In lieu of an old debt due Admiral Penn, his son, William Penn, in 1681 became the owner of 40,000 square miles of land in America. He immediately advertised throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland for men to join him on a voyage to his new possessions. His terms were as follows:
"Those who wished to sail on board his vessel, the "Welcome," could have land by paying one hundred pounds Sterling for 5,000 acres, and annually thereafter a shilling rent for every hundred acres. Those who did not have money to pay in this way, could have two hundred acres or less at the rate of a shilling per acre." (See Fisher's "The True William Penn.")
About 1655-60 were born, south of Stirling, (perhaps near the Clyde or Tweed in Scotland), four baby boys, who became the heads of four great American families.
These boys -- John, Benjamin, Peter, and Alexander -- may have been brothers, but I find no evidence of it and, therefore, shall not assume a certain relationship, but shall simply state the facts I have at hand, leaving the reader to determine his own conclusions. Whatever their relationship may be, it is easy to think of them as grandsons of Robert Chambers, previously mentioned as having returned to Stirling from Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
Benjamin raised the necessary money, and sailed on board the "Welcome" in 1682. No doubt he was present when Penn made his famous treaty with the Indians at Chester. Whether Benjamin bought much or little land, will perhaps never be known, but it is established that after a brief stay in America, perhaps two or three years, he returned to Scotland to live.
About 1697, John, perhaps a brother, left Scotland with his family -- no doubt in company with Thomas Story, and settled just a little north of Chester on the river Delaware. As the country developed, he moved farther north, and died at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1746.
Alexander, perhaps a fourth brother, raised his family in the hills near the Clyde or Tweed in Scotland, and was buried there.
Peter came to America early in the century, and established a Scotch settlement in Virginia on the upper Rappahannock.
A contemporary of these four probable brothers was James Chambers of Peebles, Scotland, in easy range with Stirling, who signed his name in a Bible, now in the possession of Charles Edward Stuart Chambers, head of the Chambers Journal House, Edinburgh, Scotland, in the year 1664. There is but little doubt that James was related to these men, but as the facts are not obtainable, the nature of this relationship will never be known.
DESCENDANTS OF JOHN
Mention is made in certain New Jersey records of John Chambers, who was prominent there in 1729. This John
was the son of the elder John mentioned above. Among the sons of this John Chambers were two men known in
New Jersey military history, which see later.
The following letter is from David Abbott Chambers, attorney, of Washington, D.C.:
Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 1904
William D. Chambers, Esq., Muncie, Indiana
Dear Sir:
I have received from my son Laurance, at Indianapolis, your letter to him of the 4th inst., and have also received your letter to me of the 9th inst., about the Chambers family.
I could get interested in genealogy if I had time for it, but I haven't.
My great great grandfather was named David Chambers, and he was commissioned Colonel of the Third Regiment, Hunterdon County, N.J., Militia, June 19, 1776, commissioned Colonel of the Battalion of New Jersey State Troops, November 27, 1776; and commissioned Colonel of the Second Regiment of Hunterdon County Militia, September 9, 1777; took part in the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, and resigned, May 28, 1779.
Perhaps this Colonel David Chambers is the same David Chambers mentioned in your letter of the 4th inst., (as the son of David Chambers who lived in Rockbridge County, Virginia), but I have no means of determining whether your great uncle, David Chambers, is also my great great grandfather. My great great grandfather had a son Joseph Gaston Chambers, and he a son David Chambers (my grandfather) and he a son David Chambers (my father) and I am David Abbott Chambers, and have a son David Laurance Chambers.
I enclose a sketch of the life of my grandfather, David Chambers, written by himself.
Some years ago I had some correspondence with the Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen Chambers of German Valley, N.J., who was then getting up a Chambers book. At that time he sent me a proof of some pages of his book, which I enclose to you for your study, and will ask you to return the same to me when you are through with it.
I am sorry I can't make my letter more interesting and more lengthy. I shall be glad to hear from you.
If you come to Washington, please call on me. I suppose you are in Indianapolis occasionally, and I hope you will go and see my son, who is with the Bobbs-Merrill Company.
FOLLOWING IS A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF DAVID CHAMBERS REFERRED TO IN THE ABOVE LETTER:
Col. David Chambers was born in the village of Allentown, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, the 25th of
November, 1780. His mother's maiden name was Mary Woosey. His father, Joseph Gaston Chambers, also a
native of Pennsylvania, was an educated man, a graduate of Princeton College, New Jersey, at the
commencement of the revolution; and was not only a belle-lettre scholar, but also an inventive genius -- which
was evidenced by the invention of a peculiar species of repeating gunnery, patronized by the naval department
of the U.S. government during the last war with England; which was ready to be developed on Lake Ontario,
where a large ship was prepared for action, armed with these guns, under command of Commodore Chauncey.
