Vaughan house on Lagos Island. Circa: 1987
The Vaughan’s are one of the prominent Families of Lagos. In 1805, their Patriarch Scipio Vaughan (1784- 1840) an Egba indigene, along with other captives was shipped from Velekete Slave market in Badagry to the Americas.

He was bought by Wiley Vaughan, a white Slave owner in Camden, South Carolina. As per the prevailing tradition, he took on the surname of his master in addition to his given name; Scipio, as Scipio Vaughan. Scipio was an intelligent and skilled craftsman who eventually

became a free man. It was Scipio’s dying wish that his sons Burrell and James leave America and return to live in Africa.
In keeping with his wishes, his sons enrolled with the American Colonization Society as emigrants to Liberia.

They left Camden in 1852 and sailed to Liberia in 1853 to start a new life. They lived there for two years before accepting an offer of employment to go with Thomas Jefferson Bowen, a Missionary with the Southern Baptist Convention to Yoruba land to spread the Baptist religion.

They came to Nigeria in 1854 and went on to Ijaye to work as builders in 1855. During the brutal Ibadan-Ijaye War, James was taken captive. He escaped, took refuge in Abeokuta and served as a military sharpshooter.