Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/209

 'Notes and Queries' in 1869, it appears that between 1719 and 1726 Chesshyre's practice was considerable, his average income amounting to 8,241l.; in the latter year he limited himself to the court of common pleas, with the result that his average income during the next six years declined to 1,320l. In 1705 he endowed the chapel of ease near Halton Castle, Cheshire, with a sum of 200l. per annum for the maintenance of a curate, which in 1718 he increased to 600l. In the following year he gave a sum of 100l. to the chanty school at Isleworth. In 1786 he founded a library at Halton to be accessible, with the consent of the curate of the chapel of ease for the time being, to 'any divine or divines of the church of England or other gentlemen or persons of letters' on every Tuesday and Thursday in the year. The library, as originally constituted, numbered some four hundred volumes, consisting chiefly of theology, patristic and Anglican, biblical criticism, ecclesiastical history, but including also the 'Statutes at Large,' Rymer's 'Fœdera,' Dugdale's 'Monasticon,' and some Greek and Latin classics. Chesshyre also endowed the library with a small sum for maintenance, which, as now invested, yields an income of 12l. From the inscription over the door of the building it appears that the Serjeant held the rank of knight in 1788. He sat on a commission appointed in July of this year to revise the scale of fees payable to officials belonging to the court of chancery, and to investigate cases of extortion in connection therewith. On 16 May 1788 he died suddenly while entering his coach, leaving, according to Sylvanus Urban, personalty amounting to 100,000l., acquired entirely by his professional labours. This is hardly corroborated by the extracts from his fee-book already referred to, though they show that on one occasion Lord Chesterfield borrowed 20,000l. of him. He was buried in the parish church of Runcorn, where a pyramidal mural monument was raised to his memory, inscribed with a misquoted couplet from the 'Essay on Man.'

Chesshyre was survived by his wife, who died on 1 Jan. 1766. By his will he divided his property between his nephews, William, who succeeded him at Halwood, and John, who established himself at Benington in Hertfordshire, formerly the seat of the Caesar family, in 1744. The original seat of the family, Halwood, is now, or was until recently, used as a boarding school.  CHESTER, (d. 1232). [See Bluitdevill, Randulph de.]

CHESTER, JOSEPH LEMUEL (1821–1882), genealogist, was born at Norwich, Connecticut, in the United States of America, on 30 April 1821. His father, Joseph Chester, was a grocer, who, dying at Norwich in 1832, left but little property to his family. His mother was Prudee, a daughter of Major Eleazer Tracy; she married secondly the Rev. John Hall, of the episcopal church, Ashtabula, Ohio. At an early age Chester became a teacher in a school at Ballston, New York, and in 1837 clerk in a land agency office in Warren, Ohio. In 1838, in his seventeenth year, he went to New York and commenced the study of the law, but soon abandoned it for the mercantile profession, and was employed as a clerk by Tappan & Co., silk merchants. His literary tastes were early developed; while in New York he contributed articles to the newspapers and magazines of the day, chiefly of a poetic character. The ‘Knickerbocker’ for January 1843 contains a poem by him, entitled ‘Greenwood Cemetery,’ and signed Julian Cramer, his best known pseudonym. The same year his first volume, ‘Greenwood Cemetery and other Poems,’ was published at New York and Boston. He also lectured and visited many of the States as an advocate of temperance. About 1845 he removed to Philadelphia, where he obtained a situation as a merchant's clerk. In 1847 and for some years subsequently he was commissioner of deeds. From 1845 to 1850 he was also the musical editor of Godey's ‘Lady's Book.’ In 1852 he became one of the editors of the ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ and of the ‘Daily Sun;’ and on the consolidation of the city of Philadelphia in 1854 he was elected a member of the city council. During several sessions of Congress at Washington he visited that city as corresponding editor, and a portion of the time of his residence there he was an assistant clerk in the House of Representatives. He was appointed by the Hon. James Pollock, who was governor of Pennsylvania 1855–8, one of his aides-de-camp, with the military rank of colonel, an appellation by which he was afterwards