Henry Chauncy
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Sir Henry Chauncy Kt. was born in Ardeley, Hertfordshire on April 12, 1632. He died in April 1719, at Yardley Bury (now Ardeley Bury), Hertfordshire. He was an English lawyer, educator and antiquarian. He attended Stevenage Grammar School, then Gonville College and Caius College, Cambridge followed by the Middle Temple.
In 1700 he finally published 'Antiquities of Hertfordshire' claiming it had taken him 14 years to write. So it must have been started around 1680 as by 1695 he was seeking 500 subscribers to pay for the printing. In writing the book Chauncy paid a team of researchers to gather histoical antecdotes and sort out genalogical lines for him.
Sir Henry Chauncy, writing in 1700, stated that the manor-house and demesne lands (only) had been held for above 200 years by his ancestors, who had had several leases for lives from the dean and chapter.
He died in 1719 and is buried in the chancel of St Lawrence Ardeley with several other generations of his family. There is a plaque on the wall of the church to comemorate his life.
