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1613, A. M. 1617; B.D. 1624. Much reputa. at the Univ. he gain.
by Latin verses of lamenta. on d. 1619, of Queen Ann, and by Greek and
Latin on d. of her h. James, and access. of Charles, 1625, as in Cantab.
Dolor et Solamen, so that he was chos. profess. for one, if not two chairs.
But in cleric. life he was early at Marston St. Lawrence, and had the
vicarage of Ware in his native shire, 1627-34 and from that valua. liv.
for non-conform. in non-essentials he was forc. by Archbp. Laud. In
search of comforta. and secure worship he came to N. E. arr. in Dec.
1637 at Plymouth, there preach. as aid to Reyner, some time, but in
1641 was call. to S. where above twelve yrs. he min. yet with freq.
troubles; and was prepar. to go home for partak. the puritan triumph in
Eng. when he was chos. head of the Coll. at Cambridge, on dismiss. in
1654, of Dunster, its first Presid. In this post he d. 19 Feb. 1672, aged
79 yrs. and less prob. than 4 mos. but Mather, mistak. the inscript. on
his tomb, under his eye, of 80th for 82d yr. of his age, to make his error
consistent, dares to affirm in Magn. III. 134, that he was b. in 1589,
instead of 1592, and on p. 140 boldly asserts, that he d. (giv. the right
time), "in the eighty-second yr. of his age." Explanat. of his blunder is
easi. found. In Roman numerals the day and yr. of his dec. XIX Feb.
MDCLXXI/II in our Arabic numbers 1671/2 aet. LXXX. seems plain eno. but
the careless author forc. the II out of place, and add. them to the later number.
Yet Green's Almanac of 1673 had said, "in his 80th yr." and hardly a
min. in the country could have fail. to say, that the first Presid. wh. d.
in office, was little over 79 yrs. old. The author (Rev. W. C. Fowler) of
the elaborate life of Chauncy, his ancest. and descend. in Geneal. Reg.
X. 251, has quot. two paragr. from the Magnalia, suppresing the word
"second" after eighty, whereby Mather seems to be compel. to speak
the truth. "Fourscore years of age despatched it not," is the sweet
commenda. of Mather for his labors; and contempt for the chronology
should not, perhaps, be so express. especial. as the earlier author foll.
his natural weakness, to show his knowl. of the value of a man, in
shekels, above the age of sixty, only 15, but younger, 50 shekels, makes
Chauncy's worth "at 80 contin. much what as it was when he was
60." In his valua. Biogr. Dict. Ed. 1857, Dr. Allen had more scrupulously
foll. the error of the Magn. We see, in the Biogr. Britannica,
that he descend. from a fam. that came in with the conquest, and he was
gr. uncle of Sir Henry C. wh. dignif. the Hist. of Hertfordsh. in two
large folios. His w. was Catharine, d. of Robert Eyre, Esq. of Wilts,
barrister at law, by his w. Ann, d. of that John Still, Bp. of Bath and
in the latter days of Eliz. a true ch. puritan, wh. desir. more
reformat. than her majesty could submit to. She was m. to C. 17 Mar.
1630, and d. 24 Jan. 1668, aged 66, and had Sarah, b. at Ware, 13 Jan.
1631, wh. m. 26 Oct. 1659, Gershom Bulkely; Isaac, 23 Aug. 1632,
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