William Vaughan (1571-1641), English author and colonial pioneer, son of Walter Vaughan (d. 1598), was born at Golden Grove, Carmarthenshire, his father's estate, in 1577. He was descended from an ancient prince of Powys. His brother, John Vaughan (1572-1634), became 1st earl of Carbery; and another brother, General Sir Henry or Harry Vaughan (1587-1659), was a well-known royalist leader. William was educated at Jesus College, Oxford, and took the degree of LL.D. at Vienna. In 1616 he bought a grant of land in the south coast of Newfoundland, to which he sent two batches of settlers. In 1622 he visited the settlement, which he called Cambriol, and returned to England in 1625. Vaughan apparently paid another visit to his colony, but his plans for its prosperity were foiled by the severe winters. He died at his house of Torcoed, Carmarthenshire, in August 1641.
His chief work is The Golden Grove (1600), a general guide to morals, politics and literature, in which the manners of the time are severely criticized, plays being denounced as folly and wickedness. The section in praise of poetry borrows much from earlier writers on the subject. The Golden Fleece.. transported from Cambriol Colchis. .. by Orpheus jun., alias Will Vaughan, which contains information about Newfoundland, is the most interesting of his other works.
