CHESHAM, William George Cavendish, 2 Baron, b. 20 Oct. 1815; ed. at Eton; M.P. for Peterborough 30 July 1847 to 1 July 1852, for Bucks. 23 Dec. 1857 to 10 Nov. 1863 when he succeeded. d. Latimer, near Chesham, Bucks. 26 June 1882.
CHESHAM, Sarah. Tried at Chelmsford assizes 1847 upon a charge of poisoning the illegitimate child of Lydia Taylor but acquitted; tried 1848 for poisoning two of her children but acquitted; tried at Chelmsford assizes 6 March 1851 for poisoning with arsenic her husband Richard Chesham, who d. May 1850, when she was found guilty and sentenced to death; known as ‘Arsenic Sal’; executed at Chelmsford 25 March 1851. A.R. (1850) 109, (1851) 396–400; A. H. Dymond’s The law on its trial (1865) 211–19.
CHESNEY, Charles Cornwallis (son of Charles Cornwallis Chesney, captain Bengal artillery who d. 1830). b. Packolet, near Kilkeel, co. Down 29 Sept. 1826; second lieut R.E. 18 June 1845, lieut col. 1 March 1868 to death; commanded R.E. in home district 1873 to death; professor of military history at Sandhurst 1858–68; the best military critic of his day; member of royal commission on military education 1868–70; sent by government to report on Franco-German war 1871; author of A military view of recent campaigns in Virginia and Maryland 1863, 2 ed. 1864; Waterloo lectures, a study of the campaign of 1815, 1868, 3 ed. 1874; Essays in military biography 1874. d. 11 Grosvenor mansions, Victoria st. London 19 March 1876. Graphic xiii, 342, 348 (1876), portrait.
CHESNEY, Francis Rawdon (2 son of Alexander Chesney 1755–1843, coast-officer in the district of Mourne, co. Down). b. Ballyvea Mourne 16 March 1789; 2 lieut. R.A. 9 Nov. 1804, commanded R.A. at Hong Kong 1843–7, col. 11 Nov. 1851 to 6 Jany. 1855, col. commandant 27 June 1864 to death; general 1 Jany. 1868; explored Syrian route to India 1830–1; commanded expedition for examining route to India by the Euphrates 1835–6; explored the Tigris and Karūm 1836–7; surveyed Euphrates route again 1857; F.R.G.S. 1838, gold medallist 1838; F.R.S. 6 Feb. 1834; author of Expedition for survey of Euphrates and Tigris 2 vols. 1850; Observations on past and present state of fire arms 1852; The Russo-Turkish campaign of 1828 and 1829, 1854; Narrative of Euphrates expedition 1868. d. Packolet 30 Jany. 1872. The Life of F. R. Chesney, by his wife and daughter, edited by S. Lane-Poole (1885), portrait; Dublin Univ. mag. xviii, 574–80 (1841), portrait; Journal of Royal Geog. Soc. xlii, 159–61 (1872).
CHESSAR, Jane Agnes. b. Edinburgh 1835; had charge of a class in Home and Colonial training college, London 1852–66; lecturer and private tutor in London 1866–75; member for Marylebone of London school board 27 Nov. 1873 to 1875; edited Mrs. Somerville’s Physical geography 1877; W. Hughes’s Manual of geography 1880; wrote much for the Queen and other newspapers. d. Brussels 3 Sep. 1880. Graphic ix, 30 (1874), portrait.
CHESTER, Harry (youngest son of sir Robert Chester of Bush hall, Herts. 1768–1848). b. 1 Oct. 1806; ed. at Charterhouse, Westminster and Trin. coll. Cam.; clerk in Privy Council office May 1826 to 1 Jany. 1859; assistant sec. to Committee of Privy Council on education 1840–58; author of The lay of the Lady Ellen, a tale of 1834, London 1835, and of an article entitled The food of the people in Macmillan’s Mag. Oct. and Nov. 1868. d. 63 Rutland gate, London 5 Oct. 1868.
CHESTER, Joseph Lemuel (son of Joseph Chester of Norwich, Connecticut, grocer, who d. 1832). b. Norwich 30 April 1821; a merchant’s clerk in New York 1840, in Philadelphia 1845; a temperance lecturer in many of the states; musical editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book 1845–50; one of the editors of Philadelphia Inquirer and of the Daily Sun 1852; member of council of Philadelphia 1854; one of aide-de-camps of governor of Pennsylvania with rank of colonel 1855–8; lived in London 1859 to death; made most extensive extracts from parish registers, and at his death left 87 folio vols. of such extracts; copied the matriculation register of the university of Oxford 1866–9; D.C.L. Ox. 22 June 1881; one of founders of Harleian Society 1869; a member of first council of Royal Historical Society 1870; published Greenwood cemetery and other poems 1843; The registers of the abbey of St. Peter, Westminster 1876, (Harleian Society) also Privately Printed for the author; The parish registers of St. Michael, Cornhill, London 1882. d. 124 Southwark park road, London 26 May 1882. Latting’s Memoir of Colonel Chester 1882; Dean’s Memoir of Colonel Chester 1884, portrait; Marshall’s Genealogist vi, 189*–92* (1882); New Monthly Mag. June 1881 pp. 626–30, portrait.
CHESTERFIELD, George Augustus Frederick Stanhope, 6 Earl of (only son of 5 Earl of Chesterfield 1755–1815). b. Bretby hall, Burton-on-Trent, Derbyshire 23 May 1805; ed. at Eton and Ch. Ch. Ox.; succeeded 29 Aug. 1815; lord of the bedchamber to George iv, 11 Aug. 1828 to 26 June 1830; master of the Buckhounds 30 Dec. 1834 to April 1835; P.C. 29 Dec. 1834; began racing 1826, won Ascot cup with Zinganee 1829, the Oaks with Industry 1838 and Lady Evelyn 1849 and St. Leger with Don John 1838; master of Pytchley hounds 1838–40; the yellow gossamer overcoat known as a Chesterfield was called after him; he is depicted under name of Earl of Chesterlane in D’Horsay, or the follies of the day by A man of fashion 1844. d. 3 Grosvenor sq. London 1 June 1866. bur. at Bretby church 8 June. Rice’s History of the British turf i, 284–6 (1879); Sporting Preview xxix, 450–2 (1858), lvi, 10, 79 (1866); Baily’s Mag. ii, 55–8 (1861), portrait; Sporting Times 7 March 1885; Doyle’s Official baronage i, 374, (1886), portrait.
CHESTERFIELD, George Philip Cecil Arthur Stanhope, 7 Earl of. b. 28 Sep. 1831; ed. at Eton; cornet Royal horse guards 21 Aug. 1849, lieut. 2 Sep. 1853 to 1860; M.P. for south Notts. 18 Dec. 1860 to 1 June 1866 when he succeeded, d. Bretby hall 1 Dec. 1871.
CHESTERFIELD, George Philip Stanhope, 8 Earl of. b. 29 Nov. 1822; succeeded 1 Dec. 1871, his claim was admitted by House of Lords 7 July 1873. d. Killendanagh near Lifford, co. Donegal 19 Oct. 1883.