Sir Roger Vaughan of Tretower, Kt.

Alternate birth dates and locations:

Birth: Breconshire ABT 1436 in Porthaml Mansion, Talgarth, Powys, Wales 1 Birth: 1430 in Tretower Castle, Powys, Montgomeryshire, Wales

Please see Darrell Wolcott: Family of Drymbenog ap Maenyrch of Brycheiniog; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id312.html (Steven Ferry, May 21, 2023.)

See Peter Bartrum, https://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/handle/2160/4760/GODWIN%... (February 21, 2018; Anne Brannen, curator)

Sir ROGER VAUGHAN, third son of ROGER VAUGHAN of Bredwardine — see Vaughan family of Bredwardine — by Gwladys, daughter of Dafydd Gam, was the first of the Vaughans to reside at Tretower. It is said that the residence was a gift to him from his half-brother William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, to whom the Castle and Manor of Tretower had descended by the marriage of his father, Sir William ap Thomas, to the widow of Sir James Berkeley, heiress of Tretower. Roger Vaughan enlarged and remodeled the house by the addition of a western range of buildings with a hall.

Like all his kindred, Roger Vaughan is found on the Yorkist side in the divisions of his time, but he also was granted a pardon by the Coventry Parliament of 1457. The Privy Council ordered him, with Sir William Herbert and Walter Devereux, to prevent assemblies and the victualling of castles in Wales, 17 August 1460. He was with Edward's forces at Mortimer's Cross, 1461, and it is said that it was he who led Owain Tudor to his execution at Hereford after the battle. He was granted the offices of Porter of the Castle of Bronllys, Forester of Cantrecelly, Steward and Receiver of the Lordships of Cantrecelly, Penkelly, Alexanders-ton, and Llangoed, 15 November 1461, and lands in Southwest England, 11 July 1462.

He took a prominent part in quelling a rising in Carmarthenshire in 1465 and received grants of the insurgents’ manors and estates in Gower and Kidwelly. By 23 March 1465 he was a knight, though the investiture is not recorded by Shaw. He was on commissions of ‘oyer et terminer’ in Wales and the Marches in 1467 and 1468. In the Earl of Warwick's charter to Neath Abbey, 24 June 1468, Vaughan as the Earl's Chancellor at Cardiff is the first witness, and Thomas ap Roger, possibly his son, is described as Coroner of Cardiff.

The common belief that he fell with his brothers at the Battle of Banbury is incorrect. Lewis Glyn Cothi called upon him to avenge that battle, and on 16 February 1470 he was appointed Constable of Cardigan Castle. After the Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471, it is said that Edward IV ordered him to pursue and capture Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, but it was Vaughan himself who fell into the Earl's hands, to be summarily beheaded at Chepstow. His elegies were sung by Leuan ap Hywel Swrdwal or Huw Cae Llwyd, and Llywelyn Goch y Dant, who accused Jasper Tudor of treachery and guile. Guto'r Glyn also called on his family to avenge his death.

He is described in the pedigree books as Lord of Cantrecelly and Penkelly, Owner of Merthyr Tydfil and Llandimore, and various lands in Glamorgan, and it is said that he built the ‘Royal Palace’ at Cardiff.

He was twice married. The first wife was Denise, daughter of Thomas ap Philip Vaughan of Talgarth, and she was the mother of the heir (Sir) THOMAS VAUGHAN, Roger Vaughan — see Vaughan family of Porthaml — and four daughters who married into prominent families, the wives of Robert Raglan, Henry Donne, Morgan Gamage, and Morgan ap Thomas ap Gruffudd ap Nicolas.

His second wife was Margaret, Lady Powis, daughter of James, Lord Audley, by his second wife, Eleanor, illegitimate daughter of Edmund, Earl of Kent. (Her first husband, Sir Richard Grey, Lord Powis, died 17 December 1466. The order of the marriages is incorrect in G. E. Cokayne under ‘Grey of Powis.’ She was Lady Powis before her marriage to Sir Roger Vaughan. She was dead before 2 February 1480/1.) She had one daughter by Sir Roger, the wife of Humphrey Kynaston.

VAUGHAN family, of Tretower Court, parish of Llanfihangel Cwm-du, Brecknock.
Dictionary of Welsh Biography
The National Library of Wales
https://biography.wales/article/s-VAUG-TRE-1450