A Professor of LL.D. Author of "The Memorials of the Chaunceys" etc. (Browning, Charles. Americans of royal descent, 7th e.d, Baltimore : Genealogical Pub. Co., 1969, pg. 70).
From Deceased Graduates of Yale University, 1880-1890
• WILLIAM CHAUNCEY FOWLER, second son of Reuben R. and Catharine (Chauncey) Fowler, was born in Killingworth, now Clinton, Conn., Sept. 1, 1793. In 1797 his parents removed to Durham, Conn., and in his 15th year he went to Middletown, Conn., where for nearly two years he was engaged as a clerk in a store. Meantime his parents had removed to East Guilford, now Madison, Conn., where he was prepared for college.
• Before his graduation at Yale he was appointed Rector of the Hopkins Grammar School, in New Haven, and he acted in that capacity during the last term of the college course. By these double duties his health was impaired, and in November 1816 he went South for a year, spending the time as private tutor in a family in Fauquier County, VA.
• He then resumed his position as Rector of the Grammar School, beginning also the study of theology under Professor Fitch. He was appointed in 1819 a Tutor in the college, and filled that office for five years lacking one term. During this period he was licensed to preach, and on the 31st of August, 1825, was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Greenfield, Mass. In 1827 he was dismissed to accept the appointment of Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, in Middlebury College, VT where he remained till 1838, when he went to Amherst College, Mass., as Professor of Rhetoric. He resigned this professorship in 1843, but continued to reside in Amherst till 1858, when he removed to Durham, Conn , where he died, after a brief illness of pneumonia, Jan. 15, 1881, in his 88th year.
• From the time of his resignation as Professor, he was engaged in preparing various works for the press. In 1845 he edited the University edition of Webster’s Dictionary (octavo). He next prepared three volumes, composing a series of English Grammars, the first of the series (entitled The English Language in its Elements and Forms. N. Y , 1850, octavo) being a work of great labor. In 1858 he published Memorials of the Chaunceys; in 1863, The Sectional Controversy; in 1866, a History of Durham, Conn.; in 1872, a treatise on Local Law in Mass, and Conn.; and later several collections of Essays. The degree of LL D. was conferred upon him by Lafayette College in 1861.
• In 1850 he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature from the town of Amherst and represented the 18th district of Connecticut in the State Senate in 1864.
• Professor Fowler was married, July 21, 1825, to Harriet, third daughter of Dr. Noah Webster, and widow of Edward Cobb of Portland, ME; she died in Amherst, March 30, 1844. Of their four children, one son died in early childhood, and another in middle life. The remaining son and one daughter are still living.