Edward Chamberlayne (13 December 1616 – May 1703) was an English writer, known as the author of ''The Present State of England''.
Life
The grandson of Sir Thomas Chamberlayne, knight, at one time English ambassador in the Low Countries, and son of Thomas Chamberlayne, Edward Chamberlayne was born at
Oddington,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
, England, on 13 December 1616. He was first educated at
Gloucester
Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...
, then entered
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall (sometimes known as The Hall or informally as Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university ...
, at
Michaelmas
Michaelmas ( ; also known as the Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, the Feast of the Archangels, or the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels) is a Christian festival observed in some Western liturgical calendars on 29 September, a ...
1634. He subsequently proceeded with a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
(B.A.) on 20 April 1638, and a
Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
(M.A.) on 6 March 1641. During a part of 1641 he held the office of rhetoric reader at Oxford.
When the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
broke out he began a long continental tour, visiting France, Spain, Italy, Hungary,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
, Sweden, and the Low Countries. At the
Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
he returned to England. In 1669 he became secretary to
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle
Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle (162824 February 1685) was an English military leader and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1653 and 1660 and was created Earl of Carlisle in 1661.
Howard was the son and he ...
, and went to
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
to invest
Charles XI of Sweden
Charles XI or Carl ( sv, Karl XI; ) was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period of Swedish history known as the Swedish Empire (1611–1721).
He was the only son of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein- ...
with the
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George C ...
.
He was granted the degrees of
Doctor of Laws
A Doctor of Law is a degree in law. The application of the term varies from country to country and includes degrees such as the Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D. or S.J.D), Juris Doctor (J.D.), Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), and Legum Doctor (LL. ...
(LL.D.) at Cambridge (January 1670 – 1671) and of
Doctor of Civil Law
Doctor of Civil Law (DCL; la, Legis Civilis Doctor or Juris Civilis Doctor) is a degree offered by some universities, such as the University of Oxford, instead of the more common Doctor of Laws (LLD) degrees.
At Oxford, the degree is a higher ...
(D.C.L.) at Oxford (22 June 1672). About 1679 he became tutor to Charles II's illegitimate son,
Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton
Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, (28 September 16639 October 1690) was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England and his mistress Barbara Villiers. A military commander, Henry FitzRoy was appointed colonel of the Grenadier Guards i ...
, and he was subsequently English tutor to
Prince George of Denmark
Prince George of Denmark ( da, Jørgen; 2 April 165328 October 1708) was the husband of Anne, Queen of Great Britain. He was the consort of the British monarch from Anne's accession on 8 March 1702 until his death in 1708.
The marriage of Georg ...
. He was one of the original Fellows of the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
.
In later life he lived at
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, and he died there in May 1703. He was buried on 27 May in a vault in Chelsea churchyard. His friend
Walter Harris wrote a long Latin epitaph.
Works
His best-known work is a handbook to the social and political condition of England, with lists of public officers and statistics, entitled ''Angliæ Notitia, or The Present State of England''; the publication was an adaptation of ''L'Estat Nouveau de la France'' (Paris, 1661). The first edition appeared anonymously in 1669, and was dedicated to the Earl of Carlisle. Two other editions, with the author's name, were issued later in the same year. With the fifth edition of 1671 is bound up the first edition of a second part, containing additional information; in the seventh edition of 1673 a portrait of Charles II, by
William Faithorne
William Faithorne, often "the Elder" (161613 May 1691), was an English painter and engraver.
Life
Faithorne was born in London and was apprenticed to William Peake. On the outbreak of the Civil War Faithorne accompanied his master into the ...
, makes its first appearance; in the ninth edition of 1676 is a new dedication to the
Earl of Danby
Earl of Danby was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The first creation came in 1626 in favour of the soldier Henry Danvers, 1st Baron Danvers. He had already been created Baron Danvers, of Dauntsey in the County of Wiltsh ...
;
[.] with the eighteenth edition of 1694 is bound up a new third part, first issued separately in 1683.
Thomas Hearne states that
Andrew Allam
Andrew Allam (1655 – 17 June 1685) was an English academic and miscellaneous writer.
Life
The son of a humble family, he was born at Garsington, near Oxford, and was educated under a noted schoolmaster of the time, William Wildgoose, of Brasen ...
made major contributions, to the sixteenth edition (1689), and that his information was inserted by Chamberlayne without acknowledgment. Chamberlayne issued the twentieth edition in 1702, and after his death his son John continued to edit the publication. The twenty-first edition (1708) bears the new title ''Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia, or the Present State of Great Britain''. John Chamberlayne died after the issue of the twenty-second edition in 1723, but fourteen editions were subsequently issued by the booksellers, the last being the thirty-sixth and bearing the date 1755.
Charles Henry Hull
Charles Henry Hull (September 29, 1864 – July 15, 1936) was an American economist and historian. He worked at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York. In 1900, he was appointed professor of American History.
In 1899, he published ''The Economi ...
in his scholarly article '
Petty's Place in the History of Economic Theory
"Petty's Place in the History of Economic Theory" is an academic article, written by Charles Henry Hull and published in ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' in 1900.
The article gives an overview of the life and work of William Petty, with a ...
' (1900) complained that ''Present State of England'' "seldom receives nowadays the attention that it deserves".
[, p. 311.] Hull explains that Chamberlayne's book was the direct impulse to the writing of ''The Political Anatomy of Ireland'' and ''Political Arithmetick'' by
William Petty
Sir William Petty FRS (26 May 1623 – 16 December 1687) was an English economist, physician, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to su ...
.
The ''Present State of England'' was
plagiarised
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
by , who brought out ''The New State of England'' in 1691. Although both Chamberlaynes called attention to Miege's theft, Miege continued his handbook till 1748. A French translation of Chamberlayne's second edition appeared in 1669.
Chamberlayne's other books were:
*''The Present War Parallel'd, or a Brief Relation of the Five Years' Civil Wars of Henry III, King of England'' (London, 1647).
*''England's Wants'' (London, 1667).
*''The Converted Presbyterian, or the Church of England Justified in Some Practices'' (London, 1668).
*''An Academy or College wherein Young Ladies and Gentlemen may at a Very Moderate be Educated in the True Protestant Religion and in All Virtuous Qualities'' (London, 1671).
*''A Dialogue between an Englishman and a Dutchman concerning the Late Dutch War'' (London, 1672).
In 1653 Chamberlayne published a volume of translations from Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, containing ''Rise and Fall of Count Olivarez'', ''The Unparallel'd Imposture of Mich. di Molina, an. 1641'', and ''The Right of the Present King of Portugal, Don John the Fourth''.
Family
In 1658 Chamberlayne married Susannah, daughter of Richard Clifford, by whom he had nine children.
John Chamberlayne
John Chamberlayne (c.1668–1723) was an English writer, translator, and courtier.
Life
He was a younger son of Edward Chamberlayne and his wife Susannah Clifford. In 1685 he entered Trinity College, Oxford as a commoner.
Leaving Oxford withou ...
(1666–1723) was a younger son. Chamberlayne's wife died on 17 December 1703, and was buried beside her husband.
References
;Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chamberlayne, Edward
1616 births
1703 deaths
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers
Fellows of the Royal Society