on the Norna who was engaged ( signed on ) on 14 May 1853
was drowned at Bombay on 29 January 1854 .
The Bombay Gazette records his death as having occurred at about 10.30 pm when he fell from the
ship’s gangway after returning on board with some shipmates after a run ashore. His body was not
found There is apparently no other record of the event in Nautical reports.
Emma was a widow when she and the children were then living at St James Bristol according to the
1861 Bristol census. She described her late husband as a deceased P and O Engineer.
The timing of this death and the circumstances certainly fit the profile and indicate a very brief seagoing career .
JOHN MINTORN VAUGHAN 2nd- Eliza Davies John was christened on 27/4/1846 April and probably born at 115 Maudlin Street, Parish of St Michael, Bristol. He was Registered at Saint Augustus sub district Bristol on 05 May 1846 christened 24 May 1846 at St Michaels Bristol Gloucester. John then a greengrocer at 27 Cumberland Street in 1868, married Eliza Davies a dressmaker who was born at Marlybone London about 1848 , at Avon, Bristol, Gloucestershire in 1876. They were living at 27 Cumberland Street Bristol. By 1891 his occupation was Yardsman ( Glass ) and later Groom- Head Stableman and Caretaker living at at 26 St Cutbert St, St Mary’s , Paddington .He died aged 52 in 1899. Probably at Avon as death is recorded Bristol Gloucester. Children William James 1873; John Mintorn 1877; Arthur Frances Valentine 1882 ( named after John’s brother in law Arthur Davies); Emma Louise 1883.
ARTHUR FRANCES VALENTINE VAUGHAN- ADA MATILDA CROCKER Arthur (Pop) was born 1882 , 7 Pembroke Street, Parish of St Paul’s ,Bristol Ada Matilda Crocker was presumably born 1877at Christchurch, Hampshire near Southampton where we believe they were married at St Clements Bournemouth, Hampshire .
In 1891 he lived with his uncle Arthur J Davies at 7 Salisbury Road , Christchurch, Bournemouth and later in 1901 Census were to be found at 117 Dove Street, Bristol. Working for another uncle George F Davies at 117 Dove Street Bristol
Arthur seems to have been brought up by his uncle Arthur J Davis at least from 7 years of age until 19 years of age along with his big brother John Mintorn 3rd while the other two siblings went to Paddington with their father John Mintorn 2nd
Arthur later lived with and worked as a housepainter for his uncle George Davies when he was 19 in 1901 .George J. Davies was a Glass Writer and house decorator of 117 Dove Street Bristol
They married at Bournemouth in all probability . Arthur’s (Pop) occupation at 19 years of age was house painter.He served in WW1 both in India and France and attained the rank of Sergeant with the Hampshire regiment his army number 306183. An old sepia photograph of him complete with pitc h helmet shows him seated surrounded by Indian Army retainers .Later after the war he was a colonial officer in Gambia between the Wars, a shop owner at Swanage and worked for the Jersey Electric Company at St Helier dwelling at 1 Park Place, St Helier at that time before and during the German occupation of Jersey in WW2 . He was an office holder in a St Helier Royal Antideluverian Order of the Buffelo’s Lodge . Arthur and Ivy’s children were. Arthur Mintorn Vaughan 27/7/1908 ; Ivy Vaughan; Roy Cyril Vaughan born 1909 , Swanage. England (died 26 Aug 1989 Lismore NSW, Australia, Married Winifred du Hamel, Two sons Edward Paul Vaughan and Antony Vaughan)
Date Arthur’s of death approx 1954 at St Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands
ARTHUR (PAUL) MINTORN VAUGHAN- PHOEBE HANNAH WILLIAMS Arthur ( Paul) was born 27/07/1906 at 88 Charmister Road, Bournmouth. Phoebe was born 9/3/1918 at the New Inn Bettews, Montgomeryshire Wales. He married Phoebe Hannah Williams ( she took her two Christian names from her father Stephen William’s sisters ) at Christ Church Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris 15/8/37 Died Hamilton New Zealand 1976 Occupation various Regular soldier Royal Artillery with India service, electrical engineer Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers WW2 with USA Posting completing his military service as a Staff Sergeant in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Later in civilian life and commercial artist in post war years in St Helier Jersey Channel Islands and then became a designer draughtsman after moving to Littlewick Green Maidenhead Berkshire and Marlow Buckinghamshire in the 1950’s. Children Peter Mintorn 1/5/1939 Roydyn ( Roy ) Paul 29/3/1942; Rodney Francis 24/6/1947. The family migrated to New Zealand in 1964. Paul ( Arthur), Phoebe , sons Peter and Rodney shipped out of Tilbury London in the New Zealand Shipping Company cargo passenger ship Remuera, and Roy, a professional mariner joined the Union Steam Ship Company Ltd of NZ as a Deck Officer and shipped out in the Waitaki as Fourth Officer ,arriving at Wellington NZ in June 1964
Notes on the Name Mintorn
Our best sources to date suggest the name “MINTORN” is a derivative of “ MYND TON “ a person who lived on or near the Long MYND Mountain in Shropshire m near the Welsh border.
