Chamberlen Ancestors

This section will document my research on my Chamberlen ancestors. Charlotte Chamberlen married Richard Luther and was my 6^th great grandmother.

The Chamberlen family originated in France.¹ William Chambrelan who was a French Protestant or Huguenot escaped the French Wars of Religion with his wife Genevieve Vingnon and young family in 1569.

The family originally settled in Southampton, but two at least of their children Peter the elder and Peter the younger moved to London and created careers as Surgeons specializing in midwifery. Along the way the family developed an obstretric forceps (see Figure 2) that they used in their midwifery practice.

It is not clear, who invented the forceps in the family, as they kept it a closely guarded secret, but most of the evidence suggested that it was in use by the time of Peter the elder, William’s oldest son. Peter the elder, my 10^th great granduncle was Physician to Queen Anne, James I’s queen, and he mentions in his will a diamond ring that she gave him².

The family were quite well-off and in most generations they moved freely in High Society. After one generation they changed their name from Chambrelan to the more english Chamberlen or Chamberlain, and stopped attending the Huguenot church in Spitalfields, London, in favour of the local established church.

I will be creating individual articles for all my male Chamberlen Ancestors.

• Hugh Chamberlen the younger Doctor of Physik (Born 1664)
• Hugh Chamberlen the elder Doctor of Physik (Born 1634)
• Peter Chamberlen, Doctor of Physik (Born 1601)
• Peter Chambrelan the younger, Surgeon (Born 1572)
• William Chambrelan of Paris, France (Born ~1540)

References

Footnotes