pmuni 



CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM. 



the working of the alow. Towards the end of Klita- 

 betl. nign. > wet iao SeoUand. aod roee so high in Jam**'* favour 

 U> b afterward. Ifpalalld DM guardian or governor of I'tinoe 

 i education 



Henry. . ,lh the 



of hi. educeUon and boaeebold, MI office 



wtucfc be MM to have creditably dieoharged. H died November 1 7, 

 Uli. UK < nly literary production U ' A .hurt Ditooune of the matt 

 rare and cellat nrtae of Xu.*,' 



On* of hi* tone. Kdwird. entered iota holy order* tad became 

 prtocipej of 84. Alow 1 . Hall, Oxford. He pubUthed tevenl sermons, 

 Md a treeti- on the Authonty. rnitenelity. sod Visibility of the 

 Two other*, Tbocuu and Jaraaa, wen meioben of the Long 

 It, and eat M judgM on the trial of Churles I. Jamrs 

 r i* the author of a Deeoription of the l.lo of Man,' printed 



- 



IB the origin*! edition of King'. Vale Royal,- though the work lias 

 been aUo attributed to another June* Chalonr, a native of Chaeler. 



TbotBM Ctialnntr wae the aathor of MTenl political pamphleta, which 

 appeared during the civil warm. 



CUAMBKKa, KPHHAIM, editor and chief oompllcr of the Cyclo- 

 pad*' which bean hU urn*, WM born at Kendal ID the latter part of 

 UM 17th century. Hie father WM a small freeholder in Weetmorland, 

 in rieptetebl* i<iiliillliliiinti Kphraim, hit eldest son, WM bound 

 apprentice to a menbiain.1 trade in London. Eventually he became 

 appreauoe to Mr. Setwx, the Kioto-maker ; and it was while in hi* 

 hop that he eoooeired the detign of the Cyclopedia ' which hat 

 chiefly prtaenrtd hit name. Som- of Uie article* are laid to hare been 

 written by him while he ttood behind the counter. Before the com- 

 pletion of the work however, bnt probably after he had made arrange- 

 nwau with the bookteller who publuhod it, be left Mr. Senez, and 

 took chamber* in Gray* Inn. The Brat edition of the 'Cyclopaedia' 

 appeared in '.' Tola, fol. in 1728, and wat very favourably received. 

 It wae published by tubecriptiun, the price of each copy being four 

 plnm Immediately after, the autlior wu un-lo a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society. A eeoood edition of the work appeared in 1738, and a 

 third in 17V. Mr. Chamber* wit alto one of the writers in the 

 ' Literary Mauine,' an analytical review of new works, which wag 

 begun in 1735, and continued for come yean. He wat likewise asso- 

 ciated with Mr. Martyn, the botanical professor at Cambridge, in 

 tntttbling aod abridging the Philosophical History and Memoirs of 

 the Royal Academy of Science* at Parit,' which appeared in 5 vols. 

 vo, in 1742. Thit Uak he executed very ill. The only other, lite- 

 rary work which ha* been attributed to him i* a translation from the 

 Preach of a quarto volume, entitled ' The Jesuit*' Perspective.' He 

 lived to the Utt the life of a recluae and a hard student, reading and 

 writing from morning to night almost without intermission. A 

 penon who wat his amanuensis for aix yean is said to have related 

 tht be transcribed for him, and took down from his dicUtion in that 

 pMt of Ume, not lea* than twenty Urge folio volumes, oontaiuing M 

 much matter as, if it had been printed, would have made thirty such 

 volume* at those of his ' Cyclopedia.' He died on the 18th of May 

 1740 at Cuwnbury House, Islington, and was buried in Westminster 

 Abbey, under a short Latin inscription of his own composition. A 

 fourth edition of his -Cyclopedia' appeared in 1741, and a 6fth in 



'44. To the sixth edition, which wat brought out in 1760, were 

 added two toppUmeuUry volume*, which were compiled by Sir John 



Ml. the botanist, aod George Lewis Scott, the mathematician. Theee, 

 along with much new matter, were incorporated with the original 

 work in a wveoth edition, which began to be published in numbers 

 under the mperinUndenoe of the Ute Dr. Abraham ROM in 1778, and 

 WM completed in 4 vols. folio, in 1788. Chambers't work is also 

 avowedly the bad. of the greatly more extended ' Cyclopedia' in the 

 eoodoot of which Dr. Reee afterwards engaged, and which he Mved to 

 ooopleu in 45 voU, 4 to. (London, 1809.1810). Indeed it may be laid 

 lo bve originated all the rnod.ni Cyclopedias, both In the English 

 and in other Koropeeu languages. It was early translated both into 

 *& f! ."* 1 " - In "" P~Polu. of the great French ' Km -y- 

 eientVU.' of Diderot and D'Alembert (afterwards incorporated in the 



Ilteoun Prdliminair.'), it is admitted that Chambers', plan it excel- 

 Un though the execution of the work it very indifferent. The 

 writer. add, that It poedblv never would have appeared.at all. if there 

 W **Protly witto/fa the French Unguage work. from which 



where he wai born toward, the close 



* "*** *<" h 

 " "** the age of Un yean, to sa 



. 



hi* way home to Whitby in another 

 , b ~ olniD 8 Pio* ol ship.. At 

 of m.kin himself acquainted with 



old wo ' n '"> kl' 

 tii,thath.wM plodding hit w.v 



through the butines* of a house-painter, lio took leaaons from nn 

 obscure drawing-matter of Whitby, of the name of Bird, an<l .ipplir i 

 wht time he bad to tpore in painting small pictures of shipping, for 

 which he found at hi* humble prices a ready market He carried on 

 this life for three yean, when, being anxious to visit London, he again 

 entered the seafaring life, nnd worked hit way at foremast-man in a 

 trading vessel to the great metropolis. 