A link between the Vaughan and Mintorn families is likely owing to the recurrence of “ Mintorn” as a Christian name through successive Vaughan generations. A number of “ Mintorns” were living at Bristol about the same time No link has yet to be established
One John Mintorn of Bristol was a Bookseller in the 1790’s who married a Jane Fisher, may be related as that family name is extremely rare and it may be more than a coincidence that James Vaughan and John Mintorn who were living at Bristol at the same time and that two generations of Vaughans after James had sons named John and one of the at least had the middle name of Mintorn.
Another Edward Mintorn and wife Eliza was living at Bedminister Bristol also in the early part of the 1800s.
One interesting fact is a William Henry Mintorn First mate of the ship Thomas Lauri left a will in 20 April 1832 to his widow Eliza Mintorn at Bristol. He could have been at sea on the same ship(s) as James Vaughan and perhaps a friend .
James’ son John Mintorn Vaughan is the first Vaughan to have “ Mintorn “ in his name that we know of.
Arthur Frances Valentine Vaughan was brought up by Davies uncles who were his mother’s brothers. Also we do not have any detail of William Mintorn’s children if any. More room here for further research , John Mintorn Vaughan named one of his son’s William ! Does that indicate his wife made have had some blood
tie with William Henry Mintorn or perhaps named after a shipmate friend ?
Another Angle on the Vaughans and Mintorns
Another angle on the Mintorn is it was first found in Dorset being the name of a prominent Manorial Lord during the Middle Ages. Some descendants are believed to have had the Irish Country of Munster named after them. Various variations of the name such as Minton, Minturn, Mintorn. And Minterne are accepted
as coming form one source which as mentioned earlier could be from Myndtown or Minton in Shropshire
There is some room to speculate on an Irish connection both for the Mintorn’s and the Vaughan’s as Vaughan is also a very common Irish name and the small Galway town of Ballyvaughan named after them.
Consider one James Vaughan the Irishman
A James Vaughan married Anne Mintorn in the Diocese of Cork and Ross, County Cork, Ireland in 1807 ( Ancestry.com ) research . This is fascinating fact but seems to be an unlikely ancestor if the James Vaughan who married Ann George at Bristol and seems to be the mariner domiciled later at Trenchard Street, Bristol is the father of the proven ancestor John Vaughan circa Bristol 1814 to 1819. If the Irishman James Vaughan’s occupation could be proved to be that of a mariner it could remotely put him in the frame
Notes
Recent work by Anna Kay of Bristol
Anna was asked to check out as much information as possible about our earliest known ancestor great grandfather x 3 James Vaughan a master mariner. And in the process apprenticeship indentures for James VAUGHAN for a sea career, dated 12 February 1750 which may either refer to James the Master Mariner we know about or else his father or an uncle as if it is our James he would have been in his mid 50’s when he wed Ann George.
On 31 October 2005,we discovered that there were 2 Ann Vaughans alive living with families at Bristol at the time of the 1841 Bristol Census which is the earliest certain record of our ancestors. Previously we had looked at another Ann Vaughan in a later Bristol census who was not an ancestor. The fact that there were two Ann Vaughan’s living at Bristol at the same period still causes some confusion regarding earlier ancestors. Our Ann Vaughan was the wife of Master Mariner James Vaughan.
