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Vaughan, Griffith (1783-1857)

Vaughan, Griffith

Hafodwen, Llanedi, Carmarthenshire, Wales; joiner (b.1783-d.c.1857)

Griffith Vaughan was the son of a cooper living in the Teifi valley.  He settled at Hafodwen in 1820 and was described in the 1841 Census as a ‘carpenter’ and in 1851 as a ‘head carpenter’. His eldest son, Henry Vaughan, followed in the same trade in a succession of smallholdings nearby and himself had three sons, two of whom became carpenters, the third moving to Swansea to work as a joiner (with a brief spell in Birkenhead in the 1870s). Another son of Griffith Vaughan, also named Griffith, became a carpenter in Llanarthne in the Towy valley. He had four sons and two grandsons who followed the family trade. However, the house at Hafodwen was inherited about 1857 by Griffith snr’s only daughter, Sarah, who married John Evans, also a joiner//carpenter, and from them the Evans family of furniture makers was descended.

A potboard dresser, reputedly by Griffith Vaughan snr and dated 1803, and a child’s chair also by him are illustrated in Bebb (2007), II, figs 897 & 1161.

Source: Bebb, Welsh Furniture (2007), I, p. 61; II, p. 271