George Chalmers, antiquary and political economist, was born at Fochabers in 1742; he studied under Thomas Reid at King's College Aberdeen and at Edinburgh University. Chalmers emigrated to Baltimore where he practiced law before he was led by Royalist principles to return to London in 1775. He was rewarded for his loyalty and writings on political economy with a position of clerk in the Board of Trade. George Chalmers, who traded ballads and antiquarian materials with Walter Scott, is not to be confused with his contemporary, Alexander Chalmers, who edited the British Poets. Three volumes of his Caledonia, a massive topographical and antiquarian work, had appeared at the time of his death.
TEXT RECORDS:
1799A Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shakspeare-Papers.
PUBLICATIONS:
A history of the united colonies. 1780.
Life of Daniel De Foe. 1785.
An estimate of the comparative strength of Great Britain during the present and four preceding reigns. 1786.
Historical tracts, by Sir John Davies [ed. Chalmers]. 1786.
Life of Thomas Ruddiman. 1794.
An apology for the believers in the Shakspear papers. 1797.
A supplemental apology for the believers in the Shakspear papers. 1799.
An appendix to the supplemental apology. 1800.
Poems of Allan Ramsay [ed. Chalmers]. 1800.
Caledonia. 3 vols, 1807, 1810, 1824.
A tract ... in answer to Malone's account of Shakspear's Tempest. 1815.
Life of Mary Queen of Scots. 2 vols, 1818.
The poetical remains of some of the Scottish kings. 1824.
Robene and Makyn, and the Testament of Cressid [Henryson, ed. Chalmers]. 1824.
PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:
Scottish
Presbyterian
Aberdeen University
Edinburgh University
clerk
lawyer
antiquary
essayist
Rev. William Beloe
Sir James Bland Burges
George Hardinge
Thomas Reid
Joseph Ritson
Sir Walter Scott
Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe
John Taylor Esq.
Rev. Henry John Todd
REFERENCE:
DNB; NCBEL; DLB.
Catalogue of five hundred Celebrated Authors (1788); David Rivers, Literary Memoirs of Living Authors (1798); John Nichols, Literary Anecdotes (1812-15); Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816); Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); obituary in Gentleman's Magazine 95 (December 1825) 564; obituary in New Monthly Magazine NS 18 (February 1826) 74-75; Robert Chambers, revised Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (1832-35; 1870); The Georgian Era: Memoirs of the most Eminent Persons (1832-34) 3:560-61; Allan Cunningham, "Literature of the last Fifty Years" The Athenaeum No. 318 (30 November 1833) 814; Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); William Anderson, Scottish Nation (1859-63); Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents (1873); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); G. A. Cockroft, The Public Life of Chalmers (1939).
COMMENTARY RECORDS
for George Chalmers:
BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for George Chalmers:
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)
AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(biography records)
1. | 1800 Allan Ramsay: George Chalmers, Life in Poems of Allan Ramsay (1800; 1877) 1:ix-xli. |