William Chambers

William Chambers
File:Chambers, William.jpg
Born	1809
Died	1882
Residence	Aberystwith
Society Membership membership ASL, AI ordinary fellow ASL Foundation Fellow left 1872.03 last listed elected_AI 1864 elected_ASL 1864.05.03

Notes

Notes From Elsewhere

WILLIAM CHAMBERS , junior ( 1809 - 1882 ), was illegitimate. He was b. at Valenciennes in France , 24 May 1809 , educated at Eton and S. John's College , Cambridge (admitted 1826 , matric. Easter 1828 ; he does not seem to have graduated). He m. Joanna Trant , daughter of Capt. Payne , R.N. , on 20 July 1835 . They had five children. He d. 21 March 1882 , aged 72. William Chambers , junior , was a man of markedly liberal opinions. He was one of the founders, in 1839 , of the Llanelly Reform Society . Although a magistrate , he took the chair at the Rebecca demonstration at Mynydd Sylen on 25 Aug. 1843 . But he took part, also, in the capture of Rebecca leaders in the attack on gates at Pontarddulais on the night of 6 Sept. 1843 , and suffered reprisals from the rioters . (See John Jones , fl. 1811-58 , ‘ Shoni Sgubor Fawr .’ ) He gave important evidence to the education commissioners ( 1847 ). He became, in 1850 , the first chairman of the Llanelly Board of Health , which replaced the corrupt oligarchy of burgesses which administered the town's estates. After his father's death, the Stepney estates reverted to the heirs of Sir John Stepney 's sisters, although only after a prolonged law suit ( Court of Chancery , 1865 ). In 1853 , William Chambers , junior , purchased Hafod (which had twice changed hands since the death of Thomas Johnes ). He, in turn, surrendered it before he died

Hafod was again put up for sale in 1855 and the conveyance to William Chambers took place in 1857.
Henry Hoghton's purchase of the Estate is in series B; his later activities as owner are documented in series C.
1857-1871 (William Chambers)
William Chambers is dismissed by both Elizabeth Inglis-Jones and Francis Jones as a property speculator and they have little else to say about him. Certainly by the time of sale to the next owner the Estate was heavily mortgaged and the Dowager Baroness Margaret Willoughby de Broke the de facto owner. In addition, a large part of the Estate (referred to in the collection as the Devil’s Bridge Estate and covering the Devil’s Bridge Hotel and surrounding lands including Rhos y Tyddyn) was sold in 1866. The buyer was John Barton Balcombe, a man of business also responsible for building the Queen’s Hotel in Aberystwyth (the present County Hall).
William Chambers granted a number of mining leases to various individuals and companies (see file H/D5), but the lead mines on the Estate were not rich.
Moreover, Chambers is largely responsible for creation of the village of Devil’s Bridge by granting many residential leases in the area (see files H/D6 to H/D8). Under the terms of most of these the tenant was to erect a dwelling house on the allotted building plot; a separate lease was prepared for what was termed ‘accommodation land’, in effect an adjoining piece of land of one acre or so to be used by the tenant to grow food or keep livestock on. In return for the building work and annual rent the tenant got a lease for 60 years and three lives (usually of his children or those of close relatives).
According to H/D15/1, Chambers’ additions to the Hafod holdings consisted of Penybont, Pencwm and ‘various parcels of Land on the outskirts of the Estate’.
Chambers eventually went bankrupt and the Estate was put up for sale in 1871 and conveyed to John Waddingham in 1872.
Chambers’ purchase of Hafod is in file H/C3; series H/D documents his period of ownership.