In London, though very poor, no refused an offer of employment as 

 n journeyman hoase-painter at thirty shillings per week, being bent 

 upon painting shipping; and he soon after contrived to obtnir 

 iderablc employment in the representation of ships. Having obi 

 however an introduction to Mr. Homer, that gentleman em; 

 him for seven yean on the great panorama of London at the Colos- 

 seum. At the completion of this work he WM engaged M scene- 

 painter at the Pavilion Theatre. While at this theatre some of his 

 works attracted the notice of Vice-Admiral Lord Mark Kerr, \\lio 

 became Chamben's ilnoere patron, and procured him on introduction 

 to King William IV. and Queen Adelaide. The king chose a te-, 

 and the queen chose a calm const-scene uear Dover. Chambers \- 

 alto a view of Greenwich Hospital for the queen, and the ' Opening of 

 New London Bridge ' for the king ; and he received the appointment 

 of Marine-Painter to their Majesties. 



He was now reaping tho fruits of his persevering industry. He Im.I 

 given up hit appointment as scene-painter to the Pavilion Theatre, and 

 he was in a fair way of establishing fame and fortune together ; but a 

 constitution originally very weak, and much shattered by a seafaring 

 life, was unable to bear the incessant application his ambitious min.l 

 subjected it to, and he gradually fell into a disease which proved foul 

 to him. He died in October 1S40. 



Chambers was a member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours. 

 His chief productions however are his naval battles in oil, in which ho 

 was excellent, especially in the construction and rigging of his ships, 

 though in his colouring there is an unnatural redness of effect pervading 

 everything, the smoke in particular. There are in the hall of Green- 

 wich Hospital three battle* by Chambers ' The Bombardment of Algiers 

 by the Squadron led by Viscount Exmouth, G.C.B., in 1 -Hi,' presented 

 in 1886 by the admiral's friends; 'Portobello taken by Admiral Vernou 

 and Commodore Brown in 1739,' presented in 1S39 by K. H. Locker, Esq., 

 oommisMouer; and a copy of West's picture of the ' Destruction of tho 

 French Fleet in the Port of La Hogue by Vioe-Admiral Sir George 

 Rooke, Kt., in 1692.' 



(Art-Journal; Catalogue of the Naval Gallery of Greenwich Hospital.) 



CHAMBERS, SIR WILLIAM, is said to have derived his descent 

 from n Scotch family of the name of Chalmers, who were barons of 

 Tartas in France. He wai born however in 172G at Stockholm in 

 Sweden, whither his grandfather, an eminent merchant, had pro 

 some time before to prosecuto certain claims he had upon the g 

 ment of that country. At two years of age he was brought to 

 England, and put to school at Ripou in Yorkshire. We . 

 his making a voyage to China as supercargo, in the service of the 

 Swedish East India Company. ThU must have been when he was a 

 very young man, for at the ago of eighteen he is said to have - 

 in London, and taken up the profession of an architect and draughts- 

 man. In these capacities, having no formidablo rivalry to encounter, 

 be soon obtained considerable reputation. At length he was intro- 

 duced to the Earl of Bute, and by his influence appointed drawing- 

 master to the young Prince of Wale*, afterwards George III. Soou 

 after the accession of that king he was employed to lay out the royal 

 gardens at Kew. In this task he displayed without n-i-ii-iint that 

 predilection for the Chinese style, both of gardening and architecture, 

 of which ho had already given intimation in a work, entitled 'Designs 

 lor Ciiin.He li.iiMings,' published in 1759. In 1765 he published in a 

 Urge folio volume, 'Plans, Klevutiont, Section*, and Perejx 

 of the Garden* nnd Hnildiugs at Kew, in Surrey.' Meanwhile he had 

 also, by a villa in the Italian style, which he erected nt Rouhatnpton 

 for tho Karl of Besborough, and by various other buildings, obtained 

 much reputation and employment as an architect In 1771 i 

 made a knight of the Swedish order of the Polar Star. In K 

 published his ' DinserUtion on Oriental Gardening.' This is another 

 vindication of Chinese tastes and fashions, and is uienior., 

 having exposed the author to the satiric lash of the poet Ma-mn : to 

 the first part of whose ' English Garden,' published iminedwt .-ly 

 before, it WM suspected to be intended as a sort of answer and con- 

 futation. The piece in which Moxou took his revenge (if indeed lie 

 WM the author, which he never acknowledged) was tho famous 

 'Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers, Knight, Comptroller 

 General of his Mnjcnty's Work*, and author of a late " Uissi- 

 i>n Oriental Gardening; " enriched with explanatory Notes, chiefly 

 extracted from that elaborate performance.' Thin production appeared 

 in 1778, and wai followed in 1774 by a short coiitiniMtion, under the 

 title of 'An Heroic Postscript' In 1775 Sir William was appointed 

 to superintend the rebuilding of Somerset HOUM, which is his best 

 work. In 1791 he published hi* 'Treatise on Civil Architecture,' 

 which hu been several times reprinted. Sir William died on the 8th 

 of March 17'J(i, leaving a large fortune. As an architect, although his 

 toato was fantastic, he frequently showed considerable ingenuity, and 

 alno displayed a certain grandeur in his designs. His fttaircaoes in par- 

 ticular u*ud to be much admired. After Somerset House, among 



