Geoffrey Chamber (floruit c. 1490 – 1544x1550) (also Chambers) was a legal advocate, an associate and agent of Thomas Cromwell's, and was Surveyor and Receiver-General to the Court of Augmentations at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. He was connected with the discovery of the mechanical contrivances in the Rood of Grace at Boxley Abbey.
Life The Boston Pardons, 1517–1518 The early life of Geoffrey Chamber is obscure. He first comes to notice in connection with the Gild of Our Lady in St Botolph's church at Boston, Lincolnshire in 1517. The town held two Pardons, the Great Pardon and the Lesser Pardon, by which members of the Gild were granted rights (on the payment of various dues and subscriptions) to consume dairy products and flesh during Lent without scruple of conscience, on the advice of physicians; the right to use and take the sacrament at a portable altar in any place; free right to choose their own confessor; the benefit of all prayers and masses for the dead, and for Christian souls; and to have copious indulgences and remissions. For the renewal of these pardons it was necessary to obtain the Pope's seal in Rome, for a substantial fee. This mission was entrusted to Geoffrey Chamber, Secretary of the Gild, who made two journeys to Rome for the purpose, in 1517 and 1518.The journey narrative can be read in R.B. Merriman, The Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, I: Life, Letters to 1535 (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1902), Appendix to Chapter I, part 4, pp. 23-26 (Project Gutenberg).The Acts and Monuments Online redacts the story of Chamber's journey from all three editions in which it appears, but displays the Boston pardons, e.g. 1576 edition, pp. 1174 (1173).
The story as given by John Foxe (who wrongly ascribes it to 1510) tells that Chamber met Thomas Cromwell on his way at Antwerp and, doubting his own capacity to complete the task, persuaded him to accompany him to Italy. However an original record survives showing that Chamber made his first journey alone (with his assistants) and was accompanied by Cromwell on his second journey, when he travelled via Calais. Foxe further relates that when they had arrived at Rome, Cromwell lay in wait for the Pope as he was returning from a hunting expedition, and met him with a gift of various sweetmeats which were so pleasing to the pontiff (Foxe says Julius II, but rightly Leo X) that he immediately granted the requested approvals. The Boston records, which include a fee for Cromwell, show that he returned after a comparatively short stay in Rome and that Chamber remained there for a further 16 weeks to finalize the details.D. MacCulloch, Thomas Cromwell – A Life (Allen Lane, 2018), 'Part One: Journeys', and note 50 (Google).
The journey had two other important outcomes. While in Italy Geoffrey Chamber was granted heraldic arms by Archbishop Cesare Riario (Patriarch of Alexandria and Bishop of Malacita) (1480–1540). These had a distinctly continental flavour, and were recited as: dor a ung croix arminie entre quatre papagaies derrier regardans de verte becquees et membres de gueules a ung chief dasur sur le chief le serpent de Millan dargent corone et engueulant ung demy ydolle entre deux roses du champ.M. Stephenson and R. Griffin, 'A Roll of Arms belonging to the Society of Antiquaries, temp. Henry VIII, c. 1540', Archaeologia LXIX (2nd Series XIX), (Oxford 1920), pp. 61-110, at pp. 63, 76 (Internet Archive), citing British Library, Harley MS 4900, fol. 20b. He also chose a royal gift for King Henry, commissioning a distinguished illuminated manuscript volume containing four Apologues of Pandolfo Collenuccio of Pesaro (died 1504) and three Dialogues of Lucian of Samosata, with an integral Letter of Dedication (in his own name) to King Henry, and the Royal Arms of England incorporated into the decoration of the first text page. The text was handwritten by the papal scribe Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi (1475–1527) and the decoration throughout was by the Florentine artist Attavante degli Attavanti (1452–1525). This book survives and is among the Royal manuscripts in the British Library.British Library Royal MS 12 C VIII. View at The British Library Digitised manuscripts, Description and Page views.
Steward of St Bartholomew's Priory Chamber married Alice, one of the three daughters of Nicolas Burgh, gentleman of London, and his wife Sybell. Alice's sister Isabell was the wife of Richard Warde, and another sister Anna was a nun at the Augustinian nunnery of St Mary, Clerkenwell.'St Mary's nunnery site', in P. Temple (ed.), Survey of London, Vol. 46: South and East Clerkenwell (London, 2008), pp. 28-39 (British History Online).Not to be confused with the Hospitaller Priory of St John of Jerusalem called Clerkenwell Priory. Geoffrey's daughter Elizabeth, whose first marriage was made by 1533, lived until at least 1602. In 1522 William Bolton, Prior of St Bartholomew's priory in West Smithfield, appointed Geoffrey Chamber to the office of Steward of all the manors of the priory, with an annuity of £4 out of its manor of Canonbury.E.A. Webb, The Records of St. Bartholomew's Priory and of the Church and Parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield, 2 vols (Humphrey Milford/Oxford University Press, 1921), I, p. 33 (Internet Archive). In 1525 Chamber was admitted to the Inner Temple, paying 20 shillings to be exempted from all offices and vacations;F.A. Inderwick (ed.), A Calendar of the Inner Temple Records, I: 21 Hen. VII (1505) – 45 Eliz. (1603), (Masters of the Bench, London 1896), p. 83 (Internet Archive). and in the same year he was named an executor in the substantial will of John Robynson of Boston, Merchant of the Staple at Calais, which greatly favoured the Aldermen and brethren of the Boston Gild (of whom he had been one).Will of John Robynson, Merchant of the Staple at Calais of Boston, Lincolnshire (P.C.C. 1529, Jankyn quire); MacCulloch, Thomas Cromwell – A Life, pp. 54-55, at note 55 (Google). When proving the will in April 1529, Chamber as attorney for the executors brought a common plea in London against Ambrose Borough of Boston, yeoman, for a debt to the estate.The National Archives (UK), Common Pleas, CP 1057 (Hilary 1527/28), rot. 274 dorse. View original at AALT, img 7359.
