Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 20 - Chamier
Chamier. The English family of Chamier is descended in the male line from Rev. John Des Champs (born in 1709), whose parents were Huguenot refugees in Mecklenburg, his father being the Pasteur Jean Des Champs, Sieur de Bourniquel, and his mother Lucrece de Maffee, daughter of a gentleman of Dauphine. Having emigrated to England in 1747, he became a minister of the London French Church in the Savoy in 1749, named Judith Chamier in 1758, and died in 1767; he was also the non-resident incumbent of Pilleston, in Dorsetshire. In the female line, the present Chamiers are descended from Daniel Chamier, Esq., brother of John Chamier, secretary to the Archbishop (Wake) of Canterbury, and of Robert Chamier (an officer severely wounded at Dettingen), sons of the Rev. Daniel Chamier. Daniel Chamier, Esq., who had been private secretary at Paris to the Earl of Stair, died a London merchant in 1741, aged forty-five. By his wife, Susan de la Mejanelle, he had one daughter, Judith, Mrs. Des Champs (born 1721, died 1801), who had the honour of keeping alive her father’s name and family, and one surviving son, Anthony, who had the merit to endow them with a good position in English society. After the death of the latter the following appeared in the Gazette:— “St. James’s, 21st Oct. 1780. — The king has been pleased to grant unto John Des Champs, of the city of London, and his heirs-male, pursuant to the will of his uncle, Anthony Chamier, late of Epsom, in the county of Surrey, Esq., deceased, his royal licence and authority to take and use the surname of Chamier only, and to bear the arms of Chamier.” This John was John-Ezekiel Des Champs (born 30th May 1754); in 1772, by his own persistent choice, and through his uncle’s interest, he entered the Madras Civil Service, and though his succession to his uncle obliged him to visit England in 1780, yet he returned to his post in that distant empire to which his descendants have been equally devoted, and in which they have earned distinction. There he married in 1785 Georgina Grace, daughter of Admiral Sir William Burnaby, Bart. John Chamier, Esq. (as he must now be called), was secretary to the Madras Government in the days of Macartney and Clive, and thereafter spent a quarter of a century (i.e., from 1805 to 1831) in literary leisure in London. Of his sons, the name of Chamier was represented in the literary arena by Captain Frederic Chamier, R.N., a successful historical writer and author of nautical romances. The eldest, Henry Chamier, Esq., the head of his family, was born 7th April 1795; his son, Charles Frederick Chamier (also of Madras) was born 13th April 1825; and his grandson, Henry Chamier, was born 17th April 1851. Henry Chamier, senior, was Chief Secretary, thereafter Member of Council, and at length Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Madras; he retired with a very high reputation, and died at Windsor in 1867. Charles Frederic was of the Madras Civil Service, Civil and Sessions Judge of Salen, he died in India on 21st April 1869, aged forty-four, justly eulogised as “the best type of the Anglo-Indian official,” and, like the old refugees, a great horticulturist.