Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/20

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Chamberlen
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Chamberlen

&c.' in Brit. Mus.) lend weight to the popular impression that Chamberlen retired to Holland immediately after his failure, that is, in March 1699, he in point of fact went no further than Scotland, where he resided some considerable time. For in 1700 he was urging the latest development of his land bank scheme upon the parliament of Scotland, the advantages of which he advocated with his customary ability in a pamphlet of fifty pages, entitled 'A Few Proposals humbly recommending .... the Establishing a Land-Credit in this Kingdom,' &c., 4to, Edinburgh, 1700. Two years later we find him busied with a plan for the union of Scotland and England, which he explained in a volume called 'The Great Advantages of both Kingdoms of Scotland and England, by an Union. By a Friend to Britain. Printed in the year 1702.' This is undoubtedly one of the ablest pamphlets ever penned in support of a political cause. His proposals, remarks Dr. Aveling in his exhaustive analysis of the book, 'for the election of representative peers and compulsory education are proofs of his astuteness and far-seeing policy.'

Chamberlen ultimately withdrew to Amsterdam, where he practised his profession for several years, but probably with little success, for we can only surmise that poverty forced him to part with the long-cherished family secret of the midwifery forceps to the Dutch surgeon Hendrik van Roonhuisen, whose acquaintance he had formed in that city. Altnough every search has been made, nothing can be discovered in regard to Chamberlen's latter days. We have found, however, that he was still alive in November 1720, for on the 14th of that month he renounced administration to the estate of his second son, Peter, 'late commander of H.M.'s ship "Milford," a bachelor deceased,' and letters were granted to Hugh Chamberlen the younger, M.D. [q. v.], the natural and lawful brother (Administration Act Book, P. C. C. 1720). By his marriage on 28 May 1663 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, with Dorothy, daughter of Colonel John Brett, Chamberlen had three sons, Hugh [q. v.], Peter, and Myddelton, and one daughter, Dorothy. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on April 1681.

[A full Account of Chamberlen's Life and Writings in Dr. J. H. Aveling's The Chamberlens and the Midwifery Forceps, pp. 125-79; authorities cited above; Francis's Hist. of the Bank of England, i. 67; Will of Col. J. Brett, proved in P. C. C. 28 March 1672.]

G. G.


CHAMBERLEN, HUGH, the younger, (1664–1728), physician, eldest son of Hugh Chamberlen the elder [q. v.], was born in 1664. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and took the degree of M.A. in 1683 per literas regias. After studying medicine at Leyden he graduated M.D. at Cambridge in 1689. In 1694 he was admitted a fellow of the College of Physicians, and was censor in 1707, 1719, 1721. Chamberlen practised midwifery like his ancestors, and in that and other departments of physic had many fashionable patients. Swift writes to Stella (Letters, ed. 1768, iv. 81) that he had dined with Chamberlen. He attended Atterbury in the Tower. He married thrice, and had three daughters, but seems to have preferred the society of the old Duchess of Buckingham and Normanby to that of his wife. His own house was in King Street, Covent Garden, but he spent much time and at last died in the Buckingham House which occupied part of the site of the present Buckingham Palace. His only published work is a turgid Latin epithalamium, written on the marriage of Princess Anne in 1683. A monument to Chamberlen, put up by the son of the Duchess of Buckingham and Normanby, disfigures the north choir aisle of Westminster Abbey. His life-size effigy reclines in doctoral robes on the lid of a sarcophagus surrounded by emblematic sculptures, while a long Latin epitaph by Atterbury praises his family, his life, his descendants, and his patron. The safe delivery of the Duchess of Buckingham and Normanby, which is mentioned by Atterbury as one of the reasons for the monument, is also commemorated with gratitude in the duke's 'Essay of Vulgar Errors;' while the 'Psylas of Garth's Dispensary' (6th edit. London, 1706, p. 91) is a third literary memorial of this fashionable physician. Chamberlen died after a long illness on 17 June 1728. His library was sold in 1734 after the death of his widow, and there is a copy of the catalogue in the British Museum.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys., 1878,i. 604; Aveling's The Chamberlens, London, 1882; Duke of Buckingham's Works, London, 1723, ii. 268.]

N. M.


CHAMBERLEN, PAUL, M.D. (1636–1717), empiric, second son of Peter Chamberlen, M.D. (1601–1683) [q. v.], was born in the parish of St. Anne's, Blackfriars, on 22 Oct. 1635. The possession of the family secret gave him the opportunity of growing rich as an obstetrician. Like his father and brother, Hugh Chamberlen the elder [q. v.], Paul had also his project for the welfare of mankind. In a petition to parliament he states that he 'hath several years imploy'd his Thoughts how he might be most serviceable to his Country, and humbly hopes he has fall'n upon some de-