William Vaughan

William Vaughan (22 September 1752 – 5 May 1850) was an English West India merchant and author.

Life Born on 22 September 1752, he was the second son of Samuel Vaughan, a merchant in London and Jamaica, by his wife Sarah, daughter of Benjamin Hallowell of Boston, Massachusetts. Benjamin Vaughan was his elder brother. He was educated at Newcome's School in Hackney and Warrington Academy.

After leaving school Vaughan entered his father's business, and became prominent in commerce. In 1783 he was elected a director of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, and continued in it, as director, sub-governor, and governor, until 1829. During the Nore mutiny in 1797, Vaughan formed one of the committees of London merchants convened to meet at the Royal Exchange to deal with it. He independently drew up a short address to the seamen which was put in circulation by the naval authorities. Vaughan became a director of the London Dock Company in 1805.

Vaughan was a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Linnean Society, and of the Royal Astronomical Society. He was a member of the New England Corporation, and its governor till 1829. He was also a member of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor, which was instrumental in 1815 in establishing the first savings bank in London, at Leicester Place in Westminster. He was a governor of Christ's Hospital and an honorary member of the Society of Civil Engineers. in 1830 and a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1840.

Vaughan died in London on 5 May 1850, at his residence, 70 Fenchurch Street.