Richard Vaux

Richard Vaux (December 19 1816 – March 22 1895) was an American politician. He was mayor of Philadelphia and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Richard Vaux was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 19, 1816, the son of the philanthropist Roberts Vaux. He was educated by private tutors at the Friends Select School in Philadelphia and Bolmar's French School in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia on April 15, 1837. He served as secretary of legation under Andrew Stevenson, United States Minister to Great Britain, for one year. He returned to Philadelphia in 1839.

He was a member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1839, and a delegate to the Democratic State convention in 1840. He commenced the practice of law in Philadelphia in 1840. He served as recorder of deeds of Philadelphia from 1842 to 1849. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania as Inspector of the State Penitentiary for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 1842, and served as secretary and later as president of the board of inspectors until his death. An unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Philadelphia in 1842, 1845, and 1854, he was elected in 1856, but was defeated for releection in 1858 by Alexander Henry. He was a member of the Board of City Trusts 1859-1866, serving as president 1863-1865.

Vaux, who was deeply involved with the Masonic fraternity since the age of 26, served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1868. That year, he laid the cornerstone of the iconic grand temple in Philadelphia which remains the headquarters for Freemasonry in the state, symbolically tapping it into place with the same gavel George Washington had used during the Masonic cornerstone ceremony for the United States Capitol building.

He was elected in 1890 as a Democrat to the 51st Congress to fill the vacancy left by the death of Samuel J. Randall and served from May 20, 1890 to March 3, 1891. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890.

Vaux married, March 12, 1840, Mary Morris, daughter of Jacob Shoemaker and Sarah Morris Waln. Richard and Mary Vaux had six children, of whom Jacob Waln Vaux was the fifth.

Vaux died on March 22, 1895 in Philadelphia, where he is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.

External links

*CongBio|V000078
* [http://virtualology.com/aprobertsvaux/ Brief biography] (under Roberts Vaux, his father)
*Find A Grave|id=23316