Robert Chambers (; 10 July 1802 – 17 March 1871) was a Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th-century scientific and political circles.
Chambers was an early phrenologist in the Edinburgh Phrenological Society. He was also the anonymous author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, which was so controversial that his authorship was not acknowledged until after his death.
Chambers was born in Peebles in the Scottish Borders 10 July 1802 to Jean Gibson (c. 1781–1843) and James Chambers, a cotton manufacturer. He was their second son of six children. The town had changed little in centuries. The town had old and new parts, each consisting of little more than a single street. Peebles was mainly inhabited by weavers and labourers living in thatched cottages. His father, James Chambers, made his living as a cotton manufacturer. Their slate-roofed house was built by James Chambers's father as a wedding gift for his son, and the ground floor served as the family workshop.
A small circulating library in the town, run by Alexander Elder, introduced Robert to books and developed his literary interests when he was young. Occasionally his father would buy books for the family library, and one day Robert found a complete set of the fourth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica hidden away in a chest in the attic. He eagerly read this for many years. Near the end of his life, Chambers remembered feeling "a profound thankfulness that such a convenient collection of human knowledge existed, and that here it was spread out like a well-plenished table before me." Robert's older brother, William, later recalled that for Robert, "the acquisition of knowledge was with him the highest of earthly enjoyments."
Robert was sent to local schools and showed unusual literary taste and ability, though he found his schooling to be uninspiring. His education was typical for the day. The country school, directed by James Gray, taught the boys reading, writing, and, for an additional charge, arithmetic. In grammar school it was the classics—Latin and Ancient Greek, with some English composition. Boys bullied one another and the teacher administered corporal punishment in the classroom for unruly behaviour. Although uninspired by the school, Robert made up for this at the bookseller.
Both Robert and William were born with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. Their parents attempted to correct this abnormality through operations, and while William's was successful Robert was left partially lame. So while other boys roughed it outside, Robert was content to stay indoors and study his books.
Robert surpassed his elder brother in his education, which he continued for several years beyond William's. Robert had been destined for the ministry, but at the age of fifteen he dropped this intended career. The arrival of the power loom suddenly threatened James Chambers's cotton business, forcing him to close it down and become a draper. During this time, James began to socialise with a number of French prisoners of war on parole who were stationed in Peebles. Unfortunately, James Chambers lent these exiles a large amount of credit, and when they were abruptly transferred away he was forced to declare bankruptcy. The family moved to Edinburgh in 1813. Robert continued his education at the High School, and William became a bookseller's apprentice. In 1818 Robert, at sixteen years old, began his own business as a bookstall-keeper on Leith Walk. At first, his entire stock consisted of some old books belonging to his father, amounting to thirteen feet of shelf space and worth no more than a few pounds. By the end of the first year the value of his stock went up to twelve pounds, and modest success came gradually.
While Robert built up a business, his brother William expanded his own by purchasing a home-made printing press and publishing pamphlets as well as creating his own type. Soon afterwards, Robert and William decided to join forces—with Robert writing and William printing. Their first joint venture was a magazine series called The Kaleidoscope, or Edinburgh Literary Amusement, sold for threepence. This was issued every two weeks between 6 October 1821 and 12 January 1822. It was followed by Illustrations of the Author of Waverley (1822), which offered sketches of individuals believed to have been the inspirations for some of the characters in Walter Scott's works of fiction. The last book to be printed on William's old press was Traditions of Edinburgh (1824), derived from Robert's enthusiastic interest in the history and antiquities of Edinburgh. He followed this with Walks in Edinburgh (1825), Popular Rhymes of Scotland (1826) and Picture of Scotland (1826). This was followed by five volumes of Scottish history to form part of Constable's Miscellany. In 1832 he compiled Gazetteer of Scotland.
These books gained him the approval and personal friendship of Walter Scott. After Scott's death, Robert paid tribute to him by writing a Life of Sir Walter Scott (1832). Robert also wrote a History of the Rebellions in Scotland from 1638 to 1745 (5 vols, 1828) and numerous other works on Scotland and Scottish traditions.
On 7 December 1829 Robert married Anne Kirkwood, the only child of Jane and John Kirkwood. Together they had 14 children, three of whom died in infancy. Excluding these three, their children were Robert (Robert Chambers Jr.), Nina (Mrs. Frederick Lehmann, and mother of Rudolf Chambers Lehmann), Mary (Mrs. Alexander Mackenzie Edwards, mother of satirist Bob Edwards), Anne (Mrs. James Muir Dowie, mother of Ménie Muriel Dowie), Janet, Eliza (Mrs. William Overend Priestley), Amelia (Mrs. Rudolf Lehmann), James, William, Phoebe (Mrs. Zeigler), and Alice.
At the beginning of 1832 Robert's brother William Chambers started a weekly publication entitled Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, which speedily gained a large circulation. Robert was at first only a contributor, but after 14 volumes had appeared, he became joint editor with his brother, and his collaboration contributed more perhaps than anything else to the success of the Journal. The two brothers eventually united as partners in the book publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers Publishers.
At the same time Robert ran a bookshop and circulating library from 48 Hanover Street with his younger brother, James Chambers. Meanwhile, William ran his shop from 47 Broughton Street. Robert at this time was living close to the shop, at 27 Elder Street (demolished in the 1960s to improve access to Edinburgh Bus Station).
Among the other numerous works of which Robert was in whole or in part the author, the Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen (4 vols., Glasgow, 1832–1835), the Cyclopædia of English Literature (1844), the Life and Works of Robert Burns (4 vols., 1851), Ancient Sea Margins (1848), the Domestic Annals of Scotland (1859–1861) and the Book of Days (2 vols., 1862–1864) were the most important.
Chambers's Encyclopaedia (1859–1868), with Dr Andrew Findlater as editor, was carried out under the superintendence of the brothers. The Cyclopædia of English Literature contains a series of admirably selected extracts from the best authors of every period, "set in a biographical and critical history of the literature itself." For the Life of Burns he made diligent and laborious original investigations, gathering many hitherto unrecorded facts from the poet's sister, Mrs Begg, to whose benefit the whole profits of the work were generously devoted.
During the 1830s, Robert Chambers took a particularly keen interest in the then rapidly expanding field of geology, and he was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1844. Prior to this, he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1840, which connected him through correspondence to numerous scientific men. William later recalls that "His mind had become occupied with speculative theories which brought him into communication with Sir Charles Bell, George Combe, his brother Dr. Andrew Combe, Dr. Neil Arnott, Professor Edward Forbes, Dr. Samuel Brown, and other thinkers on physiology and mental philosophy." In 1848 Chambers published his first geological book on Ancient Sea Margins. Later, he toured Scandinavia and Canada for the purpose of geological exploration. The results of his travels were published in Tracings of the North of Europe (1851) and Tracings in Iceland and the Faroe Islands (1856).