CHAMBERS, a surname supposed to have been originally the same as Chalmers. It seems, however, of French origin, being derived from de la Chambres. In the Ragman Roll occur the names of Robert de la Chambre and Symon de la Chambre, as among those barons who swore a forced fealty to Edward the First in 1296, conjectured by Nisbet, without stating any grounds, to have been among the predecessors of Chalmer of Gadgirth in Ayrshire. Sir George Mackenzie, in his Genealogial Manuscript of the Families of Scotland, says, “One of the clan Cameron going to France, put his name in a Latin dress, by designing himself Camerario, which in French is de la Chambre, who upon his return to Scotland was, according to our dialect, called Chambers.” In the article on Chalmer of Gadgirth, we have shown that Camerarius was the undoubted origin of that surname, at a very early period in Scotland.

CHAMBERS, DAVID, a Roman Catholic writer, who flourished in the seventeenth century, was the author of a curious work, styled ‘Davidis Camerarii Scoti, de Scotorum Fortitudine, Doctrina, et Pietate Libri Quatuor,’ published at Paris in small 4to in 1631. It contains an account of all the saints connected with Scotland, and is dedicated to Charles the First. Scarcely anything is known concerning him.