Frances Latham

January 31, 2013

Latham Coat of Arms

Birth: Feb. 15, 1609KempstonBedfordshire, England
Death: Sep. 2, 1677NewportNewport CountyRhode Island, USA
Frances Latham (Dungan Clarke Vaughn) is known as the “Mother of Governors”. Her third husband was the Reverent William Vaughn. She had four children by her first husband; from the descendants of these children are many distinquished statesmen. There are seven children born of her second marriage, and these too have given many governors to the country. Each one of Frances Latham Clarke’s sons served his country, or church, with public service, and each daughter married men who did the same. “She was undoubtedly a very attractive woman, her three marriages would indicate. One can only imagine the gathering of distinquished men and women in the “Common Burial Ground” of Newport when Frances Vaughn, recently widowed for the third time was laid in her grave.There was her eldest Clarke son, then governor, her daughter Mary, with her husband, then Deputy-Governor John Cranston and later governor; and their son Samuel, who before the century closed would also be governor; her daughter Sarah, sometime the wife of Governor Caleb Carr; Barbara with her husband, James Baker, to be chosen the next year as deputy governor; Frances and her husband, Major Randall Holden, ancestors of several of Rhode Island’s governors and one of Washington: Weston Clarke, then attorney-general; James, Latham, and Jeremiah Clarke, with their sons and daughters, and Rev. Thomas Dungan, who perhaps was the one to say the last sacred words over his mother’s grave “Mother of Governors”Her father was Sargeant Falconer Lewis Latham to King Charles I.Children not listed below: John Dungan (died young), William Dungan, Frances Dungan Holden, Elizabeth Dungan (died young), Walter Clarke, Latham Clarke and Jeremiah Clarke Spouses: Married four times1st Lord Weston2nd William Dungan3rd Capt. Jerimah Clark4th Rev. William Vaughn Family links: Spouses: William Dungan (1606 – 1636) Jeremy Clarke (1605 – 1652) Children: Barbara Dungan Barker (1628 – 1677)* Thomas Dungan (1635 – 1688)* Mary Clarke Stanton (1640 – 1711)* Weston Clarke (1648 – 1730)* James Clarke (1649 – 1736)* Sarah Clarke Pinner Carr (1651 – 1706)*  Inscription:Here Lyeth ye Body of Mrs. Frances Vaughn, Alias Clarke, ye mother of ye only children of Capt’n Jeremiah Clarke. She died ye 1 Week in Sept. 1677 in ye 67th year of her age.” Burial:Common Burying Ground NewportNewport CountyRhode Island, USA.