Profile Major Works Resources

George Chalmers, 1742-1825.

Scottish writer, historian and occasional economist.

George Chalmers originated from Fochabers in Moray, Scotland.  After being educated at the local grammar school, Chalmers enrolled at the University of Aberdeen, coming under the tutelage of Thomas Reid.  Chalmers pursued a legal career, studying law at Edinburgh for several years.   In 1763, George Chalmers emigrated to America, initially accompanying his uncle, and eventually set himself up as a lawyer in Baltimore, Maryland.  During the colonial troubles, the politically-active Chalmers staked a strongly loyalist position.  On the outbreak of the American Revolutionary war in 1775, finding his situation unsafe, Chalmers returned to Britain and settled in London.

George Chalmers's early works pertain to the American situation (e.g. 1777, 1780, 1782).  In 1782, Chalmers put out his great exercise in political arithmetic, the Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain, which would  be updated and go through multiple editions over the next couple decades. Chalmers put out three anonymous pamphlets in 1785 supporting Pitt-Rose plans for liberalizing trade with Ireland, in the hope of binding the island closer to Britain.

In 1786, George Chalmers became chief clerk of the Privy Council Committee charged with "the considerations of all matters relating to trade and foreign plantations", and served on that committee for the next half-century, until his death.  The position gave Chalmers access to all archives on trade and colonial affairs, which he would use to update his Estimate and put out other economic works.

The light obligations of the Privy Council committee gave Chalmers time to engage in a variety of literary pursuits. He produced biographical sketches for Daniel Defoe, Edinburgh librarian Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish poets Allan Ramsay, Sir David Lyndsay, Robert Henryson and Tudor poets Sir John Davies and Thomas Churchyard. The appearance of Thomas Paine's Rights of Man in 1791, at the height of the French Revolution stoked Chalmers's painful loyalist memories from America. Under the pseudonym "Francis Oldys", Chalmers published the scurrilous :Life of Paine in 1791, which was little more than a character-assassination of Paine.  Chalmers got repeatedly embroiled in some arcane literary controversies, e.g. on a set of forged Shakespeare papers (1797), on the Junius letters (1818), etc.

Chalmers continued his political arithmetic, updating and putting out further editions of the Estimate (his 1802 edition contains the rediscovery of Gregory King's original 1696 work).  Chalmers made contributions to the debates over the Bullionist Controversy  (e.g. Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, 1811), and the post-war depression (e.g. State of Great Britain and Ireland, 1817)

In the latter part of his life, Chalmers began undertaking an ambitious work, Caledonia, a monumental gazetteer and history of Scotland, which he did not live to complete. His well-regarded 1818 biography of Mary Queen of Scots was a side-effect of his researches..
 

 

  

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Major works of George Chalmers

  • [Anon] An Answer from the Electors of Bristol to the Letter of Edmund Burke, Esq. on the affairs of America, 1777 [bk, av]
  • Political Annals of the present United Colonies from their Settlement to the Peace of 1763; compiled chiefly from records, and authorised often by the insertion of state-papers:  Book I, 1780 [bk, av] (no book II)

  • An Introduction to the History of the Revolt of the Colonies: giving from the state papers, a comprehensive view of their conduct, from the successive settlement of each, to their declaration of independence, 1782  [v.1 only; no v.2], [1845 edition, v.1, v.2; av1, av2]

