For the purposes of these narratives the birth of Thomas Vaughan is placed in the year 1612, and his death, or rather translation, in the year 1678.

At the age of twenty-four years, that is to say, in 1636, he proceeded to London, and there connected himself with the mystic Robert Fludd, by whom he was initiated into a lower grade of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, and received a letter of introduction to the Grand Master, Johann Valentin Andreae, which he took over to Stuttgart and presented.

In 1637, having returned to London, he was present at the death of Robert Fludd, which occurred in that year.

In 1638 he made his first voyage to America, where he was hospitably entertained by a Protestant minister, named John Cotton, but his visit was not characterised by any remarkable occurrence.

At this period the alchemist is represented by his descendant as a Puritan impregnated with the secret doctrine of Robert Fludd.