Peace supervened before a battle was fought or a gun fired in action, and the invention fell dormant. As to the
utility and destructive character of the invention, it is sufficient to state that it met the entire approval
and warm commendation of Major Gen. Jacob Brown, and Commodore Rogers. In addition to this, J. G. C. invented
a new alphabet, or an attempt to form a complete system of letters, with a view to the more easy and perfect
spelling and pronunciation of the English language. After much expense in founding type to print, that
invention also became a nullity.
Col. David Chambers received his entire education at the hands of his father, who adopted teaching as a pursuit. That education was thorough in English and its various branches, together with a fair course in the Latin and Greek languages and the German. At a very early age he was placed in adventurous and responsible situations and employments. In the year 1794, at the age of 14 he was employed as a confidential express, at Williamsport in Maryland, to carry dispatches from Gen. Henry Lee of Virginia (commandant of the Army detailed to quell the whiskey insurrection in Western Pennsylvania) to President Washington, then at Carlisle in Penna. He there had private conversation with the President, and General Alexander Hamilton, then Acting Secretary of War; and received other dispatches from Gen. Hamilton to be delivered to Gen. Lee at Cumberland in Maryland -- at the same time the General conferring pointed commendation and encouragement on the youthful agent, to carry the dispatches with speed and safety, and accompanying the compliment with a douceur from his purse. In 1796, after serving a term as clerk in a retail store, he was placed in the Aurora daily newspaper office in Philadelphia, then conducted by Benjamin Franklin Bache (grandson of Dr. Franklin), to learn the art of printing. His father's fortunes induced him in the fall of the same year to move west, and, as there was no binding agreement, the son was recalled from the handling of type, in which he had promptly become a proficient, and placed at the plow tail in Washington County, Western Pennsylvania, where the inhabitants then lived in a very primitive state, enjoying but little of conveniences, and none of the luxuries of life. Mr. Bache, in a letter to D. C.'s father, gave a most excellent character to the apprentice, and desired that he should continue with him; alleging that "the business was respectable, and would increase in usefulness, and no doubt would thrive in it." In 1801, he made a perilous trading voyage in a flat-boat loaded with flour, down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, then under Spanish government. From New Orleans he returned by ship to New York, occupying fifty-six days in passage, and suffering much privation from want of provisions and water.
At the age of 21 he married Susannah Glass, and settled on a fertile farm in Brooke County, Virginia, a short distance from the present seat of Bethany College; his wife being foster sister of Miss Brown, the first wife of Rev. Alexander Campbell, president and founder of that institution. After pursuing agriculture in a laborious way for thirteen years, he sold his possessions in Virginia and removed to Zanesville, Ohio, in October, 1810 -- that place having been made the seat of the State Government, which it retained only two years. He bought one-half of a newspaper establishment, then a year in operation, entitled the "Muskingum Messenger"; became its chief editor, and was appointed State printer by the Legislature, during the two years that remained. On the return to the legislature, temporarily, to Chillicothe, he sought and obtained the office of Secretary of the Senate; and obtained the same appointment at the first and second sessions of the Legislature at Columbus, the permanent seat of government.
In 1812-13 he acted as aid to Major General Lewis Cass, and executed various orders of that officer, in detailing organizing militia companies for the seat of war. In 1816, at the organization of the Bank of the United States, he was appointed by the President of the United States one of the Commissioners to receive subscriptions to that institution in Ohio. Having occupied at different times the offices of Mayor of the town and clerk of the common pleas and Supreme Courts; in 1821 he was elected one of the six representatives to which Ohio was then entitled in the 17th Congress; his competitor being the Hon. John C. Wright, afterwards a representative from a different district, and also a Supreme Judge. He was never absent from his seat in Congress more than a single day during the entire term. He voted for the resolution declaring the slave trade piracy; and also the resolutions acknowledging the independence of the South American Republics. Failing in a re-election from causes not worthy of detail, in the Spring of 1823 he retired to an extensive farm he had improved, five miles above Zanesville on the west bank of the Muskingum river, where he continued an agricultural life, being a constant operative up to the year 1856.
During this period he was elected by his fellow citizens of Muskingum County to represent them in the State legislature nine different terms; seven sessions in the house and two sessions in the Senate; and at last term, in 1844, was elected Speaker of that body, which closed his legislative career.
