MRS. JANE VAUGHAN. NEWCASTLE, LAWRENCE, PENNSYLVANIA.
Jane, wife of Robert Owen was descended from prominent North Wales families. Her father Robert Vaughan was an antiquarian who’s collection was in some ways a catalyst for the creation of the national Library of Wales and her mother Catherine was one of the Nanneys of Nannau a long-established family with some of the largest landholdings in Merionethshire.Jane was likely born sometime after her parent’s marriage which likely took place in November 1615. She may have been born in the 1620s after her oldest brother Howel, who was born circa 1618. According to the pedigrees composed by her father and her brother Griffith, Jane married Robert Owen of Dolserau. The marriage perhaps occurred sometime before circa 1640.
In addition to her appearance in contemporary family pedigrees, evidence for Jane’s marriage is found in surviving letters written in 1678 by her husband Robert Owen, who refers to Jane’s brother Ynyr as his brother-in-law. They were married probably at least before 1447, when their son Griffith is said to be born. A letter by Jane’s father Robert Vaughan to "Mr. Robert Owen at Dol y Serry near Dolgelley," dated December 1st, 1651, might also indicate a marriage before then.
In 1684, Robert, his wife Jane, sailed to Pennsylvania arriving in September 17, 1684. The passenger list for the ship Vine starts with "of Dolyserre" and then first listed are Robert Owen, wife Jane, and son Lewes who were from there. Also on the passenger list were a Dr. Griffith Owen and his wife Sarah. Though the passenger list doesn’t state the relationship between Robert Owen and Griffith Owen, a few years previously, in 1678, the Lancashire Hardshaw East monthly meeting recorded the marriage of a "Griffith Owen son of Robert Owen of Dolyserre in the county of Merioneth in Wales" to Sarah Barnes in 1678.
Robert Owen is said to have died in 1685 or within a year of arriving. He witnessed a deed that year when son Edward sold land to son Griffith. Robert Owen and wife Jane were praised years later, in a testimony by fellow Quaker Roland Ellis, who says that Robert was one of the first in the new religion. He refers to them as "...my dear friend Robert Owen and Jane his wife" and says that Robert was imprisoned for five years "being confined in Dolgelly in Merionethshire, North Wales..." about a mile from his house.
He goes on to say that Jane’s father Robert Vaughan was "a man of integrity exceeding most of his rank at that time" and Jane is described as a woman with rare natural gifts, solid in deportment, and not given to many words.