George Chalmers

George Chalmers (December 1742 – 31 May 1825) was a Scottish antiquarian and political writer.

Biography Chalmers was born at Fochabers, Moray, the second son of the local postmaster, James Chalmers (who was a grandson of George Chalmers of Pittensear in Lhanbryde) and his wife Isabella. After completing a course at King's College, Aberdeen, he studied law at the University of Edinburgh for several years.

Two uncles on the father's side had settled in British North America, and Chalmers visited Maryland in 1763, apparently to assist in recovering a tract of land about which a dispute had arisen. He began practising as a lawyer at Baltimore. As a Loyalist, however, at the outbreak of the American War of Independence, he abandoned his professional prospects and returned to Great Britain. Several years then passed before he found adequate employment. he published it under the assumed name of Francis Oldys, A.M., of the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1818 Chalmers published a life of Mary, Queen of Scots, based on a manuscript left by John Whitaker, but rewritten. Mary's history occupied much of his attention, and his last work, A Detection of the Love Letters lately attributed in Hugh Campbell's work to Mary Queen of Scots, is an exposure of an attempt to represent as genuine some fictitious letters said to have passed between Mary and Bothwell. He had also prepared for the press a detailed history of the life and reign of David I of Scotland. In his later researches he was assisted by his nephew James, son of Alexander Chalmers, writer in Elgin.

Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers which were exhibited in Norfolk Street, appeared in 1797, followed by other tracts by Chalmers on the same subject, relating to the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries. He also took part in the controversy on the identity of Junius, and in The Author of Junius Ascertained, from a Concatenation of Circumstances amounting to Moral Demonstration (1817) asserted that the Junius letters were written by Hugh Boyd. In 1824 he published The Poetical Remains of some of the Scottish Kings, now first collected; and in the same year he edited, for the Bannatyne Club, Robene and Makyne and the Testament of Cresseid, by Robert Henryson.

Political writings by Chalmers included:

Collection of Treaties between Great Britain and other Powers (1790); Vindication of the Privileges of the People in respect to the Constitutional Right of Free Discussion, etc. (1796), published anonymously; A Chronological Account of Commerce and Coinage in Great Britain from the Restoration till 1850 (1810); Opinions of Eminent Lawyers on various points of English Jurisprudence, chiefly concerning the Colonies, Fisheries, and Commerce of Great Britain (1814); Comparative Views of the State of Great Britain before and since the War (1817).

Chalmers' works online Political annals of the present United Colonies: ... (1779) An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the Present and Four Preceding Reigns (1782) The Life of Thomas Ruddiman (1794) An Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers which were exhibited in Norfolk Street (1797) The Life of Mary, Queen of Scots, Derived from State Papers Volume 1 Volume 2 (1818) A supplemental apology for the believers in the Shakspear papers (1799) Caledonia (1888–1894 republication): Vols 3–7 (NLS), corresponding to the original books 2 and 3.