Vaughan family

The Vaughan family refers to the descendants of John William Vaughan who played a measurable role in the economy and politics of the American South during the time preceding the American Civil War.
John William Vaughan, a Welsh cutler, landed at Jamestown on the vessel Bona Nova in November 1619 [http://books.google.com/books?idkvJLAAAAMAAJ&pgPA265&lpgPA265&dqJohn+Vaughan+Bona+Nova&sourcebl&otsJprGXbDg7Z&sig2qymv9yovjjT5EfzrLXqVYGRlsQ&hlen&saX&eiTl--Utz8I8LnsATy3oD4DA&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#vonepage&qJohn%20Vaughan%20Bona%20Nova&f=false] and by 1645 had acquired over a thousand acres of land and a large force of slaves. One branch of John William's family remained in southern Virginia, while others fanned south and west to Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Among the family's more notable individuals were Henry Vaughan, a Mississippi planter; Peter Vaughan, who exerted political influence as high sheriff of Dinwiddie County, Virginia; Benjamin Boisseau Vaughan, a Harvard-educated Confederate veteran who was a member of the large tobacco firm Vaughan, Hill and Company; and James Boisseau Vaughan, who owned 47 slaves at the commencement of the war.
The Vaughan family lost much of its wealth and political influence in the wake of the Civil War, which eviscerated the economic institutions (specifically slavery) on which the planters' prosperity was dependent.

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