HISTORY

The Vaughans of Trawsgoed are descended from Collwyn ap Tangno founder of the fifth noble tribe of North Wales, Lord of Eifionydd, Ardudwy, and part of Lleyn, and said to have had his residence at one time (part of which still remains) on the site of Harlech Castle. The manor and mansion of Trawsgoed (Crosswood) came into the Vaughan family by the marriage of Adda Vychan with Tudo, daughter and heiress of Ifan Goch of Trawsgoed, ‘Evan the Red', in the year 1200.

The founder of the modern estate was the eminent parliamentarian and lawyer, Sir John Vaughan , who was made Chief Justice of the Common Pleas by Charles II. It was Sir John Vaughan who acquired from the Earl of Essex much of the former monastic lands of Strata Florida Abbey. At the same time further land was added to the estate through his marriage to Jane Steadman daughter of John Steadman of Ystrad Fflur and Cilcennin.

In 1695, John Vaughan of Trawsgoed, the grandson of Sir John Vaughan, was created Viscount Lisburne in the peerage of Ireland. He married Malet daughter of the poet and courtier, the Earl of Rochester, and granddaughter of the cavalier, Sir Henry Wilmot, the victor of the Battle of Roundway Down during the Civil War.   The Vaughan family became Earls of Lisburne in 1776 and remained at Trawsgoed mansion (Crosswood Park) over successive generations. The family at one time owned estates in Northumberland and at Mamhead in Devon. In 1947 the mansion house became the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food in Wales and the home farm is still occupied by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and managed by the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS).

The family retain the use of an apartment in the mansion house at Trawsgoed and have shooting rights over adjoining Forestry Commission woodlands, over part of Cors Caron (Tregaron Bog) and fishing rights on the River Ystwyth. The house is set in listed parkland some 8 miles inland from Aberystwyth.

Today the estate amounts to over 5,500 acres of farmland, uplands, common land and sporting rights. For further information about the Vaughan family and the Trawsgoed Estate see:
www.data-wales.co.uk/trawsgd.htm

Estate Deeds & Documents

The 7th Earl of Lisburne gifted most of the deeds and docuemnts held in muniment room at Trawsgoed (Crosswood) to the National Library of Wales. The collection comprises the estate and family records from 1184-1939,  relating to properties in a very large number of parishes in the county of Cardigan. There are a large number of title deeds relating to properties in the parishes of Aberystwyth, Cilcennin, Cwmystwyth, Dihewid, Gwnnws, Llanafan, Llanbadarn Fawr, Llanbadarn Trefeglwys, Llanddewi Aberarth, Llanddewi Brefi, Llanfihangel Genau'r Glyn, Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Llanfihangel Ystrad, Llanilar, Llanrhystud, Lledrod, Tregaron, Ysbyty Ystwyth and Ystrad Meurig. The archive consists of mainly title deeds, but there are also rent rolls and rentals, probate documents, documents relating to tithe payments, and a small quantity of correspondence and legal papers.

Please see: http://arcw.llgc.org.uk/anw/get_collection.php?coll_id=77987&inst_id=1&term=Crosswood%20Deeds

Copies of  some of the above deeds and documents as well as those from 1939 to date,  are also held at the estate office and by the estate's Solicitors: Morris & Bates, PO Box 1, Alexandra Road, Aberystwyth, SY23 4PT