John Chamberlayne (c.1668–1723) was an English writer, translator, and courtier.

Life

He was a younger son of

Edward Chamberlayne 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 ...

and his wife Susannah Clifford. In 1685 he entered

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

as a commoner. Leaving Oxford without a degree, he proceeded to the

University of Leyden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, as a reward to the city of Le ...

, where on 12 May 1688 he entered himself as a student. Here, it would seem, he chiefly studied modern languages, Sloane Manuscript 4040, f. 104 of which, according to contemporary report, he knew sixteen. On his return he filled various offices about the court. He was successively gentleman waiter to Prince George of Denmark, gentleman of the

Privy Chamber A privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were noble-born servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King in private, as well as during various court activities, f ...

first to Queen Anne and then to King George I. He was also secretary to

Queen Anne's Bounty Queen Anne's Bounty was a scheme established in 1704 to augment the incomes of the poorer clergy of the Church of England, and by extension the organisation ("The Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne for the Augmentation of the Maintenance of the ...

Commission, and on the commission of the peace for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of