The mystery of William and Fereby Vaughan has intrigued descendants for over 100 years. Several books have been written on them and their descendants. This is meant to give a brief update on research into their ancestry.
(DNA can be done on any line. Here one site to start
Here's a short biography of William and Fereby, both were born about 1750, though personally believe Fereby was born several years afterwards. Family tradition says William was born in Wales and lived close to Tretower Castle. According to family tradition, he came to the USA sometime before 1773 and settled in Virginia.
Fereby Benton was born in North Carolina. It could be possible that she was born in Tennessee when the state was still part of North Carolina. Family tradition says that she was part Cherokee, on her mother’s side. Her father, tradition says either married the daughter of a Cherokee Chief, or was himself a Chief. Her mother was said to have been a Fereby Looney or Luna, who died in childbirth with Fereby. She was obviously named for her mother.
William and John Vaughan
In 2004, we decided to try a test on a descendant of William Vaughan and a descendant of John Vaughan. John Vaughan is a name that pops up often when looking over William and Fereby’s ancestry. He first shows up as a Revolutionary War soldier, serving in the Maryland Artillery. He achieves the rank of Sergeant and after his discharge, moves to Virginia. It is in Charlotte County that he meets 14 year old Nancy Callicott. Though he is 15 years older than her, they fall in love and try to marry in October of 1792, but apparently her father would not allow it. So they wait until she turns 17 and they elope to Halifax County and are married there. Here they stay until 1798 when they move to Hawkins County, Tennessee. The land they buy in Hawkins County was near land owned by William and Fereby and years later as they are preparing to move west to central Tennessee, William sells land which is resold to John and Nancy. John and Nancy’s son James marries William and Fereby’s daughter Martha. James and Martha move west with William and Fereby and pass down a tradition that they (James and Martha) were first cousins, their fathers being brothers. John and Nancy die in what later became Hancock County, Tennessee. The Y-DNA test would show if a descendant of William and a descendant of John shared the same Y-DNA.
Fortunately, we found two test subjects. Both men were direct male descendants of William and John. Both had to have the last name Vaughan. We had long suspected that William and John were brothers, and reckoned that our two test subjects would have to have a close match of Y-DNA if their ancestors were brothers. The time frame for this test was from about 1762 when John, the youngest, was born and modern day. A period of 242 years. We were hoping that their DNA would give us a 23 or better match. I suspected there would be about 2 mutations due to the many generations between them. This is very common. We had Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas conduct the tests, as they had done our earlier MtDNA test. The results we received electrified us. Both men had a perfect 25 out of 25 match, showing a common male ancestor. There was a 50% chance that ancestor was 7 generations back of both men. One man was only six generations down from whoever was William’s father. The other man was 7 generations removed from the father of John Vaughan. The earliest common ancestor would have been born about 1730 if not earlier, so in 274 years, neither men had mutated in even one spot from the other man. It is very likely that both John and William Vaughan were brothers or at the very least, first cousins. They definitely had a common Vaughan ancestor and when taken with the tradition in some branches of the family that they were brothers, it only confirms it.
William and John’s Y-DNA values:
Locus DYS # Alleles
1 393 13
2 390 24
3 19 (also known as 394) 14
4 391 11
5 385a 11
6 385b 16
7 426 12
8 388 12
9 439 12
10 389-1 13
11 392 15
12 389-2 30
13 458 17
14 459a 9
15 459b 10
16 455 11
17 454 11
18 447 25
19 437 15
20 448 19
21 449 29
22 464a 14
23 464b 15
24 464c 16
25 464d 17
William and John’s parents
Using the information we gathered from the DNA test and comparing it to family tradition as well as searching early records – can we make any statement as to who were the best candidates for the parents of William and John?
After spending many months looking at what data is available for early Virginia Vaughans, I have found that the best candidates for William and John’s parents are Abraham Vaughan and Ann Bouldin of Charlotte County, Virginia.
