My Vaughans

My Vaughans

by Hugh Vaughan Wallis

This is a very rough and ready web containing information related to my Vaughan family from South Wales. As time permits I shall enhance it. This page was last updated 6th September, 2002.

Llanfilo, Brecon

I'm starting off with a lot of speculation about the origins of my Vaughans I'm afraid as I have no concrete evidence that my family are connected to the Llanfilo Vaughans. However, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence for this connection and I hope to cement that with further research using standard genealogical research techniques. At this point my earliest known Vaughan ancestor was my great-great-great-grandfather, William Vaughan, born approx 1793. Unfortunately the usual evidence for his place of birth is contradictory. In 1826 he married Mary Lewis in Goytre, Monmouthshire and is shown as being "of Llanover parish" (the next parish to Goytre). In the 1841 census he is shown as having been born 'not in the county' (of Monmouthshire). In the 1851 census he is shown as having been born in 'Radnorshire, NK' (i.e. town 'not known') which really isn't much help. The information was probably supplied to the enumerator by his wife who, in all probability, didn't really know where he was actually born except in terms of the general direction (pointing over her shoulder to the north-west as she was trying to get rid of the enumerator standing on her doorstep I fancy). In 1861, the Vaughan farm in Goytre seems to be one of the unfortunate 5% of Monmouthshire whose records were lost. In 1871 he was living with his son and family in Cefn Coed y Cymmer, Brecon and was just a short time away from his eventual death 11 months later. This time he is shown as having been born in Llangynidr, Brecon but I suspect it was his daughter-in-law who gave the enumerator the information and she probably had no concrete idea either.

"Why the heck do you think your Vaughans came from Llanfilo then?" I hear you asking - well it's the old 'family legend' thing... William Vaughan's grandson, Charles Henry Vaughan (b. 1868, Govilon, Mon - later to become Station Master at Abergavenny), obviously knew from tales he heard as a child that there was a connection with Llanfilo - so much so that, only 2 months before his death in 1939, he made a pilgrimage to Llanfilo and wrote a letter to his daughter, copies of which have been circulating around the family for years, relating a small bit of this knowledge and the tale of his visit. While this was interesting, from a strictly formal genealogical research point of view it was really nowhere near enough evidence to tie the family to Llanfilo - but it was certainly something for the memory banks in case more evidence popped up. Numerous family members have made pilgrimages to Llanfilo over the last 60 years or so and all have noted the large number of Vaughan tombs there but no-one has yet been able to nail down anything concrete.

Well, this summer, a bit more evidence popped up (still circumstantial mind you) that has now got me more enthusiastic about following up this line of research. I was visiting South Wales and my Uncle dug out some old photographs from my grandmother's collection and, included among them was this one of two rather smart young ladies from around the 1900 timeframe.

Two Ladies - Penymaes.jpg (71394 bytes)  (click on the picture to see it at full size)

On the back was the following writing, in my grandmother's hand:

Two Ladies - Penymaes - Reverse.jpg (73816 bytes) (click on the picture to see it at full size)

It turns out that these names written on the back are the names of the two main farms in Llanfilo (Pen-y-Maes and Penisha-Pentre - given various different spellings over the years) both of which were occupied by Vaughans in the late 1700s and even up to the latter part of the 1800s according to census records. Quite possibly in the early 1900s the occupants were Vaughan descendants but with a different surname because of male lines dying out - this opens the door for lots of further research. Unfortunately the parish baptism records for the period including 1793 appear to have gone missing but I have a film of the Bishop's Transcripts on order from the Mormon Church - it will be interesting to see if that can shed any more light on the matter.

If anyone has any idea who these ladies might be I would dearly love to hear from you.

If you would like to see some more pictures of Llanfilo, including many Vaughan memorials please click here

For an 1889 map of Llanfilo from old-maps.co.uk please click here or to see the current OS map from streetmap.co.uk please click here (maps will appear in a separate browser window)

Here are some links to pages about Llanfilo church (pages open in a new browser window):

http://mediatorfamily.homestead.com/Llanfilo0702.html

http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/mid/churches/llanfilo-p1.htm

http://www.transwales.demon.co.uk/dcp_0990a.jpg

Here are some other Llanfilo related links:

1895 Kelly's Directory Entry

Population statistics from 1841-1901 censuses

The meanings of the two farm names were told to me by a very kind gentleman, Dick Jones, as follows:

Pen-isa'r-pentre (Pen-isaf-y-pentref) = lowest end of the village 
Pen-y-maes = end (head) of the field 

pen = head, end, top
isa (isaf) = lowest.
y, yr = the, of the
pentre (pentref) = village
maes = field, meadow

Oh, by the way, Llanfilo rhymes with "pillow" - I was grateful to have been corrected in this regard by a resident during my visit.

 

 

This page has been visited times since 4th September, 2002

This web page is Copyright © 2002, Hugh Vaughan Wallis. All Rights Reserved.