what was their pedigree. The senior Pierre is said to have left a daughter. It is with Pierre Chamberlan, junior, that this memoir is concerned.
1. Pierre Chamberlan is known in medical annals (see Munk’s Roll) as Peter Chamberlan, surgeon and general medical practitioner, of London. He married Sara, daughter of William Delaune, preacher of God’s word and physician, who mentions him in his will as a son-in-law. They had two children, registered at Threadneedle Street: Pierre (12th May 1601), and Sara (9th September 1604).
2. Peter Chamberlan, born in 1601, followed his father’s profession, but rose to a higher position, having become physician to King Charles I. and Charles II. He became M.D. of the University of Padua in 1619, and was incorporated at Oxford on 26th June 1620, and at Cambridge in 1621. Having completed his studies with universal approbation at so early an age, he was fond of asserting himself as a born gentleman and man of spirit, as appears from the Annals of the London College of Physicians. That learned and nervously respectable body did, on 7th April 1628, elect him a Fellow, but it was only by a majority, and only upon the condition that the President was to admonish him that his dress too much resembled that of a young gentleman and a courtier, and that he must exchange it for the decent and modest costume of a grave physician. Dr. Chamberlan proved an able and successful physician. The Czar sent an autograph letter to King Charles I., saying that the Doctor was willing to enter into his service, and requesting his Majesty’s permission to that effect. The imperial letter was followed by the despatch of a distinguished escort to Archangel, to welcome the Doctor to Russia, and conduct him to Moscow. But instead of a physician, a royal letter arrived, informing the Czar that a native Russian, Dr. Elmston, had studied medicine in England, and had gone home with all necessary qualifications, and that the King could not spare Dr. Chamberlan. The Doctor devoted himself much to midwifery; and ignoring the pockets of his medical brethren, he had the audacity to propose that the King should found a company of female practitioners in that department. For this and other acts of so-called contumacy, the Physicians dismissed him from his Fellowship on 23d November 1659. Dr. Chamberlan married Jane, daughter of Sir Hugh Middleton, Bart., and had eleven sons and two daughters. He purchased the manor of Woodham-Mortimer Hall, near Maldon, in Essex. In my last edition, when writing the memoir of his grandson, my authorities led me to say of him, “he brought Mauriceau’s invention of the obstetrical forceps into notice and use.” The grandson did no such thing, except that he persevered in the use of what was his grandfather’s invention, and translated Mauriceau’s treatise, which had followed in the same line, published in 1668. Dr. Peter Chamberlan’s invention — an instrument so long kept secret by the inventor and his relatives, but benevolently used by him in his practice — “has probably saved more lives than any mechanical invention ever made.” The ferment that he raised among the doctors is evident from Dr. Munk’s list of his writings:—
1. A Paper delivered by Drs. Alston, Hamaeus, Bates, and Micklethwaite, together with an answer by P. Chamberlan. 4to. London, 1648.
2. The Poor Man’s Advocate, or, England’s Samaritan. 4to. London, 1649.
3. Master Blackwell’s Sea of Absurdity, concerning sprinkling, calmly driven back. 4to. London, 1650.
4. The Disputes between Mr. Crawford and Dr. Chamberlan at the house of Mr. William Webb. 4to. London, 1652.
5. A Discourse between Captain Kiffin and Dr. Chamberlan about imposition of hands. 4to. London, 1654.
6. Legislative Power in Problems. Folio. London, 1659.
7. The Sober Man’s Vindication, discovering the true cause and manner how Dr. Chamberlan came to be reported mad. Folio. London, 1662.
8. Vindication of Public Artificial Baths.
9. A Voice in Ramah; or, a Cry of Women and Children. London. 12mo.
10. To my Beloved Friends and Neighbours of the Blackfriars. London. Folio.
11. The Accomplished Midwife (posthumous).
He died 22d December 1683, aged eighty-two. Woodham-Mortimer Hall passed to another family, who in the year 18 15 were making some alterations in the entrance porch. Built over the porch, a series of closets stood, one over the other. When the flooring of the uppermost closet was taken up, there was found among a number of empty boxes, a cabinet containing coins, trinkets, letters, and a curious collection of midwifery instruments, and the celebrated forceps among them. The instruments are described in the Transactions of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, Vol. IX.
3. Hugh Chamberlen, M.D., was a son of the Doctor just memorialized, and
