Chauncey Goodrich (October 20, 1759August 18, 1815) was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut who represented that state in the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

as both a senator (1807 to 1813) and a representative (1795 to 1801).

Biography

Goodrich was born in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

in the Connecticut Colony, the son of Elizur Goodrich. He was graduated from

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

in 1776 and taught school afterward. From 1779 to 1781 he taught at Yale. After studying law, he was admitted to the Connecticut bar in 1781, practicing in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

Political career

He served in the

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with ...

from 1793 to 1794, when he was elected as a Federalist to the Fourth Congress from the Second District of Connecticut. He was re-elected to the Fifth and Sixth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1795 to March 3, 1801. In the Sixth Congress, he served with his brother Elizur Goodrich. Returning to Connecticut, he resumed his law practice and was on the

Governor's Council The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the experience under colonial rule would ...

from 1802 to 1807. The

Connecticut General Assembly The Connecticut General Assembly (CGA) is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. Th ...

elected him to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

to complete the term of

Uriah Tracy Uriah Tracy (February 2, 1755July 19, 1807) was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut. He served in the US House of Representatives (1793 to 1796) and the US Senate (1796 to 1807). From May to November 1800, Tracy served as Preside ...

, who died, and re-elected him to a full term. On June 17, 1812, he voted against war with Britain, but the vote for war was 19 to 13. He served in the Senate in the Tenth,

Eleventh In music or music theory, an eleventh is the note eleven scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the eleventh. The interval can be also described as a compound fourth, spanning an octave plus a ...

, Twelfth, and

Thirteenth In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octa ...

Congresses from October 25, 1807 to May 1813 when he resigned to become

Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut The following is a list of lieutenant governors of the State of Connecticut. Lieutenant governors of the State of Connecticut, 1776–present Notes References ;Constitutions * * * ;Specific External linksOfficial website of the L ...

. He was elected to that office in 1813, having also been elected Mayor of Hartford in 1812. He served as both Mayor and Lieutenant Governor until his death in Hartford. In 1814-15 he was a Connecticut delegate to the

Hartford Convention The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814, to January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, in which the New England Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and ...

Family

Goodrich was married to Mary Ann Wolcott, daughter of

Oliver Wolcott Oliver Wolcott Sr. (November 20, 1726 December 1, 1797) was an American Founding Father and politician. He was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Connecticut, and t ...

, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His nephew Chauncey Allen Goodrich was the son-in-law of

Noah Webster Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible ( Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...

and edited his '' Dictionary'' after Webster's death. Chauncey Allen Goodrich's sister Nancy was married to

Henry Leavitt Ellsworth Henry Leavitt Ellsworth (November 10, 1791 – December 27, 1858) was a Yale-educated attorney who became the first Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, where he encouraged innovation by inventors Samuel F.B. Morse and Samuel Colt. Ells ...

, lawyer, U.S. Patent Commissioner and son of

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

and Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. William Wolcott Ellsworth, twin brother of Henry Leavitt, was married to another of

's daughters.

Notes

References

* Connecticut election results for U.S. Senate, 180

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goodrich, Chauncey 1759 births 1815 deaths Members of the Connecticut House of Representatives Connecticut lawyers Members of the Connecticut General Assembly Council of Assistants (1662–1818) Mayors of Hartford, Connecticut Lieutenant Governors of Connecticut United States senators from Connecticut Burials at Grove Street Cemetery Yale University alumni Federalist Party United States senators Federalist Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut 19th-century American lawyers