He served Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and later Prince Charles, heir to the throne of King James I.
His Vaughan grandfather, another John, was the first of the family to settle at Golden Grove and claimed descent from Bleddyn ap Cynfyn (died 1075), a Prince of Gwynedd and of Powys of the Royal House of Mathrafal.
Vaughan's father married secondly Letitia, a daughter of Sir John Perrot, Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Vaughan worked to obtain a position in the household of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne, and in 1614 asked the Earl of Somerset, who was close to the king, to use his influence.
In 1628, he sought reimbursement for his expenses on the expedition to Spain, saying to Sir John Coke that his service with Prince Charles had cost him in all some £20,000.
Vaughan's father-in-law Sir Gelly Meyrick took part in the Earl of Essex's revolt and was executed for treason on 13 March 1601.
[7] Vaughan's surviving children by his first marriage were his eldest son Richard, and his daughter Elizabeth (d. by 1642) who married Sir Henry Salusbury, 1st Baronet.