While it is easy to simply state this, reaching this conclusion is not without some warnings. First, for this theory to work, John and William are assumed to have been brothers. This was very likely the case, but it can not be proven by any official documents from their time frame. Also, I had to accept that William was not born in Wales like family tradition holds he was, but instead was born in Virginia. Again, no proof either way, but years of research makes me feel he was not the original immigrant.
So who was Abraham and Ann (Bouldin) Vaughan?
A brief biography.
An Abraham Vaughan begins appearing in the area that would become Charlotte County in 1749. There was actually an Abraham who lived in Amelia County and received land in 1746 on Saylor’s Creek (525 acres) who may be the same man as Ann’s husband, but research still continues on this, so we will begin by looking at the Lunenburg land grants.
Lunenburg County was quite large when it was formed, but as more settlers began moving to the area, new counties were formed. The location of the land that Abraham and other Vaughans owned was located by using a Topographic map. The first grant is in Lunenburg County on September 5th, 1749 for 400 acres. The Grant mentions John Twitty as a neighbor and as the location as “a branch on the 2nd fork of the Lickinghole”. Lickinghole creek has not been identified, but from other grants and deeds, it is known that this was around the town of Saxe in Charlotte County.
In Lunenburg County, Virginia records, there is the estate of John Sullivant (Sullivan) who died in 1755.
On page 147 is this: “Account Current of the estate of John Sullevant, deceased.
Debits. To paid: Mr. Thos. Boulden; Wm Goode; Wm Newsum; James Breedlove; Jos. Chandler; Abr. Vaughan for rolling 2 hogsheads of tobacco. 1754. To paid: Clem't Read; funeral charges; the appraisers; for finishing the crop.” This is no doubt Abraham Vaughan.
In the “George Washington Papers” there is a letter from Clement Read of Lunenburg County, Virginia, dated March 15th, 1757. The letter was to General Washington at Williamsburg. He says that 26 Catawbas Indians lead by their Chiefs “Capt. French or French Warrior” and “Capt. Butler” came to march to see George Washington in Williamsburg. Clement sent them to Washington and sent Robert Vaughan to escort them on the journey east. 5 days later, 93 more Catawbas with their “King” or Principal Chief “Haglar” came and wanted to see Washington too, so Read sent Robert’s brother ABRAHAM VAUGHAN to escort this group. The letter also mentions that the Indians are fond of the two Vaughan brothers. As there is a strong tradition of William Vaughan being a Cherokee trader, this story seems very interesting. It can’t be proven that this was the same Abraham that married Anne Bouldin, but I suspect he was, and if so, then he had a brother named Robert.
In 1760, a John Vaughan receives a grant for 400 acres “On both sides of Reeces Fork of Twitty’s Creek”. Another grant for an additional 404 acres was granted to him at around the same time. It is possible that this John was a cousin of Abraham. John appears in Grants and other records in Charlotte County, his wife was Elizabeth.
There were apparently some other Vaughan families in Charlotte County in the time frame I am looking at in this booklet. Names like James, Robert, John and Joshua, as well as Thomas and Benjamin, appear as witnesses to Deeds of neighbors, or as both grantors and grantees of land. Some if not all may have been relatives, maybe brothers, nephews or cousins. Right now, not much data on these Vaughans, and we can’t make a case for or against them as candidates for John and William’s father.
Abraham appears in Lunenburg County Deed Book 9, page 226 as “Abraham Vaughn of Lunenburg & Parish of Cornwall”. Cornwall Parish later became Charlotte County. In this deed, Abe conveyed to Joseph Friend of the same county the land “whereon Vaughn lives” “180 acres on both sides of Twittys Creek together with 100 acres.” Abe then bought land from William Conner.
