CHAMBERS, Ephraim, author of the Cyclopædia which bears his name, was born at Kendal, Westmoreland. His parents were Presbyterian Dissenters, and gave him a commercial education. By them he was apprenticed to Mr Senex the globe-maker. It was during Mr Chambers's residence with this skilful mechanic that he contracted that taste for science and learning which directed all his pursuits. At this time he had formed the design of his great work, the Cyclopædia; and some of the articles in it were written behind the counter. In order to devote himself wholly to this undertaking, he quitted Mr Senex, and took chambers at Gray's Inn, where he chiefly resided during the rest of his days. The first edition of the Cyclopædia, which was the result of many years' intense application, appeared by subscription in 1728, in two vols. fol. It was dedicated to the king, and procured for Mr Chambers the honour of being elected fellow of the Royal Society. In less than ten years a second edition was printed, with corrections and additions (in 1738); and this was followed by a third in the following year.
In addition to the Cyclopædia, Mr Chambers was concerned in the publication of The Literary Magazine (begun 1735), to which he contributed a variety of articles, and particularly a review of Morgan's Moral Philosophy. He was likewise engaged with Mr John Martyn, professor of botany at Cambridge, in preparing for the press a translation and abridgment of the Philosophical History and Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris. This undertaking was completed in 5 vols. 8vo, and published in 1742, some time after Chambers's decease, under the joint names of himself and Mr Martyn. In a subsequent publication, Mr Martyn severely censured the share which his colleague had had in the abridgment of the Parisian papers. The only other work ascribed to him is a translation of the Jesus's Perspective, from the French. Mr Chambers's close attention to his studies at length impaired his health, and obliged him to go to the south of France. He died soon after his return to England in 1740, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a modest inscription, written by himself, marks the place of his burial.