Jacques-François de Chambray (15 March 1687 – 8 April 1756) was a French

knight of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...

, commander, vice-admiral, lieutenant general and

Governor of Gozo The Governor of Gozo was the administrator of Gozo, in what is today Malta, between 1530 and 1814. The office was established under Hospitaller rule, and abolished during the early years of British rule in Malta, when chief civil officers were ...

. He funded the construction of

Fort Chambray Fort Chambray or Fort Chambrai ( mt, Forti Xambrè) is a bastioned fort located in the precincts of Għajnsielem, on the island of Gozo, Malta. It was built in the mid-18th century by the Order of Saint John, in an area known as Ras it-Tafal, be ...

, which was named after him.

Biography

De Chambray was born in Évreux, the son of Baron Nicolas de Chambray and his wife Anne née Ledoux de Melleville. He arrived in Malta on 28 October 1700, where he was received as a minority in the

Order of St John of Jerusalem The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...

on 29 March 1701 and in June of the same year was made the page of the Grand Master. When he came of age, he made his regular caravans and pronounced his vows in 1710. He was commander of the commanderies of Sainte-Vaubourg in the Grand Priory of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and of Virecourt and

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...

in the Grand Priory of Champagne. In 1723, as captain of the 52-gun ship ''Saint-Vincent'', he captured the ''Patrone de Tripoli'', which he brought back with his crew to Malta. He was lieutenant general and vice-admiral of the Hospitaller Navy. He fought in this function with some success against the

Ottomans The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922). Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...

and during the naval battle of Damietta in 1732. He was ambassador of the Order during his trips to the royal court in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

and to the

viceroy of Naples This is a list of viceroys of the Kingdom of Naples. Following the conquest of Naples by Louis XII of France in 1501, Naples was subject to the rule of the foreign rulers, the Kings of France, Aragon and Spain and the Habsburg Archdukes of Austria ...

. He was at sea until 1735 when he made his 55th and last campaign, after which he remained ashore in Malta. From 1749 to 1750, he was appointed governor of the island of

Gozo Gozo (, ), Maltese: ''Għawdex'' () and in antiquity known as Gaulos ( xpu, 𐤂𐤅𐤋, ; grc, Γαῦλος, Gaúlos), is an island in the Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After t ...

by the Grand Master Manuel Pinto da Fonseca. He took over a project to build a fort to defend the bay of

Mġarr Mġarr ( mt, L-Imġarr), formerly known as ''Mgiarro'', is a village in the Northern Region of Malta. Mġarr is a typical rural village situated in an isolated region, west of Mosta. It is surrounded with rich farmland and vineyards. Many of it ...

. He financed the construction with his own funds, paying 40,000 '' deniers''. He had requested as a special favour that the product of his household effects, which amounted to 100,000 pounds, should be used to complete the fort. It was completed in 1758 after his death in 1756 and bears his name,

. For services rendered by his uncle, Jacques-François de Chambray's nephew, Louis-François de Chambray, was received into the Order in 1755. His arms, which appear on his epitaph at Saint John's Co-Cathedral in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

, are Ermine, three torteaux."d'argent à trois besants de gueule, semé d’hermines de sable" - Bourassé et Migne (1852) col. 858

References

Bibliography

* Jean Jacques Bourassé, Jacques-Paul Migne, ''Dictionnaire d'épigraphie chrétienne'', vol. 1, Montrouge, Migne editor, 1852 * Dagues de Clairfontaine, ''Bienfaisance françoise, ou Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de ce siècle'', T. 2, Paris, JF Bastien, 1778 * Roger Marchal (under the direction). ''L'Écrivain et ses institutions'' in: ''Travaux de littérature'', vol. XIX, ADIREL, 2006 * André Plaisse. ''Le Rouge de Malte, ou, Les curieux mémoires du bailli de Chambray'', Rennes, 1991, Ouest-France University editions, coll. ''De Mémoire d'homme'', 285 p. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chambray, Jacques-Francois de 1687 births 1756 deaths Knights Hospitaller Governors of Gozo 17th-century French nobility 18th-century French nobility People from Évreux Burials at Saint John's Co-Cathedral