On August 15, 1764, Abraham Vaughan received another grant on “the head Branches of Horsepen Creek adjacent to his own lines.” This was for 400 acres. As it mentions his land already owned, it indicates that this land was the grant of September 5th, 1749. Horsepen Creek is less than a mile south of Twitty’s Creek. The following year, Joshua Vaughan receives a grant of 400 acres on both sides of a branch of Sanson’s fork of Horsepen Creek. This was very close to where Abe’s land was located. It is unclear who this man is and how he is related to Abraham. Vaughans appear in various court documents over the next thirty years. Sometimes only the last name is mentioned. Where there is a location given, we can see that many of the records refer to Vaughans living in a different part of the county. A James Vaughn (no second “A” in the name) witnessed the sale of land owned by James Foster of Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, for land in Charlotte County. It is not clear if the witnesses lived in Amelia or Charlotte County.
On November 1st, 1769, John Vaughn of Nottoway Parish, Amelia County sold to Robert Vaughn Jr. of Amelia County 400 acres in Charlotte County on both sides of Reeses Fork of Twitty’s Creek. It mentions the land was granted to John in a patent dated August 12, 1760. A witness was a James Vaughn. So John who patented the land lived in Amelia County, as did Robert, to whom the land was sold. Over the next 10 years, the land apparently was in legal red tape, as in 1770 there is mention of the transfer and how Elizabeth, John’s wife was unable to come to the county courthouse to relinquish her dower rights on the land.
On March 23, 1771, a William Vaughn (no second “A” in Vaughan) of Charlotte County bought from Benjamin Clements of Charlotte County, 100 acres of land on the branches of Horsepen Creek. It was bounded “by the lines of Frank and Vaughn”. The witnesses were Sherwood Walton, Abraham Vaughn and Thomas Chaffin. Jean, Benjamin’s wife relinquished her right of dower.
Then on September 6th, 1774, Abraham Vaughn sells some of his land. Here is the text of the sale: From Abraham Vaughn of Charlotte Co. To John Lindsay & Co., Merchants in Glasgow, for 127 pounds/ 11 shillings a certain tract of about 400 Acres of land in Charlotte Co. On the branches of Horsepen Creek adjoining the lands of James Speed, John Moore, & Robert Belcher, being land on which the said Abraham Vaughn now lives, upon trust that Lindsay shall, after 25Dec1775, sell the land and premises, and out of the money arising from such sale, discharge the dept. Signed: Abraham (X) Vaughn. Wit: Philip Moncrieff, Alexander Burt, William Clark, Robert Cuninghame. The deed of trust was rec: 1 May 1775. Deed Bk. 3, P.514 65 Glasgow could have been a town in Virginia, not the foreign city.
He and his wife Ann witnessed the will of Thomas Bouldin, who was suspected as a relative of Ann's: Charlotte County, Virginia Will Book 1, page 334:
Thomas Bouldin elder Will May 1 1777 Prob 2 June 1783
Son James Bouldin 400 acres. Daughter Fransena wife of John Cox. Sons Thomas Bouldin negro Jacob, William Bouldin 390 acres on Meherrin River and slave Pitt, Joseph Bouldin 720 acres in Henry Co and slave Sam. Children of my daughter Marry. Sons Wood and Richard Boulding. Exec sons Wood and Richard Bouldin.
Wit: James Cuninghame, Sarah Collier, Abraham Vaugn, Ann Vaughn, Robert Gilliam, Thomas Cox.
Security Reverent Thomas Johnston and Joseph Collier.
Abraham appears on a 1782 tax List for Charlotte County. Also appearing is a William Vaughan and no other Vaughan. To appear, you had to be 21 years old or older.