  • [Anon, with Sir Joseph Banks] The Propriety of allowing a qualified Export of Wool discussed historically,  1782 [bk] (frequently attributed only to Sir Joseph Banks, but primarily written by Chalmers, with Banks supplying the appendix)
  • An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain, and of the Losses of her trade from every war since the revolution, to which is added an Essay on Population, by the Lord Chief Justice Hale, 1782
    • Original 1782 edition [bk]
    • 1786 edition  [av]
    • 1794 edition [bk, av]
    • 1802 edition [av] (includes life of Gregory King (p.385, av) and King's Political Observations upon the state of England, 1696, (p.405 [av]))
    • 1804 edition [bk] .
    • 1810 edition [bk, av] [chronological table p.234]
    • 1812 edition [bk, av]  re-titled An Historical View of the Domestic Economy of G. Britain, and Ireland, from the earliest to the present times: with a comparative estimate of their manufactures, and trade, in every age
  • Opinions on interesting subjects of Public Laws and Commercial Policy, arising from American Independence, 1784 [av], [1785 new edition, av]
  • [Anon?]  An Answer to the Reply to the supposed Treasury Pamphlet entitled 'the proposed system of trade with Ireland explained', 1785 [attrib. to Chalmers by Cockroft; to Sir Richard Musgrave by others]
  • [Anon] Arrangements with Ireland Considered, 1785 [Appendix to W. Burgh's Defence of Opposition with respect to their conduct on Irish Affairs, 1785, p.21] [3rd ed]
  • [Anon] A Short View of the Proposals lately made for the Final Adjustment of the Commercial System between Great-Britain and Ireland, 1785 [bk]
  • Life of Daniel De Foe,. 1785 [bk] [1786 repr. in De Foe's History of the Union,  p.1], [1841 ed]
  • [Anon, Editor] Historical Tracts by Sir John Davies, attorney general and speaker of the House of Commons for Ireland, to which is prefixed a life of the author, 1786 [bk] [1787 ed, av]
  • [Anon, Editor?] Debates in Parliament by Samuel Johnson LL.D., 1787 ed, v.1, v.2 
  • A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other powers, 1790, v.1, v.2 [av1, av2]
  • [Pseudonym] The Life of Thomas Pain, the author of Rights of Man, with a defense of his writings, by Francis Oldys A.M. of the University of Pennsylvania, 1791 [bk, av], [1791 2nd ed, 1791 ed, 1792 5th ed; 1793 6th ed. new subtitle "the author of the seditious writings", 1793 7th ed]
  • Life of Thomas Ruddiman, A.M, the keeper, for almost fifty years,  of the library belonging to the Faculty of Advocates of Edinburgh, to which are subjoined new anecdotes of Buchanan, 1794 [bk, av]
  • [Anon] Vindication of the Privilege of the People in respect to the Constitutional Right of Free Discussion; with a retrospect of various proceedings relative to the violations of that right, 1796
  • [Anon] An Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers which were exhibited in Norfolk Street, 1797 [bk, av]
  • A Supplemental Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers, being a reply to Mr. Malone's answer, which was early announced, but never published, with a dedication to George Steevens and a postscript to T.J. Mathias, 1799 [bk]
  • An Appendix to the Supplemental Apology for the believers in the supposititious Shakespeare Papers, being the documents for the opinion that Hugh McAuley Boyd wrote Junius' Letters, 1800
  • [Editor] The Poems of Allan Ramsay, to which are prefixed a life of the author, from authentic documents, and remarks on his poems, from a large view of their merits, 1800, v.1, v.2  [1848 repr, av1, av2], [1877 repr., v.1, v.2; av1, av2]
  • [Editor] Natural and Political Observations and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England 1696, by Gregory King, Esq., Lancaster Herald, to which is prefixed a life of the author, 1804 [reprinted as appendix. to 1804 ed of  Chalmers's Estimate], [1810 new edition]
  • [Editor] The Poetical Works Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lyon King at Arms under James V, with a life of the author prefatory dissertations and a glossary of his poetical works, 1806, v.1, v.2, v.3 [av1, av2, av3]
  • Caledonia: or, a historical and topographical account of North Britain, from the most ancient to the present times, with a dictionary of places chorographical and philological, 1807-24 (3 vols).
  • A Chronological Account of the Commerce and Coinage in Great Britain, from the Restoration till 1810, distinguishing the years of war, 1810
  • Considerations on Commerce, Bullion and Coin, with a view to our present circumstances, 1811 [av] [1811 2nd ed, av]
  • An Historical View of the Domestic Economy of Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest to the present times, 1812 [bk]  (new edition of "Comparative Estimate", corrected and enlarged)
  • Opinions of Eminent Lawyers on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the colonies, fisheries and commerce of Great Britain, 1814, v.1, v.2 [1858 US ed; av]
  • An inquiry into the incidents from which the title and part of the story of Shakespeare's Tempest were derived, and its true era ascertained, 1815 (reply to Malone, privately printed)
  •  The State of the United Kingdom at the peace of Paris, November 20, 1815: Respecting the people, their domestic energies, their agriculture, their trades, their shipping, and their finances, 1816 [bk] [1816 2nd ed, av]
  • Comparative views of the State of Great Britain and Ireland: as it was before the war, as it is since the peace, 1817 [bk, av]
  • The Author of Junius ascertained, from a concatenation of circumstances, amounting to moral demonstration, 1817 [bk]
  • Churchyard's Chips concerning Scotland, being a collection of his pieces relative to that country, with historical notices, and a life of the author, 1817 [bk, av]
  • The Life of Mary Queen of Scots, drawn from the state papers with six subsidiary memoirs, 1818, v.1, v.2 [av1, av2] [1822 2nd ed. v.1, v.2, v.3; av1, av2, av3]
  • The Poetical Remains of some of the Scottish Kings, now first collected, 1824
  • (Editor) Robene and Makyne, and the Testament of Cresseid, by Robert Henryson, 1824 [bk]
  • A Detection of the Love Letters lately attributed in Hugh Campbell's work to Mary Queen of Scots, wherein his plagiarisms are proved and his fictions fixed, 1825 [bk]

