• Name: Vaughan, Mrs
• Gender: Female
• Birth Date:
• Death Date:

Mrs Vaughan comes to stay with Godwin and Wollstonecraft during the birth of Mary. She arrives on 23 August and leaves on 13 September 1797. The suggestion in the editorial notes to The Letters of William Godwin, volume 1, is that this is Sarah Vaughan and linked to the other Vaughan's in the diary. However, this is uncertain. Godwin notes 'Mrs Vaughan arrives, and the following day, meet Vaughan. There is then no further mention until her departure - although she is referred to in a letter to Mary Hays. This suggests that she was someone employed to act as midwife and support; that Godwin did not previously know her and did not see it as a priority to greet her when she arrived, and that she was consigned in his mind at least, to the domestic side of the family. On the other hand, it is a striking coincidence that Vaughan calls on the same day Mrs Vaughan arrives, and that Godwin notes a further call 2 days later. Moreover, Mrs Vaughan reappears on 17 and 18 September, in company with Marshall. These uncertainties have led us to code Mrs Vaughan entries under this code, together with the 24 August, meet Vaughan, but other Vaughans who call in these few weeks appear under the generic Vaughan code. The edition of Godwin's Letters also suggests that PV, who appears just after this time is the young son Petty Vaughan (c 12 years of age) of Sarah Vaughan and Benjamin. In fact, it is striking that PV appears only a few times, and it follows the use of Mrs V. It is possible PV is an evolution of Mrs V. However, we have given the PV entries their own code, partly because of the links to Holcroft and Johnson, which suggests both greater intimact with PV than is indicated with reference to Mrs V, and a different role.

In the July of 1797, Godwin seems to have read Vaughan's Letters, possibly from Addington (who calls the previous day, and to whom he refers in a note to Wollstonecraft saying he does not mean to return them to him today (4 July 1797). We have coded these as Benjamin Vaughan's Letters on France and Poland, but this must be open to doubt. Godwin reads the letters regularly until 7 July and only finally finishes them on 25 July. While reading them he also has entries on 6 July, 19 July and 18th August 'Write to V' (and on the latter he also refers again to the Letters). This suggests that he is compiling a long letter to Vaughan on the Letters, which he did not complete until mid-August. But the identification of the text sits uncomfortably with the suggestion that these are in fact Mrs Vaughan's Letters, lent by Addington - which is the upshot of Wollstonecraft and Godwin's exchange on 4 July 1797. But, if these are indeed Mrs Vaughan's letters, it seems very unlikely that she is Sarah Vaughan, (Benjamin's wife), since the evidence points to her being in America in July. Moreover, there is nothing to suggest that she has much connection with the Vaughan family

• Pamela Clemit ed., The Letters of William Godwin Vol: 1 1778-1797Oxford, 2011.

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.