The progenitor of my family was a man named Johan Paulus Vogt, who was born in 1680 in Frankfurt, Germany. Vogt is identified today as German, yet it is also a common enough Swiss and Austrian name as well. In fact, it is quite prevalent throughout northern Austria, as well as southern Germany and Switzerland.
There is a German town called Vogt just east of Ravensburg near the Lake Konstance on the Swiss/German border. The Heimatmuseum, deep in the Black Forest is the "Folk Heritage Museum" is also called the Vogtsbauernhof, or "the judge's farmhouse".
Despite being known for a German name, Vogt is actually the modern form of an ancient Roman occupational title that has similarities to a lawyer, judge, sheriff and military commander. In a nutshell, the Vogt of a particular area was the enforcer of the ruler's will and laws, a supervisor of no mean rank.
From The Dictionary of American Family Names (2003):
VOGT: German: occupational name for a bailiff, farm manager, or other person with supervisory authority, Middle High German voget, Late Latin vocatus, from Latin advocatus, past participle of advocare ‘to call upon (to help)’. The term originally denoted someone who appeared before a court on behalf of some party not permitted to make direct representations, often an ecclesiastical body which was not supposed to have any dealings with temporal authorities.
As the dying embers of the light that was once Rome faded into obscurity and the Dark Ages gripped Europe in a mailed fist, those who had been called upon to help or to enforce the local rulers will were known as the vocatus. Over time they later were called the voget and finally they became the Vogt as the Dark Ages came to a reluctant end and the Middle Ages arrived.
In the 10th Century AD, the title of Vogt was solidified as the proctor of the church in civil affairs and presided over the chief court---usually a local nobleman such as a Baron. Therefore we can assume that to hold the office of "Vogt" for the town or village one had to be a clergyman or a local judge or both. This is entirely reasonable, as in the Middle Ages the most learned (and therefore qualified to be a judge of written laws) men to be found were found in the Church.
To read an excellent Medieval history of the Vogt name written by Eric William Vogt and posted on the Genforum message boards click here: Origins of the Vogt Name . Mr. Vogt's information pertains mostly to the ecclesiastical side of the name history and it's connotations within late Medieval society, but it is fascinating reading nonetheless.
Johan Paulus Vogt brought his family (his wife Maria Katerina and his children Catharina Margaret, Maria Catharina, Johan Andreas, and Johan Gasper) in 1733 to Philadelphia and shortly thereafter he is listed in official documents as John Paul Vaught. His wife and children recieved similar Anglicized names (Mary Katherine, Catherine Margaret, Mary Catherine, John Andrew and John Gasper).
So why go from Vogt to Vaught? Imagine what an Englishman would hear when a German strolls up to a clerk's desk and registers his family...in German, "v" is pronounced as an "f". So Vogt is pronounced "fought". The clerk likely spelled what he heard. This is even more evident when the next generation is listed in documents.
John Paul Vaught died in 1761 at his home near Harrisonburg, Virginia. Within a decade of his death, most of his famiy had moved south and west towards what is now known as Wythe County, Virginia. His eldest son, Andrew, carried on the family name and spread it through southwest Virigina, and his sons carried it into Kentucky, Indiana and other parts west. John Paul Vaught's youngest son, Gasper, stayed on the old homestead with his family. He was known as Gasper Faught (no doubt another clerk bestowed a mistaken spelling on the family name and literally spelled it like he heard it). To this day, there are numerous Faughts near Harrisonburg. A small stream runs through John Paul Vaught's old land and is still known as Faught's Run.
I don't know if every Faught out there is a descendant of John Gasper Faught, but it is pretty interesting to think that one man who's last name was Vogt started so many Vaught and Faught families.
