Constellation Similarity Assertions

John Vaughan (1756–1841, APS 1784) was a wine merchant, philanthropist, and long-time treasurer and librarian of the American Philosophical Society. A native of England, Vaughan moved to Philadelphia in 1782. He soon was one of the most respected members of Philadelphia society, largely because of his tireless support of numerous literary, scientific and benevolent causes. Over the course of his five decades of service to the American Philosophical Society, Vaughan met and corresponded with many eminent Americans and Europeans.

John Vaughan was born in London, England, in 1756. He was one of eleven children of Samuel Vaughan, a London merchant and West India planter, and Sarah Hallowell, daughter of Benjamin Hallowell, a Boston merchant and founder of Hallowell, Maine. Vaughan grew up in a liberal household. The family attended religious services by the dissenting minister and political radical Richard Price (1723-1791, APS 1785). His older brothers, Benjamin Vaughan (1751-1835, APS 1786), who became a prominent diplomat and political reformer, and William Vaughan, who eventually served as the promoter of the London docks, resided with the dissenter Joseph Priestley (1733-1804, APS 1785) during their studies at the Warrington Academy. John apparently attended Palgrave School, a popular school for boys founded by the poet and essayist Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825) and her husband, the Reverend Rochemont Barbault.

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