 
HET

 
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Resources on George Chalmers

  • Defence of Opposition with respect to their conduct on Irish Affairs, with explanatory notes, deciated to the honourable C.J. Fox, by an Irish Gentleman, a member of the Whig Club by Anonymous [William Burgh; sometimes erroneously attributed to Chalmers], 1785 [bk, av]
  • The Proposed System of Trade with Ireland Explained by Anonymous [George Rose], 1785 [bk, av]
  • A Reply to the Treasury pamphlet 'proposed system of trade with Ireland explained', by Anonymous [assumed by Chalmers to be Edmund Burke, but attrib. by McCulloch to William Eden, Baron Auckland], 1785 [av]
  • "An Answer to the Reply to the supposed Treasury pamphlet", 1785, Critical Review, p.379
  • "An Answer to the Reply to the supposed Treasury pamphlet", 1785, English Review, p.201
  • "Review of Oldys's Life of Paine", 1791, Analytical Review, p.204
  • "Review of Vindication of the Privilege of the People", 1796, Analytical Review, p.202
  • "Notice of Vindication of the Privilege of the People" 1796, Critical Review, p.231
  • Chalmeriana: or, a collection of papers literary and political, entitled, letters, verses, &c., occasioned by reading a late heavy Supplemental Apology for the believers in the Shakespeare papers, by George Chalmers, arranged and published by Mr. Owe Junior assisted by Jasper Hargrave, by [George Hardinge], 1800 [bk]
  • Antenor's Letter to George Chalmers, by [Thomas James Matthias], 1800 [bk]
  • "Chalmers's Appendix to his Supplemental Apology", 1801, Monthly Review, (v.34), p.128
  • [Apocryphal, not Chalmers, but erroneously attributed to him by printer] An Appeal to the generosity of the British nation on behalf of the family of the unfortunate Bellingham, 1812 [bk]
  • An official letter from the Commissioners of Correspondence of the Bahamas Islands, to George Chalmers, Esq., colonial agent: Concerning the proposed abolition of slavery in the West Indies, 1823 [av]
  • The Love Letters of Mary Queen of Scots to James Earl of Bothwell by Hugh Campbell, 1824 [av]
  • "Biographical Notice of the Editor", in Chalmers's Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, 1858 ed, p.5
  • "Chalmers, George" in H.D. Macleod, 1863, Dictionary of Political Economy: Biographical, bibliographical, historical and practical, vol.1
  • "Chalmers, George" in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1864 ed.]
  • "Chalmers, George"  in L. Say and J. Chailley-Bert, editors, Nouveau Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1900 ed.]
  • "Chalmers, George"  in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1899 Dictionary of Political Economy [1919 ed.]
  • "Chalmers, George"  in Leslie Stephen & Stephen Lee, editor, 1885-1901 Dictionary of National Biography [1908-09 ed]
  • "Chalmers, George" in 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  • "George Chalmers"  in Anderson, 1862, The Scottish Nation
  • The Public Life of George Chalmers, by G.A. Cockroft, 1939
  • Wikipedia
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