Finally, in Charlotte County Will Book 2 page 83 is the will of Abraham Vaughan as follows:
In the name of God amen, I Abraham Vaughan of Charlotte County being in my perfect sense and memory tho week in body do constitute and make this my last Will and Testament. First , I direct that all my just debts be paid and duly discharged. Secondly that my son William Vaughan be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Thirdly that my son Felix Vaughan be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Fourthly that my son Bolling Vaughan be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Fifthly that my son John Vaughan be paid out of
my Estate one Shilling. Sixthly that my son Lewis Vaughan be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Seventhly that my Daughter Milly Smith be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Eighthly that my Daughter Sally Mahany be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Ninthly that my Daughter Nancy Childry be paid out of my Estate one Shilling. Tenthly I lend to my wife Ann Vaughan during her natural life the plantation that I now live on, all my Negroes
(namely) Poll, Dilly, Jacob, Bill, John Jackson and Julius also all my Horses, Cattle, Hogs, and Sheep. Together with all my Household and Kitchen furniture and plantation utensils. Eleventhly after the death of my Wife Ann Vaughan, I will and direct that my daughter Molly Vaughan be paid out of my Estate thirty pounds and a good Cow and Calf in case their should not be personal estate sufficient to raise the above legacy given to my
Daughter Molly Vaughan. I direct that a sufficient quantity of land whereon I now live be sold to pay the same legacy. The remainder of my Estate both real and personal after the death of my Wife Ann Vaughan I give and bequeath to my two sons David Vaughan and Bailey Vaughan to them and their heirs forever to be equally divided. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this eighth day of May in the year of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety five.
Signed in the presence of Abraham ( X ) Vaughan
E. Boulden, Wood Boulden
At a Court held for Charlotte County the 4th day of January 1796 this Last Will and Testament of Abraham Vaughan dec'd was presented in Court and the same was Proved by the oath of Epharin Boulden and Wood Boulden the two Witnesses hereto subscribed and ordered to be recorded.
Of course, E. Boulden and Wood Boulden are sons of Thomas Bouldin who was related to Ann, Abe’s wife. Sometime before January 4th, 1796, Abraham Vaughan died. But Ann and her daughter Sally McHaney at around the same time that Abraham wrote his will, witnessed the will of Jonathan Read. For in Will Book 2 on page 79b, on December 1, 1795, appears Jonathan’s will. It was probated the same time that Abraham’s was, January 4th, 1796. This will names only a brother-in-law, John Lewis, his brother Thomas Read and a son, John Lewis Read. Why would Ann and her daughter appear as witnesses to the will instead of the usual male neighbor? This is a mystery that's no explained.
One of the last mentions of Abraham in records is from about 7 years following his death. The will of Karon Bayne in Lunenburg County mentions land “lying in Charlotte County on the Horse Pen Creek and formerly belonging to Abraham Vaughan, deceased.” This is in Will book 6, page 52 of Lunenburg County.
Suspect that a Ligon Vaughan who married Dicey Callicott, daughter of James Beverly Callicott (the father of Nancy Callicott) was a son of Abraham and Anne. They married on January 15th, 1789 in Charlotte County. But Ligon died sometime in 1792 and James Beverly Callicott received permission to act as administrator of his son-in-law’s estate. Dicey later remarried on December 26, 1793 to William Ford. They moved to Hawkins County, Tennessee. This Ford family was very likely the same family that Nancy Ford, wife of Thomas Vaughan (son of William and Fereby) came from, though I’m still trying to prove this.
As Ligon died before his father did, and as Dicey remarried, neither one was mentioned in Abraham’s will. So what became of Abraham’s other children and what happened to his land? These two questions are of great importance to me and at the time of this writing, I am still trying to find these children in Charlotte and neighboring counties. Bailey Vaughan died sometime between 1795 and 1798 and his share of the land goes to Molly Vaughan, his sister. Bailey doesn’t leave a will, but Molly in turn dies in late 1798 and does leave a will (Will book 2:146b). She names her son Archer Vaughan and “property entitled by the death of my brother, Bailey Vaughan.” She leaves this land to her son. There is no mention of a husband, so the son was probably born out of wedlock. Clement Read was appointed guardian of her son, Archer Vaughan.
This leaves William, Felix, Bouldin, John, Lewis, David, Milly, Sally and Nancy.
