This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of the chamber.' It is invariably Chambers; why, I do not quite see, except that the latter looks more important. Strictly speaking, Chambers is in many cases as official as Chamberlain. Both surnames arose from the exchequer room in which the revenue was paid. To pay in cameram was to pay into the exchequer, and the camerarius, or chamberlain, had the charge thereof.

Griffin del Chambre: Household Book of Queen Isabelle, 1358 (Cott. MS. Galba. E.).

Richard atte Chambre, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Walter de la Chaumbre, Lincolnshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Henry de la Chambre, Lincolnshire, ibid.

John of the Chaumbre, Close Rolls, 7 Richard II.

Robertas del Chaumbire, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Willelimus del Chaumbir, 1379: ibid.

Gilbert de la Chaumbre, Close Rolls, 25 Edward III.

Johannes del Chaumbir, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Alicia Chaumbir, maydyne, 1379: ibid.

This name first appears in Ireland in the thirteenth century as de la Chambre, i.e. chamberlain, but it is unlikely that any families called Chambers today are descended from those early Anglo-Norman settlers. Some, we know, were immigrants in the seventeenth century, first under the Plantation of Ulster and later the Cromwellian Settlement. Many families of the name were established here, however, before that: the existence of the placename Chamberstown in Co. Meath in the previous century is proof of that. This was not the Chambers family prominent in Co. Meath in the eighteenth century, for they had previously long been large landowners in the New Ross area of Co. Wexford where the townland of Chambersland perpetuates their name. The name occurs frequently in the lists of government officials, from 1592 when Thomas Chambers was housekeeper at Kilmainham and 1609 when George Chambers was Chief Chamberlain of the Exchequer, down to quite modern times. It is less prominent in the political and military sphere: no Chambers appears in the Jacobite outlawries, but one was in Stanley's predominently Irish regiment in 1593 and John Chambers, a Dublin printer and bookseller, was a member of the Dublin Society of United Irishmen just two centuries later.

The name is now numerous in the northern counties of Ulster and in Dublin; a century ago there were many families of Chambers in west Cork; outside those areas the only county in which it is found in considerable numbers in recent times is Mayo. There Chambers does not seem to be a synonym of any Gaelic-Irish name nor is it long enough established to appear for example in Strafford's Inquisition of Mayo (1635). The ancestor of the Chambers of Killoyne, Co. Mayo, who obtained a grant of arms in 1724, came from Hertfordshire, England.

*It should be added that Cuskley is found today in Co. Offaly, as it was in 1601 in the earlier anglicized form of Macgilkuskley.

The cognate surname Chamberlain also occurs in thirteenth century Irish records but is rare now.

Metonymic for a ChaMBER- Attendant, or a Chamber­lain [French chambre, Lat, camera, a room]

A numerous but scattered name of Anglo-Norman origin (de la Chambre). It is mainly found in Ulster and Mayo. SIF 31

(English) The officer in charge of the private household of a king or important nobleman.

Vide Chalmers.

Or De Camera, armorially identified with Chamber. Stephen, Walter, Warin, William de Camera in England, 1189 (Rot. Pip.); Matilda de C. in Oxford, 1130 (Ibid.); Simon de C. in Essex, 1140 (Mon. i. 460); Elias de C. in Sussex, t. Rich. I. (Mon. Angl.). The family appears early in York, Wilts, and Norfolk. Chambre or Camera was in Brabant, whence the family seems to have come at the Conquest.