Robert Chambers (judge)

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Sir Robert Chambers.
Sir Robert Chambers.

Sir Robert Chambers (14 January 1737, Newcastle upon Tyne–9 May 1803, Paris), was a jurist, Vinerian Professor of English Law, and Chief Justice of Bengal.

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[edit] Biography

He was son of Robert Chambers, an attorney in Newcastle. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School in Newcastle and in May 1754 was awarded an exhibition at Lincoln College, Oxford. Chambers was admitted to the Middle Temple in the same year, where he was called to the bar in 1761. Also in 1761 he was appointed to a fellowship at University College, Oxford. On 7 May 1766 he was appointed Vinerian Professor of English Law at the University of Oxford in succession to William Blackstone. In the same year he was also appointed Principal of New Inn Hall, a post which, although almost entirely absent from it, he held until his death.

Chambers was a friend of Samuel Johnson from at least 1754 until Johnson's death in 1784. Johnson provided Chambers with references in his pursuit of a Vinerian scholarship; whether and to what extent Johnson assisted Chambers in composing his lectures[1], is not known.

In 1773, the East India Regulating Act 1773 was passed, establishing the supreme council (consisting of a governor-general, the first of whom was Warren Hastings, and four councillors) and judicature (consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges) of Bengal. Chambers was appointed second judge under Sir Elijah Impey as chief justice, with a promise from the lord chancellor that if the chief justice's post became vacant, it would be offered to him. The judges departed for Calcutta in May 1774. Chambers however managed to persuade the Oxford authorities to allow him to retain his professorship for a period of a further three years as a fall-back in case he did not adapt to the Indian climate. His successor was therefore not appointed until 1777, in which year, on 7 June, he was knighted.

Chambers was one of the judges in the notorious case of Maharaja Nandakumar, but escaped criticism. Impey however was eventually recalled to the United Kingdom in 1783, leaving Chambers as acting chief justice, but did not resign until 1787, and Chambers was not confirmed in the post until 1791. He returned to England in 1799. Despite his frequent efforts to gain preferment he seems to have attempted to act with integrity in the controversial administration of which he was part, and to have had a clear understanding that the laws of Georgian England were not always appropriate in the different cultural circumstances of India.

His health had been undermined by his time in India, and in 1802 he left England once more for the kinder climate of the south of France, but fell ill at Paris, where he died in May 1803. He was buried in the Temple Church in London, where his monument was destroyed in 1941 during the Blitz.

While in India he formed a valuable collection of Sanskrit manuscripts.

In 1774, just before leaving for Calcutta, he married Frances, daughter of Joseph Wilton, sculptor and founder member of the Royal Academy. She survived him, along with four of their seven children.

Chambers left no publications. Later biographers[2] characterise him as a perfectionist, excessively conscientious and scrupulous, to the point where considerations of detail prevented him from completing much. In his legal career, his attempts to act conscientiously often had the appearance of indecisiveness and lack of conviction.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ published in part by his son in 1824 and in their entirety not until 1986: see below
  2. ^ T.H. Bowyer, in Oxford DNB; H.G. Hanbury

[edit] Sources

[edit] References

  • Chambers, R., ed. T.M. Curley, 1986. "A course of lectures on the English law … 1767–1773". 2 vols.
  • Chambers, R., ed. C.H. Chambers, 1824. "A Treatise on Estates and Tenures".
  • Rosen, F., 1838. "Catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts collected by the late Sir Robert Chambers … with a brief memoir by Lady Chambers".
  • Redford, B. (ed.), 1992-94. "The letters of Samuel Johnson". 5 vols.