George Vaughan (New Hampshire)

George Vaughan
Royal Commission of George Vaughan
Lieutenant Governor of the Province of New Hampshire
In office 18 July 1715 – 30 September 1717
Preceded by	John Usher
Succeeded by	John Wentworth
Personal details
Born	13 April 1676 Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Died	20 November 1725
Spouse(s)	Mary Belcher, Elizabeth Eliott
Children	Sarah, William Vaughan, Margaret, Elizabeth, Abigail, Eliot, Mary, Jane, George
Parents	William Vaughan and Margaret Cutt
Occupation	councilor, merchant, Colonel of the New Hampshire militia

George Vaughan (New Hampshire) (13 April 1676 – 20 November 1725) may be best known for being Lieutenant Governor of the Province of New Hampshire for only one year. A graduate of Harvard College in 1696, he was also at various times a merchant, colonel of militia, agent for the province to England, and counsellor.

George Vaughan was born in 1676 to William Vaughan (military officer) and Margaret Cutt Vaughan. His father was a representative of an English trading firm who migrated to the Province of New Hampshire, where he became a wealthy merchant. His mother also came from a family of merchants, one of whom, her uncle John Cutt, was the first royally appointed governor of the province. Vaughan graduated from Harvard College in 1696, and entered the family business in Portsmouth.

In 1697 he married Mary Belcher, the daughter of Massachusetts merchant Andrew Belcher (and sister to future governor Jonathan Belcher). She died in 1699, not long after giving birth to a daughter who also did not survive. In January 1700 he married Mary Elliot.

When Queen Anne's War broke out in 1702, Vaughan joined the provincial militia, in which he was commissioned a colonel. In 1707 he was chosen by the provincial assembly as the colonial agent, and traveled to London. He was able to parlay his London connections into an appointment as the province's lieutenant governor in 1715. He assumed this office in October 1715, during the governorship of Joseph Dudley. Dudley was also governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and did not come to New Hampshire before his replacement in October 1716 by Colonel Samuel Shute, who was also commissioned governor of both provinces. As a result, Vaughan acted as governor during this time.