Vaughan, Richard (1600-03-25 - 1686-12-03)

Richard Vaughan, Second Earl of Carbery, was born c. 1600, the eldest son of John Vaughan (1574/5-1634), First Earl of Carbery. He was knighted at the coronation of Charles I in February 1626 and succeeded to the earldom upon his father's death in 1634. Vaughan was the principal magnate of south-west Wales in the mid-seventeenth century, in addition to being a rather unremarkable Royalist army officer. He is notable in both ecclesiastical and literary history for being the patron of Jeremy Taylor during the Interregnum. He also made Samuel Butler his secretary, and steward of Ludlow Castle; Butler was to write the first part of Hudibras here. Vaughan was dismissed from the presidency of Wales in 1672 after charges were brought against him regarding the ill-treatment of his servants and tenants on his estate at Dryslwyn. Vaughan died on 3 December 1686 and is presumed to have been buried in Llandeilo Fawr parish church.