Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802)
Robert Chambers FRSE FGS LLD (/ˈtʃeɪmbərz/; 10 July 1802 – 17 March 1871)[2] was a Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th-century scientific and political circles.
Robert Chambers
10 July 1802
Peebles, Peeblesshire, Scotland
17 March 1871 (aged 68)
St Andrews, Fife, Scotland
St Regulus Chapel, St Andrews
Co-founder and partner, W. & R. Chambers Publishers, Edinburgh
- Traditions of Edinburgh (1824)
- The Picture of Scotland (1827)
- Histories of the Rebellions in Scotland
- Vestiges of Creation (1844)
- Ancient Sea-margins (1848)
- Anne Kirkwood (m. 1829–1863)
- (unknown wife) (m. 1867–1879)[1]
son: Robert Chambers Jr. (1832–1888)
- mother: Jean Gibson
- brother: William Chambers (1800–1883)
- granddaughter: Violet Tweedale
Chambers was an early phrenologist in the Edinburgh Phrenological Society. He was also the anonymous author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which was so controversial that his authorship was not acknowledged until after his death.[3]
Marriage[edit]
On 7 December 1829 Robert married Anne Kirkwood, the only child of Jane and John Kirkwood.[14] Together they had 14 children, three of whom died in infancy. Excluding these three, their children were Robert (Robert Chambers Jr.), Nina (Mrs. Frederick Lehmann, and mother of Rudolf Chambers Lehmann), Mary (Mrs. Alexander Mackenzie Edwards, mother of satirist Bob Edwards), Anne (Mrs. Dowie, mother of Ménie Muriel Dowie), Janet, Eliza (Mrs. William Overend Priestley), Amelia (Mrs. Rudolf Lehmann), James, William, Phoebe (Mrs. Zeigler), and Alice.[15]
Other activities[edit]
Chambers gave a talk on ancient beaches at the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting at Oxford in May 1847. An observer named Andrew Crombie Ramsay at the meeting reported that Chambers "pushed his conclusions to a most unwarrantable length and got roughly handled on account of it by Buckland, De la Beche, Sedgwick, Murchison, and Lyell. The last told me afterwards that he did so purposely that [Chambers] might see that reasonings in the style of the author of the Vestiges would not be tolerated among scientific men." On the Sunday Samuel Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, used his sermon at St. Mary's Church on "the wrong way of doing science" to deliver a stinging attack obviously aimed at Chambers. The church, "crowded to suffocation" with geologists, astronomers and zoologists, heard jibes about the "half-learned" seduced by the "foul temptation" of speculation looking for a self-sustaining universe in a "mocking spirit of unbelief", showing a failure to understand the "modes of the Creator's acting" or to meet the responsibilities of a gentleman. Chambers denounced this as an attempt to stifle progressive opinion, but others thought he must have gone home "with the feeling of a martyr".
Near the close of autumn 1848, Chambers allowed himself to be brought forward as a candidate for the administrative position of Lord Provost of Edinburgh. The timing was especially poor, with others seeking any means possible to try and discredit his character. His adversaries found the perfect opportunity to do so in the swirling allegations that he was the author of the much reviled Vestiges. William Chambers, in his Memoir of Robert Chambers, still sworn to secrecy despite his brother's recent passing, makes his only mention of Vestiges in connection with this affair: "(Robert) might have been well assured that a rumor to the effect that he was the author of 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation' would be used to his disadvantage, and that anything he might say on the subject would be unavailing."[26] Robert withdrew his candidacy in disgust.
In 1851 Chambers was one of a group of writers who joined the publisher John Chapman in reinvigorating the Westminster Review as a flagship of free thought and reform, spreading the ideas of evolutionism.
Robert Chambers was a golfer and was elected an honorary member of the Musselburgh Golf Club (now Royal Musselburgh Golf Club) on 14 September 1833.[27] His son, who followed him into the publishing business, was a renowned player and became Champion Golfer in 1858 as a member of Bruntsfield Links Golfing Society.[28]
Death[edit]
Robert Chambers died on 17 March 1871 in St Andrews. He was buried in the Cathedral burial ground in the interior of the old Church of St. Regulus, according to his wishes.[29] The grave lies against the southern wall of the structure attaching the roofless section, east of the tower. A memorial window was also erected to Robert by his brother William in St Giles Cathedral next to a larger window to William himself, placed at the time of his restoration of the cathedral. The pair of windows lie in the northern transept.
A year after Robert's death, his brother William published a biography under the title Memoir of Robert Chambers; With Autobiographical Reminiscences of William Chambers. However, the book did not reveal Robert's authorship of the Vestiges. Milton Millhauser, in his 1959 book Just Before Darwin, wrote the following about William's memoir: "The fraternal Memoir of Robert Chambers might have been an excellent biography had not the author been concerned to keep the Vestiges secret and one or two others. Despite the author's intelligence and sympathy, such omissions inevitably produced a distorted picture" (p. 191, note 7). The book contains some reminiscences by Robert of his early life, with the rest of the narration filled in by William.
Alexander Ireland, in 1884, issued a 12th edition of Vestiges with Robert Chambers finally listed as the author and a preface giving an account of its authorship. Ireland felt that there was no longer any reason for concealing the author's name.[3]
