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CHAMBERS, DAVID, a distinguished historical
and legal writer, of the sixteenth century, was a native of Ross-shire,
and generally styled "of Ormond" in that county. He received his
education in the laws and theology at Aberdeen college, and afterwards
pursued his studies in the former branch of knowledge in France and Italy.
The earliest date ascertained in his life is his studying at Bologna under
Marianus Sozenus in 1556. Soon after, returning to his native country, he
assumed the clerical offices of parson of Study and chancellor of the
diocese of Ross. His time, however, seems to have been devoted to the
legal profession, which was not then incompatible with the clerical, as
has already been remarkably shown in the biography of his contemporary and
friend Sir James Balfour.
In 1564, he was elevated to the bench by
his patroness Queen Mary, to whose fortunes he was faithfully attached
through life. He was one of the high legal functionaries, entrusted at
this time with the duty of compiling and publishing the acts of the
Scottish parliament. The result of the labours of these men was a volume,
now known by the title of "the Black Acts," from the letter in
which it is printed. While thus engaged in ascertaining the laws of his
country, and diffusing a knowledge of them among his countrymen, he became
concerned in one of the basest crimes which the whole range of Scottish
history presents. Undeterred either by a regard to fundamental morality,
or, what sometimes has a stronger influence over men, a regard to his high
professional character, he engaged in the conspiracy for destroying the
queen's husband, the unfortunate Darnley. After that deed was perpetrated,
a placard was put up by night on the door of the tolbooth, or hall of
justice, which publicly denounced lord Ormond as one of the guilty
persons. "I have made inquisition," so ran this anonymous
accusation, "for the slaughter of .the king, and do find the earl of
Bothwell, Mr. James Balfour, parson of Flisk, Mr. David Chambers, and
black Mr. John Spence, the principal devysers thereof."
It affords a curious picture of the times,
that two of these men were judges, while the one last mentioned was one of
the two crown advocates, or public prosecutors, and actually appeared in
that character at the trial of his accomplice Bothwell. There is matter of
further surprise in the partly clerical character of Balfour and
Chambers. The latter person appears to have experienced marks of the
queen's favour almost immediately after the murder of her husband. On the
19th of April, he had a ratification in parliament of the lands of
Ochterslo and Castleton. On the ensuing 12th of May, he sat as one of the
lords of Session, when the queen came forward to absolve Bothwell from all
guilt he might have incurred, by the constraint under which he had
recently placed her. He also appears in a sederunt of privy council held
on the 22d of May. But after this period, the fortunes of his mistress
experienced a strange overthrow, and Chambers, unable to protect himself
from the wrath of the ascendant party, found it necessary to take refuge
in Spain.
He here experienced a
beneficent protection from king Philip, to whom he must have been strongly
recommended by his faith, and probably also the transactions in which he
had lately been engaged. Subsequently retiring to France, he published in
1572, "Histoire Abregee de tous les Roys de France, Angleterre, et
Ecosse," which he dedicated to Henry III. His chief authority in this
work was the fabulous narrative of Boece. In 1579, he published other two
works in the French language, " La Recherche des singularites les
plus remarkables concernant l'Estait d’Ecosse," and " Discours
de la legitime succession des femmes aux possessions des leurs parens, et
du gouvernement des princesses aux empires et royaume." The first is
a panegyric upon the laws, religion, and valour of his native country -
all of which, a modern may be inclined to think, he had already rendered
the reverse of illustrious by his own conduct. The second work is a
vindication of the right of succession of females, being in reality a
compliment to his now imprisoned mistress, to whom it was dedicated. In
France, Chambers was a popular and respected character; and he testified
his own predilection for the people by selecting their language for his
compositions against the fashion of the age, which would have dictated an
adherence to the classic language of ancient Rome. Dempster gives his
literary character in a few words - "vir multae et variae lectionis,
nec inamoeni ingenii," a man of much and varied reading, and of not
unkindly genius." He was, to use the quaint phrase of Mackenzie, who
gives a laborious dissection of his writings, "well seen in the
Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, and Spanish languages."
On the return of quieter times, this
strange mixture of learning and political and moral guilt returned to his
native country, where, so far from being called to account by the easy
James for his concern in the murder of his father, he was, in the year
1586, restored to the bench, in which situation he continued till his
death in November, 1592.
Another literary character,
of the same name and the same faith, lived in the immediately following
age. He was the author of a work intitled "Davidis Camerarii Scoti,
de Scotorum Fortitudine, Doctrina, et Pietate Libri Quatuor," which
appeared at Paris, in small quarto, in 1631, and is addressed by the
author in a flattering dedication to Charles I. The volume contains a
complete calendar of the saints connected with Scotland, the multitude of
whom is apt to astonish a modern protestant.
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