We have yet to firmly establish which James Vaughan was our ancestor and peg his birth and marriage details to factual conclusion, and there remains the difficulty of establishing who his wife was as we have at least two candidates in mind !
Those that stand out are Ann George of Bristol and Ann Sull of Bedminister, Bristol .About the same time they married a James or John Vaughan. The doubt over James and John, is created in later birth records where it appears a James Vaughan may have been wrongly described as John. Both gave birth to children who have some of the same names as our known ancestors, about the same time in Bristol.
This is important as we have no concrete leads on James Vaughan neither the Bristol census nor the 1841 Census include James Vaughan just Ann Vaughan and her son our great grandfather x 2 John Mintorn Vaughan and siblings William and Emma Vaughan together, do not include James Vaughan. It describes Ann as having Independent Means which would seem to indicate she was a widow. The previous mention
of James Vaughan on son John Vaughan’s wedding certificate in 1845 was probably written in by the registrar of marriage.
We can assume that James must have died before 1841 and a search is now being made of wills to establish if he left a will to his wife Ann. That should throw light on him and his background and you must treat the first part of this history up to John and Emma’s Wedding in 1845 with a touch of speculation based on interesting but not conclusive evidence of possible ancestors.
The 1841 Bristol census also shows that Ann Vaughan and family were born “out of County” That is not in Somerset. It could be Clifton near Bristol as Clifton is in Gloucestershire or it could be anywhere else in Britain.
So we are left with gaps and more questions for the time being.
Introduction
In commencing this study, aided by reputable British genealogists and internet sites, etc there was no knowledge of any ancestors before Arthur Frances Valentine VAUGHAN. (the author Roydyn Paul Vaughan’s grandfather) and no family photographs, jewellery, or heirlooms, or memorabilia beyond that passed down by the author’s father Arthur ( Paul) Mintorn VAUGHAN which included some photographs
of Arthur Frances Valentine and his wife Aida VAUGHAN. One reason for this is that Arthur Frances Valentine VAUGHAN married a second time, very late in his life, to a Welsh widow in Jersey and left everything to her. Nothing was ever redeemed back to the Vaughan bloodline family by her. So all that we have of our ancestors is knowledge of our lineage through copies of census returns, birth, baptism and death records etc and certainly not a totally proven path back to our possible first known ancestor Charles VAUGHAN.
We have in our family some interesting surnames, “ VAUGHAN” itself being derived from the Welsh “ Fachan” meaning small or young one and first being registered in Shrewsbury in the 12th century
We have a repeated given name “ Mintorn “ also likely to be of Shropshire origins According to some
sources “Mintorn” and its various versions “Minton”, “Mintern” etc are derived from one or both hamlets near the Long Mynd Mountain in Shropshire near the Welsh border. “Minton” is a tiny hamlet to the south east of the Long Mynd near Churchuch Stoke and “Myndtown” a similar hamlet a few miles away on the south western side of the Long Mynd facing Wales.
Some maternal names of Vaughan wives we can be sure of; my wife Worsfold of Kaiwaka New Zealand whose family came Otrohanga, and the Bay of Islands after arriving in New Zealand from Croydon; Surry. My mother was a Williams of Tregynon, Powys, Wales; Mr father’s mother grandmother Ada Crockers of Henstridge, Somerset, the earliest known Crocker married a Pricilla Dufall of Bagbur Dorset. Davis or Davies, both spellings appear for the same people of Bristol, and a Jones also of Bristol. Before that the maternal names become a bit speculative but it can be seen two rare names that stand out are“ Mintorn “ and “Dufall ” both of which deserve much more research
We can say with certainty that we are of Anglo Welsh descent with paternal ancestors who dwelt in Bristol and the West Country of England for at least four generations and before that probably Shropshire and or Wales. We may also have a dash of French blood from Pricilla Dufall’s line.
Any questions, suggestions, corrections, and/or additional information contact me,
Linda CONAWAY Welden at:Linda_Welden@Vaughan-Vaughn.org
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