This post edited and updated 11 July 2026.
The Monument to Thomas Chambers and his wife, Margaret.
Put up in All Saints, Derby in 1737 at the request of their youngest daughter, Hannah
Sophia nee Chambers, the Countess of Exeter wife of Brownlow Cecil.
This work I believe has been first noted in 1817 as by Louis Francois Roubiliac (fl 1730 - 62).
Ref. Roubiliac at Derby Cathedral Church see Daniel Lysons in Magna Britannia - Vol 5 pub. 1817. which is perhaps the first time they were attributed to LFR.
The excellent ornate wrought irowork still gracing the monument is by Robert Bakewell (1682–1752) - who also made magnificent wrought iron screen which stretches across whole width of the nave of the church
The screen’s
combination of fine wrought ironwork, scrolling acanthus leaves and an
overall lightness of structure make it an exceptionally significant treasure.
It was installed to separate nave and chancel without obscuring the view.
Photograph by Keene of 1875.
Malcolm Baker in Roubiliac and the 18th Century Monument, pub. Yale 1995, page 359 dismisses the monument and the busts - "Although the portraits were accepted as being by Roubiliac by Murdoch (1983 - Proceedings of the Huguenot Soc. pp26 - 45) neither the busts or their setting now seem compatable with Roubiliac's documented work".
The question then arises as to an alternative sculptor? Rysbrack, Scheemakers or if there is no other attribution Henry Cheere is often suggested for uinsigned works of this period? but as far as I know there are no signed/inscribed busts by Henry Cheere and much of his very large output were made by workshop assistants or sub contracted (including I believe Roubiliac).
Roubiliac first appears in England in 1730 when his name appears on a list of men belonging to the White Bear Freemasons Lodge in King Street, Golden Square.
Very little is known of his career prior to the busts of Senesino and Farinelli c.1735 / 6 mentioned in the press andhis arrival seemingly fully formed with the statue of Handel at Vauxhall Gardens in 1738. There is a short poem by Lockman on Roubiliac and his bust of Senesino in the London Daily Post and General Advertiser of 4 June 1736. I believe this is probably the first mention of Roubiliac in the English press.
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-very-good-and-extremely-rare-mid-18th.html
It has been suggested that he was working for or subcontracting to Henry Cheere and within this blog I make suggestions for works by him in particular several very fine lead busts.
Whilst the monument itself is not similar to any other monuments by Roubiliac, I can see no reason for stating that the two very fine portrait busts on the monument are not by Roubiliac.
see -
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30695656.pdf
The inscription on the monument
states that Thomas Chambers was a London merchant who died in December 1726; his wife, Margaret was the daughter of John Bagnold of Derby and died
some nine years after her husband in April, 1735.
"Under this marble lyes Interred Thomas Chambers Esquire
Merchant and Citizen of London,Son of John Chambers late of Derby Gentleman deceasd. He
Marryed Margaret the only Daughter of John Bagnold of the same, gentleman deceased by
whom he had Issue, Thomaswho dyed young, Arabella who Marryed William Bates of Foston
Esquire, and Hannah Sophia who Marryed the Right Honorable the Earl of Exeter. He departed this life at Bristol,the tenth of December, being his birth day, Anno Dom 1726,
aged Sixty Six".
The Exeter family,
like the Devonshires and Montagues had traditionally patronized
Huguenot craftsmen; Louis Cheron and Rene Cousin, the gilder, assisted
with the decorative painting at Burghley in the 1690's and the
gatesmith Jean Tijou worked there in the same decade.
A collection
of bills addressed to the Countess of Exeter, 17k9 to 175k, shows
that this tradition of Huguenot patronage was continued, the
collection includes accounts from the Huguenot jewellers, Peter Dutens and S.
Passavant, the haberdashers Peter Galliard, and Mettayer & Co., the
fanmaker,Phillip Margas, and the cabinet-maker, Robert Tymperon.
This essay forms part of studies on the early Monuments either by or with the participation of Roubiliac prior to the unveiling of his statue of Handel at Vauxhall Gardens in 1738.
................................
There is another Roubiliac connection which has not yet been picked up by other art historians.
The Marble bust of Arabella Aufrere nee Bate by Louis Francois
Roubiliac, 1747.
Inscribed ARABELLA AUFRERE MDCCXLVII L.F.
690mm without socle.
Unfortunately no up to date photographs are currently
available.
