Westminster now vacant by the death of Lord Irwin, or any other preferment which it shall please His Majesty to bestow on my small services. I flatter myself that this importunity will not appear improper from one who depends upon your Lordship’s protection alone, and who will ever be with the most respectful zeal, My Lord, your Lordship’s most devoted, most obedient, and most humble servant,
“April ye 18th 1763.”
John Obadiah Justamon, F.R.S., surgeon, died 27th March 1786. Justamont or Justamon, was a French Protestant surname, occurring in 1611, 1658, and 1674. At the Revocation, Jeremie Justamon of Marsillargues retired to Switzerland.
Charles Edward Bernard, M.D., of Edinburgh University, was a physician of the highest reputation in Clifton from 1812 to 1838. His ancestors were Huguenot refugees, who became proprietors in Jamaica. He died 18th November 1843. (See Gentleman’s Magazine.)
Charles Nicholas De la Cherois Purdon, M.D., is a son of Henry Purdon, M.D., by Anne, daughter of the late Samuel De la Cherois Crommelin of Carrowdore, and aunt of the present proprietor. He is the author of “The Huguenot Colony in Lisburn.” in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, and of a pamphlet published at Belfast in 1869. “The Huguenots, a Brief History of the circumstances that obliged the Huguenots to leave France, and their settlement in Ireland.”
Anthony Chamier, Esq., M.P., son of Daniel Chamier, Esq. (see Chapters xviii. and xx.), was born on 6th October 1725; Antoine Loubier was his god-father. He began life as a merchant, and was also a stock-broker. At a later period an attempt was made to represent him as having been an unimportant and uninfluential man in the City of London. But that he was both influential and stable is evident from the following note addressed by him to the Earl of Bute:—[1]
“My Lord, I beg the favour of your Lordship to admitt me, into the next Subscription, for Thirty Thousand pounds. As I have never paid in less than One Hundred and fifty Thousand pounds every year during the course of the late war, I flatter myself your Lordship will excuse the liberty I take. I have the honor to be with the most respectfull submission, my Lord, your Lordship’s most obedient and most humble servant,
“London, 15 Jany. 1763.”
It was not till after his fortieth year that he entered upon political life. He was first the private secretary of the Earl of Sandwich in the Foreign Office; then Lord Barrington, Secretary at War, made him his chief clerk, and gave him the office of Deputy-Secretary at War in 1772. He became M.P. for Tamworth in 1774, and sat for that Borough in the House of Commons till his death. In 1775 he became one of the under Secretaries of State, and this post he held for the rest of his life.
The great honours of Anthony Chamier’s career were his being one of the original members of Dr. Johnson’s Literary Club, and also a Fellow of the Royal Society. Such distinctions entirely relieve him of the contempt in which Junius endeavoured to overwhelm him. The fact that Sir Philip Francis was furiously enraged at Chamier’s being introduced into the War office and promoted over his head, when he himself was a candidate for the secretary ship (and the clear evidences that no one else both could and would have penned the attacks on Chamier in Junius’ Letters), form the great proof that Junius was Francis:—
March 10th 1772. — “For shame, my Lord Barrington, send this whiffling broker back to the mystery he was bred in. Though an infant in the War Office, he is too old to learn a new trade. At this very moment they are calling out for him at the bar of Jonathan’s, Shammy! Shammy! Shammy. The house of Israel are waiting to settle their last account with him. During his absence things may take a desperate turn in the alley, and you never may be able to make up to the man what he has lost in half-crowns and sixpences already.”
March 23rd. — “I think the public have a right to call upon Mr. D’Oyley and Mr. Francis to declare their reason for quitting the War Office. . . . They know nothing of the stocks, and therefore Lord Barrington drives them out of the War Office. The army is indeed come to a fine pass with a gambling broker at the head of it.”
On his first entering upon public life he had been saluted sneeringly by Junius as “that well-educated, genteel, young broker, Mr. Chamier.” But when the wrath of the elegant scribe came to its height, he asseverated that it was a “frantic resolution” to give the office of Deputy War Secretary to “Tony Shammy;” and he pictured Lord Barrington referring a general officer for information to “Mr. Shammy” — “little Waddlewell” — “my duckling” — “little three per cents reduced” — “a mere
- ↑ “Musgrave Collection of Autographs in the British Museum,” vol. iii.
