CHAMBERLAIN, John (c.1560-1617), of Prestbury, Glos.

The above identification of John Chamberlain of Prestbury among a number of contemporary namesakes as the MP for Clitheroe and St. Germans is reasonable but not certain. Little is known about him, least of all how he came to be returned for either constituency, unless it was through one of his father’s friends at court, but as the father died some 13 years before John Chamberlain’s first Parliament, this is no more than a tentative suggestion put forward for want of a better.

Chamberlain’s brief will was made 14 Feb. 1617, and proved 21 June the same year. He left the choice of burial place to his executor, and bequeathed houses, manors, lands and tenements to his brothers Edmund and Thomas, and his nephew Symon Egerton. Edmund, the heir, was made sole executor, and Thomas and Egerton overseers.1Vis. Glos. ed. Fenwick and Metcalfe, 37; Burke, Peerage, 180; Lansd. 105, f. 99; PCC 125 Weldon; R. Atkyns, Glos. 365.