In 1850 a convention was called to frame a new constitution for the State, and he was elected a delegate in conjunction with Judge Richard Stillwell to represent the old County of Muskingum in that body; who perfected a constitution at an adjourned session in the City of Cincinnati in March, 1851, which closed Col. C.'s public official labors. He then, in 1856, became again a resident of Zanesville, the seat of his early labors, nearly half a century past -- a man of leisure, in good health, 78 years of age, having eleven living children, and one dead -- eight sons and four daughters, with a numerous posterity, some of the third generation. His stature is 5 feet 10 inches, tolerably robust make; dark complexion and eyes; an aquiline prominent Roman nose; having a strong voice, and fluent in speech. His present wife was Mrs. Triphenia M'Gowan, a second marriage at the age of 66.
In early life he adopted Democratic Republican principles, and was a zealous political disciple of the school of Thomas Jefferson. Supported the War of 1812, together with the administration, editorially in his newspaper. Voted for Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Wm. H. Harrison, and Z. Taylor for President. Followed the wake of H. Niles of the Baltimore Register, James Madison and Henry Clay, as men he esteemed of incorruptible virtue, and ever worthy of honor. Belonged to the old Whig Party--then a Republican as of old--and a sworn opponent to the extension of slavery, and the aggressive schemes of South Oligarches.
COLONEL DAVID
Col. David (1730-1790), was a brother of Alexander, and was a soldier of the Revolution. David married Anna
Gaston.
Joseph Gaston Chambers was born in 1759, at Allentown, PA.; married Mary Woolsey, and died June 1, 1829.
There were four children in his father's family.
Joseph Gaston, 7 children: David (see David Abbott's letter. Also below). William C., probably ancestor of
W. G. Chambers of the University of PA. No record is available of the following children: Harriet, Mary,
Charlotte, Joseph, and John.
David (Nov 25, 1780; Aug 8, 1864) married Susanna Glass in 1801. (See autobiography). Twelve children:
Maria Peters (Feb. 16, 1803; 1881), Brooke Co., W. VA;
Ann (Cox), (June 8, 1805; May 16, 1883), Brooke Co., W.VA;
Joseph Gaston (1807; 1887), Brooke Co., W.VA;
Susan (Carhart),(Oct. 31,1808; April,1887),Brooke Co., W.VA;
Samuel Glass (Nov.21,1810; Apr.7,1896), Zanesville, OH;
Clara (Bosworth)(Baldwin), June 13,1813;June 13,1902), Zanesville, OH;
David (1815;1840), father of David Abbott, Zanesville, OH;
Charles Fox (Mar.20,1823; May 16,1898), Zanesville, OH;
Albert G. (Nov 14, 1824; 1887), Zanesville, OH;
Robert and Benjamin (Mar. 11,1826; Robert died Feb.16,1912; Benjamin died April 7, 1891), Zanesville, OH.
Samuel Glass married Louisa Adams; seven children:
Alice married Carey Inskeep, Ottumwa, IA;
Maria Louise married John W. Edgerly, Ottumwa, IA;
Edward Adams married Lenora Tinkham, Ottumwa, Iowa;
Harriet T. married J. W. Murphy, Middletown, OH;
David married Anna Sunderland, Portland Oregon, 1923;
Horatio C. married Rosa Lee; 2 children.
Turner died when a child.
Edward Adams, four children:
John E. married Elizabeth Polk, Shelbyville, IN;
Katherine married Raymond D. Sprout, Gasport, NY;
Irene M., teacher, Department of English, Ward-Belmont school, Nashville, TN;
Edith died when a child.
David, McConnellsville, OH, May 5, 1855; six children:
Mary Louisa, Samuel Sunderland, David Albert, Paul, Fred Edward, and Ruth Anna.
David formed the firm name "D. Chambers & Sons," Portland, Oregon. The sons, Samuel, David A., and Fred E.
are engaged in the optical business with their father. Paul, born in Chicago, died in infancy. Ruth is
instructor in Physical Education at Marshfield, Oregon.
Horatio C. had two children: Helen, who died young, and Charles E., the well known artist, who lives at Riverdale-on-Hudson, NY.
Mrs. Inskeep had seven children: Charles C., Louise, Fred, Edmund Ambrose, Alice Carey, Theodore, and Maria.
Mrs. Edgerly had seven children: Dr. Edward Tyler, Adine, Alice, John, Helen, George, and Denison.
While I cannot trace ancestry very far in lines not of the Chambers name, yet I must extend to F. L. Griffin of Reed College Portland, Oregon; Warren S. Peters, principal of the high school, Shelbyville, IN; William Allen Wood, an Indianapolis attorney and his accomplished daughter, Allyn Louise Wood; and to George Chambers Calvert, Secretary of the Indiana Sons of the Revolution, my thanks for encouragement in the preparation of this work.
