Henry Chauncy
Encyclopedia
Ardeley
Ardeley is a small village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Cromer, as well as Wood End and Moor Green.Ardeley is located about one and a half miles from Walkern...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
and died at Yardley Bury (now Ardeley Bury), Hertfordshire. He was an English lawyer, educator and antiquarian
Antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary is an aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient objects of art or science, archaeological and historic sites, or historic archives and manuscripts...
. He attended Stevenage
Stevenage
Stevenage is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England. It is situated to the east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1, and is between Letchworth Garden City to the north, and Welwyn Garden City to the south....
Grammar School, then Gonville College and Caius College, Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
followed by the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
.
In about 1680 he began work on his county history
English county histories
English county histories, in other words historical and topographical works concerned with individual ancient counties of England before their reorganisation, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards...
, The Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire. It took him 14 years to write. By 1695 he was seeking 500 subscribers to pay for the costs of printing, and the volume was finally published in 1700. In writing the work Chauncy paid a team of researchers to gather historical anecdotes and determine genealogical lines for him. It was dedicated to its principal sponsor, the third Earl of Bridgewater
John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater
John Egerton, 3rd Earl of Bridgewater was the eldest son of John Egerton, 2nd Earl of Bridgewater and his wife Elizabeth Cavendish. His maternal grandparents were William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle and his first wife Elizabeth Basset.He served as a Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire as...
; and was illustrated by forty-six engravings (thirty-three of them by Jan Drapentier
Jan Drapentier
Jan Drapentier , was an engraver.Drapentier was the son of D. Drapentier or Drappentier, a native of Dordrecht, who engraved some medals commemorative of the great events connected with the reign of William and Mary, and also a print with the arms of the governors of Dordrecht, published by Mathias...
), most of which were bird's-eye views of the seats of the major subscribers.
Chauncy stated that the manor-house and demesne lands of Ardeley had been held for above 200 years by his ancestors, who had had several leases for lives from the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
. Although his main residence was at Yardley Bury, he also lived at Lombard House, Hertford
Hertford
Hertford is the county town of Hertfordshire, England, and is also a civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. Forming a civil parish, the 2001 census put the population of Hertford at about 24,180. Recent estimates are that it is now around 28,000...
.
He had three wives: Jane Flyer (m. 1657), by whom he had three sons and four daughters before her death in 1672; Elizabeth Gouldsmith (m. 1674), a widow, who died in 1677; and Elizabeth Thruston (m. 1679), by whom he had a son and daughter, and who died in 1706. In 1692, his eldest surviving son, Henry, married Jane Boteler, a marriage of which Sir Henry strongly disapproved: this brought him into a protracted legal dispute with Jane's father, Sir Nicholas Boteler, and a permanent estrangement from his son, who died in 1703. In the family pedigree published in the Antiquities he did not record the marriage.
Chauncy died in 1719 and is buried in the chancel of St Lawrence Ardeley
Ardeley
Ardeley is a small village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire, England. The parish includes the hamlet of Cromer, as well as Wood End and Moor Green.Ardeley is located about one and a half miles from Walkern...
with several other generations of his family. There is a plaque on the wall of the church to commemorate his life.