Chauncey Goodrich

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Chauncey Goodrich
United States Senator
from Connecticut
In office
October 25, 1807 – May 13, 1813
Preceded byUriah Tracy
Succeeded byDavid Daggett
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's At-large district
In office
March 4, 1795 – March 3, 1801
Preceded byAmasa Learned
Succeeded byElias Perkins
28th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
In office
1813–1815
GovernorJohn Cotton Smith
Preceded byJohn Cotton Smith
Succeeded byJonathan Ingersoll
Member of the Connecticut House of Representatives
In office
1793-1794
Personal details
Born(1759-10-20)October 20, 1759
Durham, Connecticut Colony, British America
DiedAugust 18, 1815(1815-08-18) (aged 55)
Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.
Political partyFederalist
SpouseMary Ann Wolcott Goodrich

Chauncey Goodrich (October 20, 1759 – August 18, 1815) was an American lawyer and politician from Connecticut who represented that state in the United States Congress as both a senator (1807 to 1813) and a representative (1795 to 1801).

Biography[edit]

Goodrich was born in Durham in the Connecticut Colony, the brother of Elizur Goodrich.[1] His father was Congregational minister Elizur Goodrich.[2] He graduated from Yale in 1776 and taught school afterward.[1] From 1779 to 1781, he taught at Yale.[1] After studying law, he was admitted to the Connecticut Bar in 1781, practicing in Hartford.[1]

Political career[edit]

He served in the Connecticut House of Representatives from 1793 to 1794, when he was elected as a Federalist to the Fourth Congress from the Second District of Connecticut.[1] 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.[1]

Returning to Connecticut, he resumed his law practice and was on the Governor's Council from 1802 to 1807,[1] simultaneously service as a judge of the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors.[3] The Connecticut General Assembly elected him to the United States Senate to complete the term of Uriah Tracy, who died, and re-elected him to a full term.[1] 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 Congresses from October 25, 1807 to May 1813.[1]

He elected Mayor of Hartford in 1812 and became Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut. He held both offices until his death.[1] In 1814 and 1815, he was a Connecticut delegate to the Hartford Convention.[1]

Family[edit]

Mary Ann Wolcott, portrait by Ralph Earl

Goodrich was married to Mary Ann Wolcott, daughter of Oliver Wolcott, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.[2] His nephew Chauncey Allen Goodrich was the son-in-law of Noah Webster and edited his Dictionary after Webster's death.[2]

Death[edit]

Goodrich died on August 18, 1815, in Hartford and was buried in Old North Cemetery.[1]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l United States Congress. "Chauncey Goodrich (id: G000293)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  2. ^ a b c "Goodrich, Elizur" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900.
  3. ^ Day, Thomas (1809). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Errors, of the State of Connecticut, in the years 1805, 1806, and 1807. Vol. 2. p. xii-xiii.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Connecticut's at-large congressional district

1795–1801
Succeeded by
U.S. Senate
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 3) from Connecticut
1807–1813
Served alongside: James Hillhouse, Samuel W. Dana
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut
1813–1815
Succeeded by