Mr. William D. Chambers, Dupont, Indiana
Dear Mr. Chambers;
I have received prospectus of your Chambers History, "Trails of the Centuries," and believe it will make a very interesting thing for members of the Chambers family.
Mr brother-in-law, Dr. F. L. Griffin, after corresponding with you, requested that I send you complete record of our branch of the family, which we have clear back to Col. David Chambers of the Revolutionary War. You have the record, no doubt, the same as ours up to the sons of Col. David Chambers of Ohio, and we send this record more to give you data regarding the offspring of his son Samuel Glass Chambers, where we tie into your record.
On page two there are a couple of items missing on the record of the family of Edward Adams Chambers and also Horatio C. Chambers. I have written to Miss Irene M. Chambers, daughter of Edward Adams Chambers, to send to you at once the data which I have requested of her, which will fill in the complete record of Edward Adams Chambers. I have also written to Charles E. Chambers of New York, for complete data of his family, the children of Horatio C. Chambers.
I made out the blanks for them to fill in, and at the top of each sheet have stated that the data therein contained refers to these two items on page two of the record which I send.
Trusting that this is the information you desire, I am,
Very truly yours,
D.A.CHAMBERS
As has been stated, David Chambers, who fought at Monmouth, had a brother Alexander, who also did service in the American Revolution, holding the position of Commissary in the Army; later an alderman. He is perhaps the father of John C. Chambers, who was born in New Jersey in 1779. When fourteen years of age this John started out for himself, and sailing down the Ohio from Fort Henry (now Wheeling), he stopped near Maysville, KY, where he went to work (perhaps on the Wheeling-Zanesville-Maysville pike, then under construction by Col. Ebenezer Zane). He must have received a good education back in New Jersey, for in a few years we find him practicing law at Washington, the county seat of Mason Co., KY. He became a soldier, and in 1812-14 he fought the British and Indians. In the battle of the Thames he was one of the famous squad of cavalry that captured the notes and private papers of the British General Proctor. For his dashing bravery in this battle he received honorable mention in the notes of Gen. Harrison. We quote from Collin's Historical Sketches of Kentucky:
"John Chambers, Esq., one of those who followed Major Payne (1813) in his dashing pursuit against General Proctor at the battle of the Thames, was mounted on a splendid charger. The pursuit was so hot that Gen. Proctor was forced to abandon his carriage and take refuge in a swamp, leaving all his baggage and his papers, public and private, in the hands of the victors. In Gen. Harrison's official report it is stated that the first battalion inspired confidence wherever it appeared."
In 1827, John Chambers was elected to the U. S. Congress; retiring for six years, he was again elected in 1835; and a third time in 1837. In 1841 he received the appointment by President Harrison as Governor of the territory of Iowa, which he held for four years. It was while acting Governor of Iowa that he was so much sought throughout the northwest as an Indian Commissioner.
After the expiration of his office as Governor, he returned to Kentucky and renewed his practice of law. In 1852 he died at Paris, KY.Ezekiel F. Chambers was born in Kent, MD in 1788, and died at Charleston, MD in 1867. He was a member of Congress 1826-34; member of Maryland Constitutional Convention 1850; Judge Maryland Court of Appeals until 1857. He may have been a brother of John of Kentucky or of David of Ohio. There is but little doubt that he is at least a descendant of the old New Jersey branch.
John Story Chambers, financier and engineer, was born at Trenton, N.J. in 1782. This name is another hint that the elder John Chambers and Thomas Story settled together along the Delaware in 1697, as previously stated.
Mrs. Mary Louisa Chambers Griffin of Portland, OR traces her descent thus: David, her father, Samuel Glass, David, Joseph Gaston, Colonel David (1730-1790).
William C. Chambers, the second son of Joseph Gaston Chambers, born about 1782, at or near York Co., PA, crossed the mountains by wagon, following the National Pike, and settling in Westmoreland County, PA. Among his sons were George, John, Joseph and William. George was the grandfather of William grant Chambers, Dean of the School of Education in the University of Pittsburgh, PA, for so many years; more recently a professor in the University of Pennsylvania. I have two opportunities to connect this college man: (1) with the New Jersey line, as I have done: (2) with the "Ship Protection, 1812" line. A single circumstance has led me to this connection: that is, the fact that he uses simplified spelling. The careful reader may make the same observations.After the above had been sent to the printer, I learned from Mary Chambers Bright that the second view is the correct one. She says that W. G. C. is a cousin to her father.
Charles Julius Chambers, a leading American journalist and author, long connected with the New York Herald, was born in Belfontaine, OH in 1850. For years he was a member of the Lotos Club, New York.
I regret that I have no picture to represent this large family. Pictures add to the cost of the book, but usually the purchasers like to see them.