Henry Vaughan

Henry Vaughan (17 April 1809 – 26 November 1899) was a British art collector. He is best known for his many generous gifts and bequests to British and Irish public collections.

Early life Henry Vaughan, who was born in Southwark, London on 17 April 1809, was the son of a successful hat manufacturer, George Vaughan, and his wife Elizabeth Andrews. Henry and his elder brother and sister, George and Mary, were brought up as Quakers. He attended a school at Higham Hill, Walthamstow, run by Eliezer Cogan, where a fellow pupil was Benjamin Disraeli. On the death of his father in 1828, Henry inherited a large fortune and thereafter lead what could be thought of as a rather self-indulgent life, but he went on to become one of the most discerning art collectors and generous philanthropists of his time.

Art collector In 1834 he bought a lease on a large house, number 28 Cumberland Terrace, on one of the grandest of John Nash's developments in the newly fashionable Regent's Park, which would be his home for the rest of his long life. He spent much of his time travelling extensively, becoming a cultivated, enthusiastic, and eclectic collector of works of art, especially of prints and drawings by J. M. W. Turner, with whom he was personally acquainted. which he bought in the 1860s

Death Vaughan died on 26 November 1899 at his house in Cumberland Terrace and his estate was valued for probate at £230,000. He is buried with his sister in a family vault on the western side of Highgate Cemetery, opposite the grave of George Wombwell.