Charles Chauncy

Charles Chauncy (November 5, 1592 – February 19, 1672) was an Anglo-American clergyman and educator. He was born at Yardleybury, England and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he later was a lecturer in Greek. After serving as a pastor in England at Marston St. Lawrence, Northamptonshire (1633-37), he emigrated to America in 1638. He preached at Plymouth until 1641, then at Scituate where, says Mather "he remained for three years and three times three years, cultivating the vineyard of the Lord." He was appointed president of Harvard College in 1654. He held that office until his death in 1672. He is said to be the ancestor of all of the people named Chauncy or Chauncey in the United States. Besides a number of sermons, he published The Doctrine of the Sacrament, with the Right Use Thereof (1642); The Plain Doctrine of the Justification of a Sinner in the Sight of God (1659), a collection of 26 sermons; and Antisynodalia Scripta Americana (1662).

Literature

• Cotton Mather, Magnalia (London, 1702)
• Fowler, Memorials of the Chaunceys (Boston, 1858)