Richard Chauncey


Richard Chauncey or Chauncy was a London merchant who was four times the Deputy-Chairman of the East India Company and three times the Chairman.

Life

Chauncey was born into a well-to-do Northamptonshire family which had owned the Edgcote estate in South Northamptonshire since 1543. He became a London cloth merchant with an interest in East India merchant ships.
He was also a partner in the business of Chauncey and Vigne, gunpowder merchants. Already owning a gunpowder mill at Oare, Kent, he leased the Kingsmill at Faversham in 1754.
Chauncey was a director of the East India Company from 1737 to 1754. He was made Deputy-Chairman in 1747, 1749, 1752 and 1754 and Chairman in 1748, 1750 and 1753. He died in 1760.

Legacy

In 1742 Chauncey inherited the Edgcote estate and commissioned architect William Jones to build a new mansion. Edgcote House was built between 1747 and 1752 and is now a Grade I listed building.

Family

Chauncey was the uncle of Chauncy Townsend, MP, who was the son of his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Jonathan Townsend. His widow's death was reported in 1762.
His eldest son William married the eldest daughter of Josiah Wordsworth, in 1757. William Henry inherited Edgcote; then on his death without an heir it passed to his sister, Anna Maria.