Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/177

 given to the college by Chauncey. He collected paintings and prints, coins and books. He died 25 Dec. 1777, and his brother Nathaniel, also a collector, succeeded to his collections. As a man fond of what was ancient, he is appropriately buried in the parish church which claims to be of the most ancient foundation of any in London, St. Peter's on Cornhill. Three sale catalogues, dated 1790, one of pictures, one of coins, and one of books, in the British Museum, are almost the only remaining records of the tastes and learning of Chauncey and his brother. 

CHAUNCEY, ICHABOD (d. 1691), physician and divine, the date and place of whose birth are unknown, was chaplain to Sir Edward Harley's regiment at Dunkirk at the time the Uniformity Act was passed. Shortly afterwards he obtained a living in Bristol, and, being ejected for nonconformity, practised physic there for eighteen years, and obtained a considerable practice. In his 'Innocence vindicated' he states that in 1684 he was a M.A. of thirty years' standing, and for twenty had been a licentiate of the London College of Physicians. In 1682 he was prosecuted for not attending church, &c. (36 Eliz. c. i.) His defence was that he accommodated his worship as nearly as he could to that of the primitive church, but he was convicted and fined. In 1684 he was again prosecuted under the same act, and was imprisoned in the common gaol for eighteen weeks before he was tried, when he was sentenced to lose his estate both real and personal, and to leave the realm within three months. From a declaration drawn up by the grand jury, he appears to have been in the habit of defending such dissenters in Bristol as were prosecuted under the various acts relating to religion; but from the 'Records of the Broadmead Meeting, Bristol,' his persecution appears to have originated in the private malice of the town clerk. Chauncey resided in Holland till 1686, when he returned to Bristol, where he died in 1691. His only work is 'Innocence vindicated by a Narrative of the Proceedings of the Court of Sessions in Bristol against I. C., Physician, to his Conviction on the Statute of the 36th Elizabeth,' 1684. 

CHAUNCY, CHARLES (1592–1672), nonconformist divine, fifth and youngest son of George Chauncy of Yardley Bury and New Place in Gilston, Hertfordshire, by his second wife, Agnes, daughter of Edward Welch of Great Wymondley in the same county, and widow of Edward Humberstone, was baptised at Yardley and widow of Edward Humberstone, was baptised at Yardley on 6 Nov. 1592. He received his preliminary education at Westminster, whence he was sent in 1609 to Cambridge and entered at Trinity College, of which society he subsequently became a fellow. He proceeded B.A. in 1613, M.A. in 1617, and was incorporated on that degree at Oxford in 1619. He became B.D. in 1624. Distinguished alike for oriental and classical scholarship, Chauncy, it is said, was nominated Hebrew professor by the heads of houses; but Dr. Williams, the vice-chancellor, wishing to place a friend of his own in that office, made Chauncy professor of Greek, 'or more probably Greek lecturer in his own college.' On 27 Feb. 1627 Chauncy was presented by his college to the vicarage of Ware, Hertfordshire, which he held until 16 Oct. 1633. He was also vicar of Marston St. Lawrence, Northamptonshire, from 28 Aug. 1633 until 28 Aug. 1637. In each of these preferments his disregard of Laud's oppressive regulations brought him before the high commission court, once in 1630 and again in 1634. On the last occasion he was suspended from the ministry and imprisoned. After some months' confinement he petitioned the court on 4 Feb. 1635-6 to be allowed to submit. A week later he read his submission 'with bended knee,' and, after being admonished by Laud in his usual style, was released on the payment of costs. The text of his offences, sentence, and submission is set forth in 'Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1636-6,' pp. 123-4, 494-6.

For making what he afterwards termed his 'scandalous submission' Chauncy never forgave himself. He had resolved to retire to America, but before going he wrote a solemn 'Retractation,' which was published at London in 1641. Arriving at Plymouth in New England in December 1637, he acted for some time as assistant to John Reyner, the minister of that place. In 1641 he was invited to take charge of the church at Scituate, a neighbouring town, where he continued for more than twelve years. He suffered frequently from poverty. When the puritans were masters of England, Chauncy was invited home by his old parishioners at Ware, and was about to embark at Boston, when he was persuaded on 2 Nov. 1654 by the overseers of Harvard College, New Cambridge, to become president of that society. He was accordingly inaugurated as successor to Henry Dunster, the first president, on the ensuing 29 Nov. Despite the poor stipend, irregularly paid, Chauncy continued in this post,