In Trinity term 1527 Geoffrey Chamber, with Nicholas "Borowe" and Nicholas Statham, gent., brought a plea of quare impedit at York over the advowson of Slingsby parish church in North Yorkshire, in which they claimed a right.The National Archives (UK), Common Pleas, ref. CP 40/1055 (Trinity 1527), rot. 2, front. View original at AALT, img 0005 front, 2nd entry. Nicolas Burgh, at the making of his will on 7 February 1527/28, wished to be buried at St Bartholomew's priory, from whom he held the farm of Wynbergh by lease. He also held lands and tenements in Great Stanmore, Middlesex (where St Bartholomew's held the manor from St Albans Abbey), which tenantright he left to his widow Sybell for her to pay the issues and profits to their religious daughter Anne: Sybell and Richard Warde were the executors, and Prior William and Geoffrey Chamber the overseers.Will of Nicolas Burgh, gentleman of London (P.C.C. 1528, Porche quire). In 1528 Chamber, then of Stanmore, made petition to register the arms he had received from Archbishop Riario, which were confirmed by the heralds Thomas Wriothesley and Thomas Benolt.Stephenson and Griffin, 'A Roll of Arms', pp. 63, 76. Through this time, from 1527 to 1531, Chamber was much occupied in the courts with administration of the estate of Lewis Harpesfeld, a London mercer.The National Archives (UK), Common Pleas, see e.g. AALT indices to CP 40/1055, CP 40/1060, CP 40/1068.
In Hilary term 1528/29 a common recovery was effected against Geoffrey Chamber and Henry HuberthorneMerchant Taylor, and future Lord Mayor. See A.B. Beaven, The Aldermen of the City of London Temp. Henry III to 1912 (Corporation of the City of London, 1913), II, p. 29 (Internet Archive). for a messuage with two watermills at Bromley.The National Archives (UK), Common Pleas, ref. CP 40/1060, rot. 133 front. View original at AALT, img 5105 front. Elizabeth Chamber, Geoffrey's daughter and heir, became the second wife of Sir Walter Stonor (later Lieutenant of the Tower of London) before 1533.24 Hen. 8. c. 14, in The Statutes of the Realm, Vol. 3 (By Command, 1817), p. 433 (Google). There were also three sons, the middle one of whom, Edward Chamber (alias Mann), later of Edith Weston, Rutland, became a Roman Catholic priest.P. Ryan, 'Diocesan returns of recusants for England and Wales, 1577', Miscellanea XII, Catholic Record Society (London 1921), pp. 1-114, at pp. 73-74 (Internet Archive). In that year 1533 Robert Tomlinson, Alderman, of Our Lady's Guild at Boston, wrote to Cromwell that he had a gift of wildfowl for the King in connection with Anne Boleyn's coronation: "Please let Geoffrey Chamber know what you will have done with them", he asked.'No. 554, Tomlinson to Cromwell, 29 May 1533', in J. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol 6: 1533 (London, 1882), p. 239 (British History Online). According to the late testimony of Edward Chamber, William Cecil had part of his upbringing in his father's house, presumably at Stanmore, and on some occasion Chamber hosted a visit of the Princess Elizabeth there.M.A.E. Green (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth, Vol. IV: 1595–1597 (Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, London 1869), p. 359, no. 33 (HathiTrust).
Dissolution In 1532 Prior William Bolton died, and Robert Fuller, Abbot of the Abbey of Holy Cross, Waltham, was elected to succeed him in commendam, holding St Bartholomew's Priory together with the abbatial dignity of Waltham. The Valor Ecclesiasticus, taken in 1535, shows Geoffrey Chamber as the late chief steward at Great Stanmore, and accounts for his annual fee of £4,The Records of St. Bartholomew's Priory, I, pp. 237-38 and pp. 378-383 (Internet Archive). but his occupation of Stanmore was not discontinued. In that year Geoffrey Chamber, gentleman, was one of the 12 jurymen (led by Sir Thomas Palmer) in the trial of Sir Thomas More, in which More's defence and condemnation rested upon his rejection of the terms of the 1534 Act establishing the King's Supremacy over the English Church. The jury, upholding the legitimacy of the Act, is said to have taken only 15 minutes to return its verdict of Guilty.J. Hunter (ed.), The Life of Sir Thomas More by his great-grandson, Sir Cresacre More (William Pickering, London 1828), pp. 255-73, at pp. 266-67 (HathiTrust). In May 1536 he appeared, but was not sworn, for the petty jury in the case against Norreys, Bryerton, Weston and Smeaton.'Appendix: Baga de Secretis, Pouch VIII', in W.D. Hamilton (ed.), A Chronicle of England During the Reigns of the Tudors... by Charles Wriothesley, Vol. I, Camden Society, New Series XI (Society, 1875), pp. 189-207, at pp. 204-05 (Internet Archive).
Following the enactment of the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535, which passed parliament in February 1535/36, the Court of Augmentations was established in April to administer the monastic properties and revenues, with Richard Rich as its Chancellor. Geoffrey Chamber was appointed its Surveyor and Receiver-General of the King's purchased lands, a position he held until 1544,W.C. Richardson, History of the Court of Augmentations, 1536–1554 (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1961), pp. 53, 493. by which time the greater monasteries had also been closed. The last to be surrendered, in March 1540, was Waltham Holy Cross, Robert Fuller being sympathetic to the King's policy, and there was therefore adequate opportunity for the disposal of Waltham and St Bartholomew's at the convenience of the Court's officers.