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, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

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

Biography

Goodrich was born in Durham in the

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

, the brother of Elizur Goodrich. His father was Congregational minister Elizur Goodrich. He graduated from

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

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 List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

Political career

He served in the

Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut 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 each ...

from 1793 to 1794, when he was elected as a

Federalist The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters call themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of deep ...

to the Fourth Congress from the Second District of Connecticut following an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1793. 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 from 1802 to 1807, simultaneously service as a judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors. 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. The ...

elected him to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

to complete the term of Uriah Tracy, 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, 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 thirteenth is most commonly major or minor . A thirteenth chord is th ...

Congresses from October 25, 1807, to May 1813. He elected Mayor of Hartford in 1812 and became

Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut The lieutenant governor of Connecticut is the second highest executive officer of the government of the U.S. State of Connecticut. The lieutenant governor acts as President of the State Senate, presiding over the Senate and casting votes in the ...

. He held both offices until his death. In 1814 and 1815, 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 New England leaders of the Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War ...

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, ...

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

Noah Webster Noah Webster (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843) was an American lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and author. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education" ...

and edited his ''

Dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

'' after Webster's death.

Death

Goodrich died on August 18, 1815, in Hartford and was buried in Old North Cemetery.

References

{{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 19th-century mayors of places in Connecticut Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court 19th-century United States senators 18th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 18th-century members of the Connecticut General Assembly Candidates in the 1793 United States elections