Felix and David don’t show up in marriage records for Charlotte County, so they may have died or moved. Lewis married Mary Childrey on November 23, 1801 in Charlotte County. Nancy married Jeremiah Childress on November 5th, 1792 and these two spouses may be related as their names are very similar. Bouldin married Susannah Fuqua on June 1st, 1790. Sarah “Sally” married Perry Mahany or McHaney (or other spellings) and appeared with her mother in the will of Jonathan Read. Mildred or “Milly” married Benoni Smith on March 8th, 1789.
This would leave Abraham’s two sons, John and William. There were at least two John Vaughans in Charlotte County in the 1790s One married Betty Mullins on June 9th, 1794. The other applied for a marriage license in Charlotte County on October 5, 1792, but the ceremony wasn’t performed. This second John was John who married Nancy Callicott.
One William Vaughan married Martha “Pasty” Mimms on September 23, 1781. I’ve been trying to learn who this William was – was he Abraham Vaughan’s son or from another Vaughan family? The Bondsman for this marriage was a James Vaughan, which makes me think this marriage was to a different family, as there was no James Vaughan in Abraham’s family at the time. This William lived in Charlotte County for the rest of his life. He served in the Revolutionary War after enlisting on February 5th, 1776 in the 4th Regiment commanded by Colonial Isaac Read. He was born about 1850 and lived past 1830. I suspect that James Vaughan, who appears in Charlotte County in the 1770s, was this William’s father. In order to eliminate them as possibilities of William and John’s father, these other Vaughans need to be researched closely.
If all the marriages in Charlotte County that are listed above occurred when the people were in their early 20s, then most of them would have been born in the 1770s. But many of the men had served in the Army during the
Revolutionary War and came back slightly older then married.
So research goes on in finding the parents of John who married the Mullins and William who married the Mimms. Until it can be established who these men’s parents were, there is a reasonable doubt that Abraham and Anne could be the parents of our William and John. Unfortunately, there are not many Charlotte County documents available to clear up this confusion. I’m currently trying to track down what became of the land that Abraham owned. There are many questions and this will keep the hunt for William and John Vaughan’s ancestry alive for many years.
It may be obvious that much of the connections presented are very difficult to “prove”. Sadly, this is the case. Before 1850, Census records were not very informative. Not everyone wrote wills, so quite a few people don’t appear on documents. Deeds are often not very informative on who the participants in the Deed were. Colonial newspapers in Virginia are very rare.
Tax Lists usually only contain the name of the tax payer and not who is living in his home. Add to all of this a rapidly changing county structure in Virginia, where a family could, within 5 years reside in 3 or 4 different counties without moving, as well as poor clerical spelling on documents leading to mixed up names, and you will see that trying to find a Vaughan family in this time frame can be rather difficult.
There were, as best as I can tell, three Abraham Vaughans living in the overall general area where the husband of Anne Bouldin lived. All three were related.
Abraham Vaughans
The first one was a son of Richard and Alice Vaughan of Prince George County. This Abraham was born around 1710-1720 and married to a woman named Loveday and was the father of 7 children. He lived in Brunswick County and died in 1748, leaving a will. One of these 7 children was Abraham Vaughan Jr. He lived in Brunswick County. The first Abraham is obviously not our Abraham for numerous reasons. Abraham Jr. was probably too young to have been our guy, so we can rule him out.
The Abraham who married Loveday was a son of Richard Vaughan who was in turn a son of William Vaughan (1625-1695) who was, I suspect, the son of a
John William Vaughan who came to Jamestown on an early supply ship and was the first Vaughan in America.
William (born about 1625) had 6 known sons and one daughter. One of his other sons was Nicholas Vaughan, born about 1685. This Nicholas was a brother of Richard who’s son Abraham is presented above.
Nicholas Vaughan lived on 169 acres of land in Prince George County then he and his wife Ann (Lewis) Vaughan moved to south of Petersburg. Nicholas and family apparently moved to Amelia County sometime in the 1730s. Here he died in 1738. His son Abraham was young enough that a guardian had to be appointed. Robert Hicks was appointed Abraham’s guardian in December 9, 1738. His mother, Ann, remarried Henry Fitz in August 1739.
