Chancellor, Richard (died 1555)

English navigator. While searching for the Northeast Passage he reached Moscow; there he met Tsar Ivan (IV) the Terrible and negotiated trade agreements which led to the establishment of the Muscovy Company in 1555.

In 1553 he was appointed captain and pilot-general of the Edward Bonaventure, in the expedition of Sir Hugh Willoughby (died 1554) to search for a Northeast Passage to India. The ships were separated in a storm off the Lofoten Islands, and Chancellor went on alone into the White Sea, until he arrived at Moscow. Following a second voyage to the White Sea in 1555 he was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of Aberdeenshire, Scotland.