Sir John Vaughan SL

Serjeant-at-law

The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...

 (14 September 1603 – 10 December 1674), of Trawsgoed

Trawsgoed

Trawsgoed Estate located eight miles east of Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, Wales has been in the possession of the Vaughan family since the year 1200...

, was a British justice.

Life

He was born in Ceredigion

Ceredigion

Ceredigion is a county and former kingdom in mid-west Wales. As Cardiganshire , it was created in 1282, and was reconstituted as a county under that name in 1996, reverting to Ceredigion a day later...

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, the eldest of eight children of Edward Vaughan and his wife Letitia (Lettic) Stedman of Strata Florida, and was educated initially at The King's School, Worcester

The King's School, Worcester

The King's School, Worcester is an English independent school refounded by Henry VIII in 1541. It occupies a site adjacent to Worcester Cathedral on the banks of the River Severn in the centre of the city of Worcester...

 between 1613 and 1618, when he was admitted to Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

. He attended until 1621, leaving without gaining a degree, and the same year was accepted into the Inner Temple

Inner Temple

The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

. In 1625 he married Jane Stedman, with whom he had a son Edward

Edward Vaughan (MP)

Edward Vaughan was a Welsh lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1679 to 1681.-Life:Vaughan was born at Trawsgoed, Cardiganshire, Wales, the eldest son of the chief justice Sir John Vaughan and his wife Jane Stedman of Strata Florida. He became a student of the Inner Temple...

, and in 1628 he was elected as a Member of Parliament for Cardigan

Cardigan (UK Parliament constituency)

The Cardigan District of Boroughs was a parliamentary constituency in Wales which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors, from 1542 until it was abolished for the 1885 general election...

, representing them again at both the Short

Short Parliament

The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....

 and Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

s. He was a moderate royalist, helping to prosecute William Laud

William Laud

William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...

 and write the Triennial Acts

Triennial Acts

The Triennial Act 1641 was an Act passed on 15 February 1641, by the English Long Parliament, during the reign of King Charles I. The act requires that Parliament meet for at least a fifty-day session once every three years. It was intended to prevent kings from ruling without Parliament, as...

, but refused to support a bill of attainder

Bill of attainder

A bill of attainder is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a judicial trial.-English law:...

 against Thomas Wentworth

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland...

, saying it was unconstitutional. In 1630 he was called to the Bar. In that same year, he returned to Ceredigion before the outbreak of the English Civil War

English Civil War

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

 and bought eight Ceredigion granges, totalling 30000 acres (121.4 km²), formerly belonging to Strata Florida Abbey

Strata Florida Abbey

Strata Florida Abbey Flowers. Ystrad corrupts into Strata, while Fflur is the name of the nearby river. After the region around St. David's was firmly occupied by the Norman Marcher lordship of Pembroke by the early 12th century, with St...

, further increasing the lands of Trawsgoed

Trawsgoed

Trawsgoed Estate located eight miles east of Aberystwyth in Ceredigion, Wales has been in the possession of the Vaughan family since the year 1200...

, the family estate. This lead him to be one of the richest landowners in an economically poor country. Although at first a strong loyalist, the fall of Tenby in 1643 disturbed him, and he began training the local militia. As a result of this his house was plundered in July 1645, and he was banned from sitting in Parliament in September.

After the civil war he refused to return to public life, barely venturing out of his estates; the Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...

 claimed that he had lived ‘as near an innocent life as the iniquity of that time would permit’. After the English Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 he represented Cardiganshire in the Cavalier Parliament

Cavalier Parliament

The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter century reign of Charles II of England...

 between 1661 and 1669, and was widely admired for his eloquence, with Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 describing him as 'the great Vaughan’. He was knighted and made a serjeant-at-law

Serjeant-at-law

The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...

 on 20 May 1668, and made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas

The Court of Common Pleas, also known as the Common Bench or Common Place, was the second highest common law court in the English legal system until 1880, when it was dissolved. As such, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas was one of the highest judicial officials in England, behind only the Lord...

 on 23 May. His most enduring case was Bushel's Case

Bushel's Case

Bushel’s Case 124 E.R. 1006 is a famous English decision on the role of juries. It also confirmed that the Court of Common Pleas could issue a writ of habeas corpus in ordinary criminal cases.-Background:...

 in 1670, which set the precedent that a jury could not be forced into making a verdict, one that has endured ever since; as such a plaque in the Old Bailey

Old Bailey

The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

 with the names of the jurors involved also includes that of Vaughan. He was a friend of John Selden

John Selden

John Selden was an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law...

, and acted as one of the executors of his estate after Selden's death in 1654, placing his library in the 'Selden end' of the Bodleian Library

Bodleian Library

The Bodleian Library , the main research library of the University of Oxford, is one of the oldest libraries in Europe, and in Britain is second in size only to the British Library...

. Vaughan died on 10 December 1674 at Serjeant's Inn

Serjeant's Inn

Serjeant's Inn was one of the two inns of the Serjeants-at-Law in London. The Fleet Street inn dated from 1443 and the Chancery Lane inn dated from 1416. Both buildings were destroyed in the World War II 1941 bombing raids....

, and was buried twelve days later at Temple Church

Temple Church

The Temple Church is a late-12th-century church in London located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, built for and by the Knights Templar as their English headquarters. In modern times, two Inns of Court both use the church. It is famous for its effigy tombs and for being a round church...

, with Edward Stillingfleet

Edward Stillingfleet

Edward Stillingfleet was a British theologian and scholar. Considered an outstanding preacher as well as a strong polemical writer defending Anglicanism, Stillingfleet was known as "the beauty of holiness" for his good looks in the pulpit, and was called by John Hough "the ablest man of his...

speaking at his funeral. His court reports were later published by his son in 1677, with a corrected edition in 1706.