Charles Vaughan family papers

Charles Vaughan (1759-1839) was the sixth child of English merchant Samuel Fuer Vaughan and Sarah (Hallowell) Vaughan. The Vaughans were a prosperous merchant family with slave-holding estates in Jamaica and land along the Kennebec River in Maine. Charles was born in England, grew up on his father's Jamaican plantation, and moved to New England in 1785. An heir to his maternal grandfather, Benjamin Hallowell, Charles and his brother Benjamin (1751-1835) founded and built much of the town of Hallowell, Maine, on land acquired by their maternal grandfather as part of the Kennebec Purchase. Charles also tried, but failed, to establish a new Kennebec River seaport called Jones Eddy to rival the existing port at Wiscasset, Maine.

Vaughan moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1791, where he became a merchant trading with England and, with his brother-in-law Charles Bulfinch, promoter of Boston's first block of brick homes. Failure of the brick block, of Jones Eddy, and other ventures led to bankruptcy in 1798. He retired to Hallowell where he was agent for non-resident proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase and worked to develop Maine agriculture and animal husbandry. He served as a Bowdoin College overseer from 1811 until his death in 1839.

In 1791, Charles Vaughan married Frances Western Apthorp (1759-1836), daughter of Bostonian John Apthorp. Together they had six children; four survived into adulthood, John Apthorp (1795-1865), Harriet (1802-1843), Charles, Jr. (1804-1878), and Hannah Frances (1812-1855).

In 1831, Charles Vaughan, Jr. (1804 - 1879) married Mary Susan Abbot. Together they had six children including Francis "Frank" Wales (1833-1908) and Charles Everett (1835-1904). Charles Everett would eventually go on to work on the floating hospitals of the U.S. Navy; his letters home to family during the Civil War (1863-1865) are included in this collection.