This Abraham was born on March 16th, 1721. On January 12, 1746 he patented 525 acres in Amelia (now Prince Edward) County on the lower side of Sayler’s Creek. He is on the tithable list in Amelia County and is shown as between Flat and Deed Creeks between 1746-1748. In 1749 he moved to Lunenburg County and sold his 525 acres to Thomas Vaughan, his brother, on December 21st, 1750. The wife of Abraham Vaughan is given as Mary. It is the mention of Mary as his wife that messes up a theory that Abraham Vaughan who married Anne Bouldin was the same man as this son of Nicholas. It could be that Abraham was married twice and that sometime between 1750 and the time of his death, Mary died an Abe married Anne.
Regardless of whether our Abe is the same man as Nicholas’ son or not, we see an Abraham Vaughan in 1758 on the Colonial Militia list for Lunenburg County. In 1764, a Abraham Vaughan bought land onTwitty’s Creek in Lunenburg County from Manoah Sullivan. Manoah was the brother of James Sullivan who was the father of Ann Sullivan the wife of Nicholas Vaughan.
In 1764, Abraham appears again in Lunenburg on the
Tithe list. There is a gap between 1752 and 1764 of records in Lunenburg County due to court fires destroying some of the records. The area in 1764 where Abe appears is the part of Lunenburg that would, the following year, become part of Charlotte County. So an Abraham Vaughan appears in Lunenburg County records on 1748, 49, 50, 58 (militia list) and 64. The same man as Anne’s husband? Nicholas had a son named Robert, so this would match the data in the George Washington Papers.
Blogroll
Vaughan DNA study web page
Vaughan Pioneer page -- Rootsweb
Vaughan Pioneer Yahoo Group
Vaughan Pioneers Research Group page
Vaughan/Vaughn Resource Page
Author of Genealogy: Eddie Davis has a great web page and group check them out for yourself if your a Vaughan cousin. Mr Davis has these charts on CD $10.00 and a book of Welsh Vaughans $30.00 625 S Miller RD Springfield, MO 65802 (
ec21davis@sbcglobal.net) He know a lot about this subject, and is as follows;
http://www.tretower.com/
There is certainly much more work to do to sort through the many records and confusion of names. I hope this booklet has presented some data and helped the reader to see the focus of Vaughan research.
http://www.therooms.ca/archives/pdfs/panel3.pdf is the URL of a page that shows some of the brothers of Ted Vaughan's great grandfather -- all these men share these Vaughan's Y-DNA exactly, and all lived in Nova Scotia. It could be, if we could find Ted's ancestors back before they came to Nova Scotia, we might have a link to where our Vaughans lived, and the line they descended from.
THERE ARE
Wales Project and several others. This is their main site
http://www.genpage.com/walesdnaproject.html
Their Data files is located at,
http://www.familytreedna.com/ftGroups_score_frame_classic.aspx?pass=xbiqHi2DKjFhgZ3PuO%2b41%2bfM6Ma2nXS01tkG0Iak5PURMftastABJRltynkXrpki13Eq6IXMBs6Odx7hi8nczK8MLXfGMapt6GnLm0dwILLnGzqTlAP%2bjEq5ZFgJKqkefwdP2bTjZRA%3d
or use this link,
http://tinyurl.com/585lal
Thanks for sending this to us through the e-mail for all of us Vaughan cousins. (I copied and paste well!!)
Updates:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mqxojdwtyhe
http://www.mediafire.com/?kn12jqzzmoy
New blog pages on Vaughan lines: http://genealogyconnections2.blogspot.com/
Eddie Davis author quoted here.
Others lived here before Columbus. Recommend reading; book 'America B.C." by Barry Fell if you are at all interested in learing about the evidence of pre-Colombus european (and other cultures as well) travelers/migrants to the Americas that very likely could have contributed to this odd DNA connection to Native Americans
Thanks for your corrections and additions to these posts.
