Record

Authorised form of nameChambers; Ephraim (c 1680 - 1740)
Datesc 1680 - 1740
NationalityBritish
Place of birthKendal, England
Date of birthc 1680
Date of death15 May 1740
DatesAndPlacesBurial:
The cloisters of Westminster Abbey
OccupationAuthor, publisher, editor, translator
ActivityEducation:
Kendal grammar school; apprenticed to John Senex (FRS 1728), the map and globe maker
Career:
Compiled a 'Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences' which impressed Henry Beighton (FRS 1720), went into five editions and inspired the work of Diderot and D'Alembert; travelled to France.
Freemason, passible (as E. Chambers) WM, 1730, Lodge No 55, at Red Lion, Red Lion Street, Richmond, London
Membership categoryFellow
Date of election06/11/1729
RelationshipsSon of a farmer at Kendal; married
PublishedWorks'Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary of the Arts qnd sciences' 1728, two volumes [Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary is its lineal descendant]
SourceSources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Taylor Hanoverian
References:
Obituary, Gentleman's Magazine (1740), p.262.
J L Heilbron, 'Information technology. Encyclopaedic visions. Scientific dictionaries and the Enlightenment culture by R Yeo' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 111-112
The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, ;Freemasons and the Royal Society; Alphabetical List of Fellows of the Royal Society who were Freemasons' (2010), page 19
Notes:
Proposed by William Jones; Sir Hans Sloane; a Secretary
CodeNA7388
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNoTitleDate
NLB/39/341Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to S A Moor6 January 1909
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