Chalmers, GEORGE

Chalmers, GEORGE, Scottish antiquary, was born in 1742 at Fochabers in Elginshire, and was educated there and at King's College, Aberdeen. Having afterwards studied law at Edinburgh, in 1763 he went to North America, where he practised as a lawyer at Baltimore till the breaking out of the war of independence. Then returning to Britain, he settled in London (1775), and was appointed clerk to the Board of Trade in 1786. The duties of this office he continued to discharge with diligence and ability till his death on 31st May 1825. Of his thirty-three works the chief is Caledonia; an Account, Historical and Typographical, of North Britain (vols. i.-iii. 1807-24). In 1888-93 it was reprinted at Paisley in 7 vols., comprising the matter prepared for the unpublished 4th vol., and furnished with a much-needed index. Among his other publications are A Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (2 vols. 1790); Lives of Defoe, Paine, Ruddiman, and Mary, Queen of Scots; and editions of Allan Ramsay and Lyndsay.