This is the Rev. Frederick Vaughan who lived in Broadwindsor 1869 – 1884. He was born in 1829 at a farmhouse in Cuckfield, mid-Sussex. He was the fourth of nine children. He was first married in 1849 to Catherine Godard in Brighton and they had at least six children.
His Great Great Granddaughter would be very interested to hear of any details or images that may exist from anyone who may have known him or the family. She is also happy to share more details that they have and requested that all information and communications are through info@broadwindsor.org for the time being.
Frederick left home at the age of 14yrs and moved to seek his fortune in Brighton where he first found employment at a shoe makers. In 1846, at the age of 17yrs, it was his brother taking him to the Samuel Martin’s church in Westminster, London where he heard Samuel Martin preach and at the age of 26yrs he embarked upon his own journey along a religious path.
He spent six years at Beaconsfield and after a short spell in Evesham, he visited Brighton at the invitation of some friends. He joined the London Road Church and became a Sunday School teacher. At the age of just 22yrs he took charge of a branch school at Lewes Road and visited cottages and army barracks. The absence of the appointed preacher one Sunday led to his attempting to preach. His work here, particularly with soldiers was so successful, he was then induced to become an Evangelist. He continued his work in Brighton passionately despite the tragic loss of three of his children in succession followed by the death of his wife in 1868 . With four remaining children to care for the Rev. Vaughan at this time relinquished his work at Brighton and retired for quieter work in Broadwindsor.
Frederick Vaughan moved to Chapel Street, Broadwindsor late 1869 with his second wife Georgeanna, a spinster aged 28 years whom he married on 2nd September 1869 in Brighton, aged 40 years and Frederick’s 3 remaining children, Catherine, Emily and Sarah.
In Broadwindsor, Frederick had charge of a group of three chapels. Preaching three times and walking six miles each Sunday. His evenings through the week were occupied with services in each place, bands of hope and singing classes. He became Secretary of Dorset Southern Counties Temperance Association and organised Temperance missions in all the chief towns of Dorset and the three bordering counties. He travelled all over the district organising Temperance societies and missions. Each year he trained a choir of five hundred voices to sing in the annual fete.
Their first child, Rose Vaughan, was born in 1870 and their second child, Herbert Lawrence Vaughan was born in 1871. Herbert died in 1910 in London leaving his wife, Lucy May, nee Hooker and three very young children. Herbert was employed by a leading hosiery company in London; this association with the Guild of Hosiery Makers allowed the three children to be educated at The Warehousemen Clerks and Drapers School in Purley, Surrey.
In 1884 he left Broadwindsor and moved to take up a ministry in Puddletown. He held a pastorate at Puddletown for two and a half years before the health of his second wife began to deteriorate and he was advised to take a change of air for her health. Their youngest son, Philip Henry Vaughan tragically died during their brief spell in Puddletown and is buried in the churchyard there.
On a trip to Bournemouth, he discovered the existence of a need for a congregational church in Boscombe. He began by hiring a hall and issued notice that on Sunday, 26th September 1886, he would deliver a sermon. By visiting people in their homes, he gathered a few and within five months he had a formed a church with 30 members. He raised funds to build a church on a freehold site which cost them £400. By March 1888, the new building was ready for opening and services were held in it. The membership grew to 120 and the Sunday school and various organisations connected with the church were in a “very flourishable condition“. Congregations increased. Money was obtained and the church was repeatedly enlarged soon becoming the most prosperous in Bournemouth. The success took it’s toll on Frederick and in 1893, he suffered a stroke.
It was tragic news to the congregation of Boscombe’s church to learn that their pastor had suffered “an attack of paralysis which was so severe a character that, although he, to a considerable extent recovered, it has necessitated the discontinuance of his work in the ministry.“.
Later in 1893, the Christian Globe commented that Frederick’s popularity had been gained by not only his deliveries at the pulpit but by patiently and persistently visiting people in their homes and by faithful preaching: textual rather than topical; he sought to help others fight their own battles and bear their burdens more easily and to inspire the young with ambition to lead a worth, holy and useful life. It was unfortunate circumstances by which this valuable career had been cut short and the connection between pastor and people had been severed. Efforts were being made to present Mr. Vaughan with a suitable testimonial because it was felt that the Boscombe church was too young to be able to afford a superannuation allowance to the minister whose efforts and untiring energy by which it was brought into existence and under whose care it had reached its present condition of prosperity.
Rev. Frederick Vaughan lived in retirement occasionally worshipping in the church he had founded until 1911 when he died in Boscombe at the age of from Bronchitis. He is buried in a grave without a headstone in Bournemouth East Cemetery, Bournemouth together with his widow Georgeanna and their daughter Sarah Vaughan. His obituary stated that “He was a good man – bright and hopeful, with an amzing capacity for work and unlimited perserverance.”
Three of his brothers emigrated to Canada and Frederick‘s great great granddaughter is in touch with the descendant families of two of them. They would so welcome any information anyone may have, if you can help please email: info@broadwindsor.org. Thank you.
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