VAUGHAN, ROBERT: Congregationalist; b. in England near the border of Wales Oct. 14, 1795; d. at Torquay (29 m. e. of Plymouth) June 15, 1868. He early displayed a marked taste for history, but prepared for the ministry under the guidance of William Thorpe, pastor at Castle Green, Bristol; he was ordained to the charge of the congregation in Angel Street, Worcester, 1819; thence went to the charge of the church at Hornton Street, Kensington. He commenced a literary activity during this period, issuing his Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe, Il LrstraiRd lrrincipaiLy from his Manuscripts (2 vols., London, 1828), and Memorials of the Stuart Dynasty (2 vols., 1831). In 1834 he took the chair of history in London University, and the same year delivered the Congregational lecture on Causes of the Corruption of Christianity (1835). His next works were The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and the State of Europe during the Early Part of the Reign of Louis XIY. (2 vols., 1838), and The History of England under the House of Stuart (1840). He next assumed the labors of president and professor of theology in the Lancashire Independent College, in 1843, entering upon his duties with the inaugural lecture on Protestant Nonconformity in its Relation to Learning and Piety (1843). He was the founder in 1845 of The By^itish Quarterly, and for twenty years its editor, publishing some of his essays contributed to it in the work Essays on History, Philosophy, and Theology (2 vols., 1849). For the Wyclif Society he edited Tracts and Treatises of John de.Wydiffe . . . with .. . . Memoir (1845), and issued also John de Wycliffe, D.D.: a Monograph (1853). He resigned his presidency of Lancashire College in 1857, acted as minister to a congregation at Uxbridge, Middlesex, and then retired to devote himself to literary work. He accepted in 1867 a call to a church at Torquay, but his death speedily brought an end to his activities.

The works named above by no means exhaust his literary productions, and mention may be made here of his Thoughts on the past and Present State of Religious Parties in England (1838); Congregationalism; or the Polity of Independent Churches, viewed in Relation to the State and Tendencies of Modern Society (1842); The Modern Pulpit Viewed in its Relation to the State of Society (1842); The Credulities of Scepticism (1856); and English Nonconformity (1862).

Bibliography: Robert Vaughan, a Memorial, London, 1869;

J. Waddington, Congregational History, iv. 818 sqq., v. 8 sqq., ib. 1578-80; J. Stoughton, Religion in.Engtand during the First Half of the Present Century, ii. 278, ib. 1884; W. Urwiek, Nonconformity in Worcester, pp. 120 sqq., 206, ib. 1897.