Vaughan, Benjamin (1751 - 1835)

Genre: Non-Fiction, Non-Fiction - Scholarly

Benjamin Vaughan was born in Jamaica, West Indies. His family emigrated to England where he attended Newcome School in Hackney near London, Lincoln's Inn, a college of law, then a school in Liverpool where he was tutored by Joseph Priestly (the discoverer of oxygen) and later in Edinburgh where he studied medicine and graduated in 1781. He was a life-long friend of Benjamin Franklin and was involved in negotiations for peace between England and the United States in 1782 during the American Revolution. He lived in France and in Switzerland, then finally settled on his mother's family's property along the Kennebec River in Maine, eventually called Hallowell. At the time, his personal library was larger that that of Harvard University. He practiced medicine as well as building houses, mills, stores, a distillery, a brewery and a printing office in Hallowell. He published political articles and wrote a historical paper concerning the Northeast Boundary of the U.S. at the request of President John Adams.

Selected Bibliography

  • Letters on the subject of the concert of Princes, and the dismemberment of Poland and France... (1793)

Selected Resources