Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

CYLCHGRAWN LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES JOURNAL VOLUME VIII. Winter, 1953. NUMBER 2. SIR JOHN VAUGHAN OF TRAWSCOED, 1603-1674 II PARLIAMENTARIAN AND CHIEF JUSTICE John Vaughan's parliamentary career falls naturally into two sections divided by an interval of nearly twenty years. His activities in the Parliaments of Charles I have already been thoroughly examined by Professor Dodd1 and need only be summarised here, but the conspicuous, and hitherto neglected, part he played in the Cavalier Parliament will be treated in rather more detail. Vaughan was probably returned for Cardigan borough in February 1627/282 and it is most likely that it was he and not Henry Vaughan who was involved in the discussions centering around the seizure of Rolles's goods, who examined the Petition of Right and interrogated Jones, the king's printer. He was closely connected with Selden and, as a lawyer, it was appropriate that his last committee for eleven years should be on a legal matter.3 Vaughan later recorded that during the years of personal government the lot of Englishmen was little better than that of villeins. He spoke of the 'straing Judgt' where the judges decided that commitment by special command of the king was sufficient warrant and of that 'detestable Judgt. of ship money'. 4 Indeed, many who supported Charles in the Civil War would have echoed these views. In the Short Parliament, to which he was elected on All Fools Day, 1640, and to whose Committee of Elections and Privileges he was added on the 17th, he was early appointed to investigate the 'Violation of the Privilege of Parliament the last day of the last Parliament" 5 when Charles precipitately adjourned the House and ended what he considered to be the wanton interference of the Commons in ecclesi- astical affairs. He also joined several prominent parliamentary leaders to draw