Florida First Coast Pioneer Families
John Daniel
Vaughan
John
Daniel Vaughan was born in Boston Mass, March 13, 1763. His parents were Henry and Mary Humphrey
Vaughan, native of Dorchester, his mothers
family being one of the most conspicuous of that historic town. Of his childhood, there is no record. He entered military service at age 14,
although he gave his age as sixteen in order to secure enlistment under
existing army regulations. As the Massachusetts records
testify, he enlisted in January, 1777, a private in Captain Wiley’s company,
Colonel Michael Jackson’s regiment and was honorably discharged in 1783. Following the Revolution he rendered service
in the Indian wars in Captain Pierce’s regiment commanded by Colonel Hamar in
the year 1785 and was honorably discharged in 1786.
From the official records it is
shown that the military services of the young Massachusetts soldier covered in all a
period of nineteen years. After the
Revolution, he served continuously in Pennsylvania
and other states. January 11, 1795 he
was appointed lieutenant of militia in Burnt Fort, Georgia and continued as
such until January, 1796. It was about
this time that he married Rhoda Effingham, niece of Thomas Harvey Miller, owner
of a notable plantation at Peter’s Point near St. Marys, Georgia.
Her mother was Pharaba Miller, whose
kinsman, Phienas Miller, married the widow of General Nathaniel Greene, to whom
the State of Georgia deeded
Dungeness, the southern portion of Cumberland
Island, as a reward for
his distinguished services in the Revolutionary War.
In 1797, Lt.
Vaughan received from the Spanish Government a grant of a large tract
[250 acre] land on Amelia Island. [December 14, 1807 see attached
land grant]. He also received one hundred acres bounty land for
services in the Revolution and a grant for service in the Indian
War.
When the United States
declared war on England in
1812, fired with the spirit of loyalty to his country, he left his family on
his Amelia
Island Plantation, crossed the St. Marys River into Georgia and
once
more entered military service, remaining in the service until the close
of
the war.
The rest of John Vaughan’s life
was spent in peace and plenty on his
plantation covering the lower portion of Amelia Island
bordering he
Alantic Ocean on the east, and the inland waterway on the west.
The Vaughan plantation was
one of three or four into which the island
was divided, and according to
authentic records, he owned 500 slaves.
Assisted by his son Daniel, he raised large crops of cotton for which
the islands in the South Atlantic were famous.
Source: Amelia
Island Genealogical
Society
Pictures courtesy of Terrell Thompson
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Bounty Land - Revolutionary War Pension |
The children of John Daniel Vaughan and Rhoda Effingham
Miller were:
Jose Daniel Vaughan b. 1800 St. Marys,
Georgia, d. 1856 St. Simons Island, Georgia.
Married Eliza Chisholm Pelot Harrison b. 1805 d. 1875
William W Vaughan b. 1806 Peters
Point, Georgia d. 1860 Amelia Island,
Nassau County, Florida. Married unknown.
Jane Pharaba Vaughan b. 1812 Amelia
Island, Nassau
County, Florida d. unknown,
Manatee, Florida. Married James G. Cooper b. 1802 d. 1876

*Land grant receipt courtesy of Florida Memory-Spanish Land Grants.
Compiled by Terrell Thompson