Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chambre, William de
CHAMBRE, WILLIAM de (fl. 1365?), whom Wharton considers to have been one of the continuators of Robert de Graystanes' 'Historia Dunelmensis,' appears to have flourished in the latter half of the fourteenth century. Wharton, however, calls him the author of all the 'Continuation of Graystanes' printed in the 'Anglia Sacra, and as this extends to 1571, it is probable that he would have assigned William de Chambre to the sixteenth century or later. The entire question, however, in the absence of direct information, resolves itself into one of internal evidence. The whole or part of the so-called 'Continuation of Robert de Graystanes' is preserved in three manuscripts. In every case it follows immediately after Graystanes' 'Historia Dunelmensis,' which appears to have been completed about 1837. Of these three exemplars one is to be found in the library of the dean and chapter at York (xvi. i. 12); another at the British Museum {Cotton. MS. Titus A, ii.); and the third in the Bodleian Library at Oxford (Fairfax MS. 6). The Cotton. MS., which, however, only contains a small part of the 'Continuation,' breaks off after the conclusion of the life in 1345 of Richard de Bury; Richard was the successful competitor of Graystanes for the see of Durham. This part of the 'Continuation' bears a note ascribing the 'Vita Ricardi' to William de Chambre. The Oxford manuscript agrees with the Cotton. MS. up to the election of Richard, after which it omits the concluding passage of Graystanes' work and transposes the position of the first paragraph relating to Richard de Bury. From this point to the death of the last-named bishop it agrees almost verbally with the Cotton. MS. This Oxford manuscript, however, is continued in different hands to 1571; and it should be noticed that both the character of the writing and the colour of the ink show a very marked change at the point where the history of Graystanes and the 'Vita Ricardi' touch. Ink and handwriting again change at the conclusion of the 'Vita,' and once or twice more in the course of the remaining fifteen leaves of this manuscript.
The only reason given by Wharton for ascribing the whole of the 'Continuatio Historiæ Dunelmensis,' as found in the Oxford manuscript, to William de Chambre, is that in the Cotton. MS. the 'Vita Ricardi' is assigned to this author. But it is evident from the description just given of this 'Vita' that, even in the Oxford manuscript of the 'Continuatio,' it stands out as a distinct work from Graystanes' 'History' which procedes it, and the loose collection of documents that follows it. Hence it is quite conceivable, and even probable, that it was written, as the Cotton. MS. states, by William de Chambre, who, in this case, need not be considered as the author of what follows in the Oxford manuscript. This conclusion is supported by the account Mr. Raine gives of the York manuscript, the whole of which, including the 'Vita Ricardi' (but apparently no more of the 'Continuatio Historiæ Dunelmensis'), is written in a fourteenth-century hand. Hence the author of the 'Vita' must have lived in this century, and may very well have been a contemporary of the bishop whose life he writes. "With regard to his name, there is no just reason for doubting the statement of the Cotton. MS. that he was called William de Chambre, more especially as Mr. Raine has discovered a corrody granting a certain Willielmus de l'Chambre the office of hall-marshal to the abbey of Durham, with the perquisites attached to this post. The date of this document (1365) would suit all the requirements necessary for settling this difficult question of authorship in favour of William de Chambre. Wharton has published the Cotton. MS. of Graystanes and Chambre, to which he has added the 'Continuation' from the Fairfax MS. Mr. Raine has issued Graystanes and Chambre from the York manuscript, adding the 'Continuation' from the Fairfax MS. or from Wharton.
[Fairfax MS. 6, in the Bodleian Library; Catalogue of Cotton. MSS. 511; Historiæ Dunelmensis Scriptores tres, ed. Raine (Surtees Society), preface pp. viii, x, xiv-xvi, and pp. 122-156; Wharton's Anglia Sacra, i. preface, pp. xlix-l, and pp. 765-784.]