CAMDEN, William (1551-1623), 9 celebrated antiquary and historian, was born in London, May 2, 1551. His father, who was a native of Lichfield, settled in London, where he became a member of the company of paper-stainers. His mother was of the ancient family of Curwen of Workington in Cumberland. Young Camden received his early education at Christ’s Hospital and St Paul’s School; and in 1566 he entered as a servitor of Magdalen College, Oxford; but not succeeding in getting a demi’s place, he removed to Broadgate Hall, and, somewhat more than two years afterwards, to Christ Church, where he was supported by his friend and patron Dr Thornton. About this time he became a candidate for a fellowship at All Souls College, which he lost through the adverse influence of the Roman Catholic party. In 1570 he supplicated the regents of the university to be admitted bachelor of arts, but in this also he was disappointed. The following year Camden came to London, where he prosecuted his favourite study of antiquity, under the patronage of Dr Goodman, dean of Westminster, by whose interest he was made, in 1575, second master of Westminster school. From the time of his leaving the university to this period, he had travelled through great part of England, with a view to make observations and collect materials for his Britannia, on which he was now seriously engaged. In 1581 he became intimately acquainted with the learned President Brisson, who was then in England, and in 1586 he published the first edition of the Britannia, a survey of the British isles, written in elegant Latin. In 1593 he succeeded to the head mastership of Westminster school, on the resignation of Dr Grant. In this office he continued till 1597, when he was promoted to be Clarencieux king-at-arms. In 1600 Camden made a tour to the north, as far as Carlisle, accompanied by his friend Mr (afterwards Sir Robert) Cotton. In 1606 he began his correspondence with the celebrated President de Thou, which continued to the death of that historian. In the following year he published his last edition of the Britannia, from which the several English translations have been made; and in 1608 he began to digest his materials for a history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. In 1609, after recovering from a dangerous illness, he retired to Chiselhurst in Kent, where he continued to spend the summer months during the remainder of his life. The first part of his annals of the queen did not appear till 1615, and he determined that the second volume should not appear till after his death. The work was entirely finished in 1617; and from that time he was principally employed in collecting materials for the further improvement of his Britannia. In 1622, being now upwards of seventy, he determined to lose no time in executing his design of founding a history lecture in the university of Oxford. His deed of gift was accordingly transmitted by his friend Mr Heather to Mr Gregory Wheare, who was by himself appointed the first professor. Camden died at Chiselhurst, Nov. 9, 1623, in the seventy-third year of his age, and was buried with great solemnity in Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory. He was a man of great modesty and integrity, profoundly learned in the history and antiquities of England, and a judicious and conscientious historian. The Camden Society, founded in 1838 for historical research, was so named in honour of him. Besides the works already mentioned, he was author of an excellent Greek grammar, and of several tracts in Hearne’s collection. His greatest and most useful work is the Britannia. It was first translated into English, and published in folio in London in 1611, by Dr Philemon Holland, who is thought to have consulted the author himself; and therefore great respect has been paid to his additions and explanations, on the supposition that they may belong to Camden. But in a later edition of the same translation, published in 1636, the doctor has taken liberties which cannot be excused. A new translation, made with the utmost fidelity from the last edition, was published in 1695, by Edmund Gibson of Queen’s College, Oxford, afterwards bishop of London; in which, besides the addition of notes, and of all that deserved to be taken notice of in Dr Holland’s first edition, there are many other augmentations and improvements, all properly distinguished from the genuine work of the author.

Gibson’s edition was reprinted in 1722, and several times subsequently. The latest and best editions are those by Gough, 1789-90, 3 vols, fol., and by Gough and Nichols, 1806, 4 vols. fol.

