Chancellor, RICHARD

Chancellor, RICHARD, a daring English seaman, who seems to have been brought up in the household of the father of Sir Philip Sidney, and was chosen in 1553 as captain of the Bonaventure and 'pilot-general' of Sir Hugh Willoughby's expedition in search of a North-east Passage to India. The ships were parted in a storm off the Lofoden Islands, and Chancellor, after waiting seven days at Vardöhus, the rendezvous that had been agreed upon, proceeded alone into the White Sea, and travelled thence overland to the court at Moscow, where he was very hospitably treated, and was able to conclude a treaty giving freedom of trade to English ships. His interesting account of Russia was published in Hakluyt's Navigations. Next spring Chancellor rejoined his ship and returned to England, where his hopeful reports led to the establishment soon after of the Muscovy Company. In the summer of 1555 he made a second voyage in the Bonaventure to the White Sea, and was at Moscow once more in the succeeding winter. In July 1556 he set sail on his voyage homewards, but on 10th November was lost in the wreck of his ship in Aberdour Bay off the Aberdeenshire coast.