Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne

Wilmot Vaughan was the eldest son of Wilmot Vaughan, 3rd Viscount Lisburne, and Elizabeth Watson. He was born around 1730 and educated at Eton. In 1754 he married Elizabeth Nightingale. She died in May 1755, just a few days after the birth of their only son who was also named Wilmot. In 1763 he married Dorothy Shafto, and they had four children. The Vaughan family seat was at Trawsgoed in Cardiganshire, but Wilmot also inherited estates at Berwick-on-Tweed from his maternal uncle and in Devon through his wife.

In 1755 Wilmot Vaughan entered Parliament as M.P for Cardiganshire, a seat he held until 1761. In 1765 he was elected as Member for Berwick, and then from 1768 he again held Cardiganshire until 1796. In 1766, he succeeded his father as 4th Viscount Lisburne but was able to retain his seat in the House of Commons because this title was in the Irish Peerage and did not entitle him to a seat in the House of Lords. Vaughan was active in politics, serving as a Lord of Trade from 1769 to 1770 and then as a Lord of the Admiralty until 1782. In 1776 he was created Earl of Lisburne, but this was still in the Irish Peerage and Vaughan hankered after the status of an English title. He had hopes that the Duke of Portland would arrange matters when the latter headed the coalition ministry of 1783, but he was overlooked. Vaughan’s correspondence with Portland on the subject became increasingly bitter and rancorous as the years passed without fulfilling this ambition. Because of his declining health, he retired from Parliament in 1796 and died in 1800.

Wilmot Vaughan was known as a man of learning and culture. He employed Robert Adam and Lancelot Brown to improve the house and grounds at Mamhead Park, which remained the principal family seat of the Earls of Lisburne until it was sold in 1822. Adam’s work in the late 1760s included a design for a library.