CAMDEN, Charles Pratt, Earl, and Viscount Bayham (1713-1794), chief-justice of the Common Pleas, lord chancellor of England, and president of the council, was born in 1713. He was a descendant of an old Devonshire family of high standing, the third son of Sir John Pratt, chief-justice of the King’s Bench in the reign of George I. He received his early education at Eton College, whence he passed, at the age of seventeen, to King’s College, Cambridge. In 1734 he became a fellow of his college, and in the following year obtained his degree of B.A. Having adopted his father’s profession, he had entered the Middle Temple in 1728, and ten years later he was called to the bar. He practised at first in the courts of Common Law, travelling also the western circuit. In 1740 he took his degree of Μ. A. For some years his practice was so limited, and he became so much discouraged, that he seriously thought of turning his back on the law and entering the church. He listened, however, to the advice of his friend Sir Robert Henley, a brother barrister, afterwards known as Lord Chancellor Northington, and persevered, working on and waiting for the success which in such case is usually slow to come. The first case which brought him prominently into notice and gave him assurance of ultimate success was the Government prosecution, in 1752, of a bookseller, William Owen, for a libel on the House of Commons. Pratt was engaged as junior counsel for the defence, and he made his mark in an earnest and powerful speech, which contributed to the verdict for the defendant. In 1753 he undertook the defence of Murphy, who stood charged with the forgery of a will. Four years later, through the influence of William Pitt (afterwards earl of Chatham), with whom he had formed an intimate friendship while at Eton, he received the appointment of attorney-general. The same year he entered the House of Commons as member for the small borough of Downton in Wiltshire, which was subsequently disfranchised. He sat in parliament four years, but did not distinguish himself as a debater. His professional practice now largely increased. One of the most noticeable incidents of his tenure of office as attorney-general was the prosecution of Dr Shebbeare, a violent party writer of the day, for a libel against the Government contained in his notorious Letters to the People of England, which were published in the years 1756-1758. As a proof of Pratt’s moderation in a period of passionate party warfare and frequent “State Trials,” it is noted that this was the only official prosecution for libel which he set on foot. In January 1762 Pratt was raised to the bench as chief-justice of the Common Pleas, this post being vacant by the death of Chief-Justice Willes. He was at the same time knighted. Soon after his elevation the nation was thrown into great excitement about the prosecution of the “worthless profligate” John Wilkes, and the question involved in it of the legality of “general warrants.” Chief-Justice Pratt pronounced, with decisive and almost passionate energy, against their legality, thus giving voice to the strong feeling of the nation, and winning for himself an extraordinary degree of popularity as one of the “maintainers of English constitutional liberty.” Honours fell thick upon him in the form of addresses from the city of London and many large towns, and of presentations of freedom from various corporate bodies. In July 1765 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camden, of Camden Place, in the county of Kent; and in the following year he was removed from the court of Common Pleas to take his seat as lord chancellor (July 30, 1766). This seat he retained less than four years; for although he discharged its duties in so efficient a manner that, with one exception, his decisions were never reversed on appeal, he took up a position of such uncompromising hostility to the Governments of the day, the Grafton and North administrations, on the greatest and most exciting matters, the treatment of the American Colonies and the proceedings against John Wilkes, that the Government had no choice but to require of him the surrender of the great seal. He retired from the Court of Chancery in January 1770, but he continued to take a warm interest in the political affairs and discussions of the time. In his speeches in the House of Lords he sometimes showed a strong ill-feeling against his great opponent, Lord Mansfield, on the doctrine of Ebel. He continued steadfastly to oppose the taxation of the American colonists, and signed, in 1778, the protest of the Lords in favour of an address to the king on the subject of the manifesto of the American commissioners. In 1782 he was appointed president of the council under the Rockingham administration, but retired in the following year. Within a few months he was reinstated in this office under the Pitt administration, and held it till his death. Lord Camden was a strenuous opponent of Mr Fox’s India Bill, took an animated part in the debates on important public matters till within two years of his death, introduced in 1786 the scheme of a regency on occasion of the king’s insanity, and to the last zealously defended his early views on the functions of juries, especially of their right to decide on all questions of libel. He was raised to the dignity of an earl in May 1786, and was at the same time created Viscount Bayham. Earl Camden died in London, April 18, 1794. His remains were interred in Seale church in Kent.