”’Robert Powell Vaughan”’ (?1592 – 16 May 1667) was an eminent [[Wales|Welsh]] [[antiquary]] and collector of manuscripts. His collection, the Hengwrt-Peniarth Library, formed the nucleus of the [[National Library of Wales]], and is still in its care.
==Biography==
Vaughan was born at Gwengraig, [[Dolgellau]], around 1592. Very little is known of his early life, but he was recorded as entering [[Oriel College, Oxford]] in 1612, though he left without taking his degree. He later settled at the mansion of Hengwrt, also near Dolgellau, which had belonged to his mother’s family. Vaughan was active in the legal affairs of [[Merioneth]] and served on its [[Commission of the peace]].<ref name=nlw1>[http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-VAUG-ROB-1592.html Robert Vaughan: Dictionary of Welsh Biography], [[National Library of Wales]]</ref>
Vaughan’s main interests lay in the early [[history of Wales]] and in [[genealogy]], as well as in the large collection of early manuscripts and books which he amassed at Hengwrt. He was able to increase this further after making an arrangement with the manuscript collector John Jones of Gellilyfdy, in which one would combine both collections on the other’s death. Vaughan also transcribed texts himself, carried out genealogical research, made an English translation of the ”[[Brut y Tywysogion]]” (or ”Chronicle of the Princes”), and wrote several short historical tracts as well as the book ”British Antiquities Revived”, published at Oxford in 1662.
He died in 1667 and was buried at Dolgellau. Vaughan had four sons and four daughters, and his descendants remained prominent in the area and its politics for many years.
==The Hengwrt-Peniarth Collection==
Vaughan’s remarkable collection of manuscripts remained at Hengwrt in the care of his descendants. In 1905, after a long period of negotiation, Sir [[Sir John Williams, 1st Baronet, of the City of London|John Williams]] acquired a reversionary interest in them from the Wynne family of Peniarth, William Watkin Wynne (1801-1880) having added substantially to the collection after being bequeathed it by Sir Robert Vaughan, the [[Member of Parliament]] for Merioneth.<ref name=nlw2>[http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-WYNN-PEN-1275.html Wynne family, of Peniarth: Dictionary of Welsh Biography], [[National Library of Wales]]</ref><ref name=koch>Koch, J. ”Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopaedia”, ABC-CLIO, 2005, ISBN 9781851094400 ,p.905</ref> The Hengwrt-Peniarth library was then moved to [[Aberystwyth]], where the National Library of Wales was to be established.
Vaughan’s collection contains several texts of great historical or literary importance, such as the [[Book of Taliesin]], the so-called [[Hengwrt Manuscript]] of Chaucer’s [[Canterbury Tales]], now thought to be the earliest known copy, and the [[Black Book of Carmarthen]].
==References==
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[[Category:Welsh antiquarians]]
[[Category:1667 deaths]]