Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/483

 He was appointed on 17 June 1886 military member of the governor-general's council, a position akin to that of secretary of state for war at home. He was made a companion of the order of the Bath (military division) on 21 June 1887, and a knight commander on 1 Jan. 1890. During the five years he was military member of council Lord Roberts was commander-in-chief in India, and has written, 'No commander-in-chief ever had so staunch a supporter or so sound an adviser in the member of council as I had.' This period indeed forms an epoch in the military administration of India. The native states were induced to join in the scheme of imperial defence, the equipment and organisation of the army were greatly improved, the defences of the principal harbours and of the frontier of India were nearly completed, and the strategic communications were greatly developed.

In July 1892 Chesney, who had returned to England in the previous year, was elected member for Oxford in the conservative interest at the general election. He spoke occasionally in the House of Commons on questions connected with India or with army administration. He was chairman of the committee of service members. He died suddenly of angina pectoris at his residence, 27 Inverness Terrace, London, on 31 March 1895, and was buried at Englefield Green, Surrey, on 5 April. Chesney married, in 1855, Annie Louisa, daughter of George Palmer of Purneah, Bengal, who, with four sons and three daughters, survived him.

In addition to the works mentioned above Chesney was the author of the following novels: 'The New Ordeal,' 1879; 'The Private Secretary,' 1881; 'The Lesters, or a Capitalist's Labour,' 3 vols. 1893. He contributed largely to periodical literature, and wrote a series of political articles for the July, August, and December numbers of the 'Nineteenth Century' of 1891.



CHEYNE, CHEYNEY, or CHENEY, THOMAS (1485?–1558), treasurer of the household and warden of the Cinque Ports, born about 1485, was eldest son by his second wife of William Cheyne, constable of Queenborough Castle, Kent, and sheriff of Kent in 1477–8 and 1485–6. Sir [q. v.] was his great-grandfather; but Sir John Cheyne, who was speaker of the House of Commons for forty-eight hours in 1399 (see, Speakers, pp. 22-3), belonged to the Cornish branch of the family. His uncle, Sir John Cheyne, baron Cheyne (d. 1499), invaded England with Henry VII, distinguished himself at Bosworth and at Stoke, and was elected knight of the garter before 22 April 1486 (, Lancaster and York, ii. 638, 549); he was summoned to parliament as a baron from 1 Sept. 1487 to 14 Oct. 1495, but died without issue on 30 May 1499, and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral; Shurland Castle and his other estates devolved upon his nephew Thomas (G. E. C[], Complete Peerage, ii. 238).

Thomas is said to have been henchman to Henry VII, and he appears to have been knighted before 12 June 1511 {Cal. Letters and Papers, i. 1724). On 4 March following he was made constable of Queenborough Castle, in succession to his elder half-brother. Sir Francis Cheyne, deceased, and in 1512-13 he took part as captain of a ship in the war against France (The French War of 1512-13, Navy Records Soc. passim). On 25 April 1513 he was one of the captains who shared in Sir Edward Howard's fool-hardy attempt to capture the French galleys near Conquet [see ]. On 10 Nov. following he was sent on some mission to Italy with recommendations from Henry to Leo X (Letters and Papers, i. 4548). He arrived at Brussels, on his return, on 15 May 1514, and on 9 Oct. was present at the marriage of Mary Tudor to Louis XII of France. In 1515-16 he served as sheriff of Kent, and in 1519 was again sent to Italy on a mission to the duke of Ferrara (ib. iii. 479). By this time he had become squire of the body to Henry VIII, whom he attended to the field of the cloth of gold in June 1620, and to the meeting with Charles V at Gravelines in July; he also appears to have been joint master of the horse.

In January 1521-2 Cheyne was sent to succeed (afterwards earl of Southampton) [q. v.] as resident ambassador at the French court; he arrived at Rouen on 22 Jan. and at St. Germains on the 28th; but Henry declared war on Francis four months later, and Cheyne was recalled on 29 May. In August 1523 he served under Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk, in the expedition to Brittany, and on 17 June 1525 was granted the custody of Rochester Castle. In March 1526, on Francis I's