William Vaughan (1752–1850), merchant, was a lifelong resident of London who studied at the Warrington academy of Joseph Priestley. Beginning in 1791 he wrote on canals, docks, and naval architecture, sending TJ his work on the last in 1792. Vaughan’s extended advocacy contributed to the construction of improved docks for the port of London. He was a director of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, 1783–1829, and a fellow of the Linnean Society of London, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Royal Society of London. In 1830 Vaughan was elected to the American Philosophical Society, of which his brother John Vaughan was a longtime librarian and secretary, and he was also a member of the New-York Historical Society (DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1901, 22 vols. description ends ; ODNB description begins H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, 60 vols. description ends ; Vaughan, Memoir of William Vaughan, Esq. F.R.S. with Miscellaneous Pieces Relative to Docks, Commerce, Etc. [1839], esp. 19; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends nos. 1231, 3548, 3945; PTJ description begins Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, and others, eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1950– , 34 vols. description ends , 15:102–3, 23:99; APS description begins American Philosophical Society description ends , Minutes, 16 Apr. 1830 [MS in PPAmP]; Gentleman’s Magazine, new ser., 33 [1850]: 681).

The American Philosophical Society received the forwarded publications a month after Vaughan’s letter. Among them were transactions of the Royal Society of London (entitled Philosophical Transactions); the Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; the Society of Antiquaries of London (entitled Archaeologia); the Horticultural Society of London; and the Geological Society of London (APS description begins American Philosophical Society description ends , Minutes, 16 Apr. 1813 [MS in PPAmP]).