Dr Benjamin Vaughan MD

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

LLD (19 April 1751 – 8 December 1835) was a British political radical. He was a commissioner in the negotiations between Britain and the United States at the drafting of the Treaty of Paris.

Life

Vaughan was born in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...

Samuel Vaughan Samuel Vaughan (1720–1802) was an Anglo-Irish merchant, plantation owner, and political radical. Early life Vaughan was born in Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, the son of Benjamin Vaughan and Ann Wolf; he was the youngest of a family of 12. He ...

, a British banker and West India merchant planter of Irish Protestant descent, and his Anglo-American wife, Sarah Hallowell, daughter of shipbuilder, Benjamin Hallowell. He was educated at Newcome's School and

Warrington Academy Warrington Academy, active as a teaching establishment from 1756 to 1782, was a prominent dissenting academy, that is, a school or college set up by those who dissented from the established Church of England. It was located in Warrington (then ...

and attended

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It is the fifth-oldest surviving college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by ...

, without graduating.''Vaughan, Benjamin (1751-1835), of Finsbury Square, London.''
historyofparliamentonline.org He then studied Medicine at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...

. In 1785, during his stay in Edinburgh, he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were

Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank The Hon Allan Maconochie, Lord Meadowbank FRSE FSA (Scot) (1748–1816) was a Scottish advocate, academic jurist, judge and agriculturalist. Life The only son of Alexander Maconochie of Meadowbank, Kirknewton, Midlothian, by his wife Isabella ...

Dugald Stewart Dugald Stewart (; 22 November 175311 June 1828) was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a populariser of the work of Francis Hut ...

, and

James Hutton James Hutton (; 3 June O.S.172614 June 1726 New Style. – 26 March 1797) was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the father of modern geology, he played a key role ...

. His broader long-term interest was in politics and sciences, the latter leading to his friendship with

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

. In 1786, Vaughan was elected a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in Philadelphia, to which his father,

, had been elected a member two years prior. Vaughan was a political economist, merchant and medical doctor. Through Benjamin Horne, brother of

John Horne John Horne PRSE FRS FRSE FEGS LLD (1 January 1848 – 30 May 1928) was a Scottish geologist. He served as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1915 to 1919. Life Horne was born on 1 January 1848, in Campsie, Stirlingshire, the ...

, he met the politician

Lord Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...

. Shelburne then used Vaughan in a diplomatic role, to try to bring peace between Great Britain and the United States, towards the end of the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. He was also a middleman in reconciling Franklin and Shelburne. He was elected at a by-election in 1792 as a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for the borough of Calne in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and held the seat until the 1796 general election (he was absent from 1794). He spoke in parliament in strong defence of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in Jamaica, in his maiden speech. However, in February 1794, he came out in favour of the abolition of the slave trade. He felt that since slaves could no longer be repressed by ignorance and fear, they should be given inducements not to rebel. During his period in London he lived in

Finsbury Square Finsbury Square is a square in Finsbury in central London which includes a six-rink grass bowling green. It was developed in 1777 on the site of a previous area of green space to the north of the City of London known as Finsbury Fields, in the pa ...

. He was arrested in 1794 on grounds of treason, regarding the supposed invasion of England by the French. After 1794, Vaughan left France for Switzerland and later to America. His interest in republicanism lead to his permanent departure from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. He settled in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and then on a farm in

Hallowell, Maine Hallowell is a city in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,570 at the 2020 census. Popular with tourists, Hallowell is noted for its culture and old architecture. Hallowell is included in the Augusta, Maine, micropolitan ...

in 1797. He is thought to be the builder (or related to the builder) of Hallowell House in

, and it is possible his Jamaican links give rise to the district being called

Jamaica Plain Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commun ...

. In 1805, Vaughan was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, and in 1813, he was elected a member of the

American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society i ...

. He died in Hallowell in 1835.

Family

Vaughan married in 1781 to Sarah Manning, daughter of William Manning (died 1791), and sister of William Manning. They had several children, including: * Harriet Manning Vaughan (1782–1798) * William Oliver Vaughan (1784–1826), who married Mary Argy (1786–1856) * Sarah Vaughan (1785–1847) * Henry Vaughan (1786–1806) * Petty Vaughan (1788–1854) * Lucy Vaughan (1790–1869), who married William Emmons (1784–1855) * Elizabeth Frances Vaughan (1793–1855), who married Samuel Clinton Grant (1796–1853) The family and their descendants remained in

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

after Vaughan settled in Hallowell in 1797 and continue to reside in the town today. John Vaughan and William Vaughan were his brothers.

Legacy

Several places are named after Vaughan: * City of

Vaughan, Ontario Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...

is in his honour * Indirectly

Vaughan Road Vaughan Road is a road in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a contour collector road that is parallel to a buried creek to the north called Castle Frank Brook. Vaughan Road begins on Bathurst Street south of St. Clair Avenue West, then it becom ...

is linked to him as the northern end of the road headed into then Township of Vaughan. *

Vaughan Road Academy Vaughan Road Academy (VRA), formerly known as Vaughan Road High School and Vaughan Road Collegiate Institute, is a Toronto District School Board (TDSB) facility that formerly operated as an International Baccalaureate high school in Toronto, Ont ...

, named after Vaughan Road * Vaughan Stream in

Historic Hallowell
historichallowell.mainememory.net * Vaughan Field in Hallowell * Vaughan Homestead, his Hallowell estate, now a museum * Vaughan Secondary School until name change to Hodan Nalayeh Secondary School in 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan, Benjamin 1751 births 1835 deaths British diplomats Migrants from British Jamaica to the United Kingdom West Indies merchants 19th-century English medical doctors British republicans British emigrants to the United States Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the American Antiquarian Society People from Hallowell, Maine People from Boston Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Calne British MPs 1790–1796 19th-century American people People educated at Newcome's School Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge 18th-century Jamaican people British slave owners Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Members of the American Philosophical Society