CHAPTER I:  ORIGIN

While browsing among some old Virginia records I found the following clipping: "Virginia genealogists claim that the name Chambers is a royal name in direct line of descent from Henry III of England.  Ann Chambers Bispham of Mt. Holly, New Jersey, left notes proving her descent to be of this royal line."  If this is true, it is quite probable that most persons of the Chambers name did not cross the English Channel with William the Conqueror, as claimed by some authorities, but that they trailed to the island after Henry II's marriage to Countess Eleanor of Province in 1272.  [This statement must be false since Henry II died in 1189]  History tells us that "relatives of the new queen flocked into England, expecting and obtaining high offices in Church and State, titles, and grants of land.  The queen's uncle became Archbishop of Canterbury."

Note how well the following statement from the letter of Charles Edward Stuart Chambers fits into this theory:  "Gillaume (William) de la Chambre signed the regimen roll of Edward I (son of Henry III) at Berwick on the Tweed in 1296, as Baillee of Peebles."  No doubt Gillaume was related in some way to the king, and for this reason he was given a position of honor and trust in his government.  Berwick at this time was larger than London, and as the kind was planning the reorganization of Scotland, it was a position of high honor.  In 1345 the records of Worcester, England, speak of Robert de la Chambre.  The name was found early in this century in London, Yorkshire, Kent, and even in the Ross-shire toward the north of Scotland.

HISTORICAL SETTING

In the year 1618, under the "Five Articles of Perth," King James restored certain rights to the Catholics.  For this reason, many thousands of Protestants took passage for America.  The real contest, however, in this half century was between the Episcopal Church of England and the growing Presbyterian Church.  This date corresponds closely with the growth of Jamestown and the landing of the Pilgrims and other non-conformists.  George Chambers of Virginia, and Robert Chambers of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, came over at that time.

In 1637, Oliver Cromwell and John Hampden planned to leave England for Ireland or America, but their passage was arrested. Perhaps it would have been better for the Stuart Royalty to have permitted them to peacefully withdraw from the island.  In 1643, William Chambers, a Scottish Divine, was a leader in public thought in the Isles.  In 1646, Richard Chambers headed a famous petition to Charles I.  In 1650, Humphrey Chambers received big honors as a Biblical author.  In 1652, Peter Chambers wrote a treatise on treason, and how it should be punished.  George Chambers, in 1655, wrote against judicial astrology.

After the signing of the "Westminster Confession of Faith" in 1646, there followed in rapid succession the Cromwellian Civil War, the Restoration of Charles II, the overthrow of King James II, and the political and religious liberty of the reign of William, Prince of Orange.  This was a half century of religious controversy.  As early as 1670 the Quakers began to spread throughout Ireland in friendly competition with the Catholics for supremacy.  It was in the next decade that Benjamin Chambers joined the party of William Penn on his first voyage to America.

William, Prince of Orange, came to the throne of England in 1689.  The Catholics had lost control of the island, and James II had fled to France for help and protection.  Ireland was made the fighting ground between the Catholics and Protestants, and William, being an excellent military leader, was the idol of his men.  After his death, there was organized in his honor a secret society bearing the name of "Orangemen."  Ireland was rent throughout with discord and bloodshed.  There were in Ireland about 800,000 Catholics, 100,000 Anglicans, and 200,000 Non-conformists, including Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, and other independents.  The Catholics were losing much of the land in Ulster, Antrim, and Connaught; and even middle and southern Ireland contained a number of Protestants.  Many Scotchmen had entered Ireland for conscience' sake, but in 1704 Parliament passed the Test Act, or Holy Communion Act, which made the government Anglican, rather than Catholic.  In 1714, the Schism Act was passed.  This act required that all who taught or in any way conducted religious services should belong to the Anglican church.  The wealthier Independents, -- Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, et al -- disposed of their property and immigrated to America, where they hoped to find religious liberty.  Many of the most devout Independents, however, were forced to abide their time to get passage to America.  But during the third of a century following Queen Ann, thousands of Non-Conformists, "Orangemen," and even Catholics found refuge in America from Anglican oppression.  It was during this period that the patriarchs of most of the Chambers families first saw America.

In the pages [in the book which is not on this site] which follow, if an immigrant is spoken of as Irish, his ancestors were probably in the mad rush for possessions in Ireland under Queen Anne, or before her time.  The name Chambers per se is not Irish, and became so only by insulation among those who were Irish.  If he is spoken of as Scotch-Irish, his stay in Ireland was brief, or he is the son of a Scotch father and Irish mother, or vice versa, or a descendant of such parents.  If he is spoken of as Scotch, he may have sailed to America from and Irish port, but his blood was pure Scotch.  Many Scotch immigrants left brothers and sisters in Ireland, whose descendants became Scotch-Irish, or perhaps, if there long enough, Irish.