His mother, Eliza Rolls from The Hendre, Monmouthshire, was a Catholic convert and intensely religious.

Immediately after ordination Fr Vaughan was appointed to the staff of the recently opened St. Bede's College as Professor of Mathematics, however he resigned in November of that same year following a breakdown in health and was invited by his brother Bishop Roger Vaughan to come and undertake Missionary work in Australia.

In 1896, he was appointed domestic prelate to the Papal Court with the title Monsignor and in 1898 became Canon of Westminster.

He resided in Rome from 1904 to 1907, and then undertook a preaching tour in the United States and Canada.

In 1920 became Parish Priest at St Hubert's Church in Great Harwood where he died five years later on 4 December 1925 at the age of seventy-two.