Believed to be with the Earl of Yarborough of Brocklesby
Park, near Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
Arabella Aufrere nee Bate was baptised 13 November 1720, she was the daughter of William Bate a gentleman of fashion and estate' (d. 1735) of
Foston Hall, Derbyshire and his wife Arabella nee Chambers (1701 - 27) sister of Hannah Sophia Chambers.
Arabella married George Rene
Aufrere (1715 -1801), at Burghly House in November 1747.
The three Bates brothers were very wealthy and had made a
fortune from slavery and sugar plantations in Barbados. Their grandfather
Colonel William Bate, a Royalist had fled to Barbados after the civil war and
had taken up sugar planting by 1661.
Arabella Bate was orphaned at the age of 15 and brought up
by aunt Hannah Sophia Chambers, the 8th Countess of Exeter at Burghly. The
Countess of Exeter had commissioned the monument to her parents, Thomas and
Margaret Chambers suggested to be from the workshop of Louis Francois Roubiliac
which was erected in All Saints, Derby in 1737.
George Rene Aufrere was the 2nd son of Israel Aufrere (1677
- 1758), Chaplain to William III, at the
Chapel Royal at St James Palace, London minister of the French Church of the
Savoy in London. The family were Huguenots.
Their marriage portraits by William Hoare of Bath are still
at Brocklesby Hall.
George Aufrere worked initially as Steward to Lord Exeter at
Burghley, and it is possible that Roubiliac received the early commission for
the two portrait busts to Lady Exeter's parents, Thomas and Mrs. Chambers, on
their monument in All Saints, Derby.
see - Edith E. Elwes, family Traditions, typescript in the
possession of the Earl of Yarborough. Charles Poyntz Stewart, History of the
Aufreres, Proceedings of the Huguenot Societ of Londot Vol. IX, 1909-11,
pp.55-lI6; pp. 1 1+516O; ibid., Vol.XI, pp.255-262.
................................
Thomas Chambers
Miniature of Thomas Chambers
Oil
on copper, oval, in a gilt-metal frame inscribed: ‘Th. Chambers/ Esq. Father to
the Right Honourable/ the Countess of Exeter.
Exeter House sat on the bank of the River Derwent. It was
originally built around 1640 and known as Bagnall (Bagnold) House after its first owner,
although it was extended and altered in later years and demolished in 1854.
In 1724 the property was
inherited by Hannah Sophia the daughter of Thomas Chambers, whose family had added to the
grounds by purchasing land on the opposite bank of the Derwent which was
developed into pleasure grounds for the house. His daughter married Brownlow
Cecil in the same year, 1724, who had by then inherited the title of 8th Earl
of Exeter, and from whom the house then took its name.
Exeter
House, No. 1, Full Street, Derby was the house occupied for three days and two nights
by Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 where the decision was made to draw back .
For an excellent and in detail look at the Chambers Family Fortunes with particular references to Exeter House Derby see Derbyshire Miscellany - The Local History Bulletin of the Derbyshire Archaeological Society Volume 21- Spring 2016, Part 1.
It is worth liberally quoting from this enlightening publication available on line at -
https://www.derbyshireas.org.uk/DM21-01.pdf
John Bagnold built what became Exeter House. He made a will in April 1698 in
which he left the house built by John Reeve to his wife. Shortly before his
death, he added an'annex', written sideways:
Item I give and bequeath yt pt of ye Messuage & Burgage
or Tenement wherein I now live in ye Full street in Derby wh was built by John
Reeve to my dear & Loving wde for her Naturall Life wth the egress and
regress to ye same wth half of ye garden, and also after her decease I give ye
pt of ye messuage together wth ye other pt of ye said messuage I likewise live
in wch was built by Thomas Trimmer ... to my son Thomas Chambers and Margret
his wife for and during their naturall lives ... and after their decease then
to the use and behoof of the heirs of ye body of ye said Margret by ye said
Thomas Chambers begotten or to be begotten and for want of such Issue then I
give the same to my son John Bagnold & to his heirs for ever ...
Thomas and Margaret Chambers.
The second owners of the house in Full Street Margaret Bagnold was bom c.1678 and her marriage to Thomas
Chambers must have taken place shortly before 1698 when her father's will was drawn up. She was almost twenty years his junior.
In his will Bagnold referred to his Loving son Chambers'. The tone is deferential in
requesting that his 'son ' settle his debts by puchasing part of his estate. The will is unusual in that his wife was
to chose whatever goods she desired of the 'best sort' and the remainder sold to help pay his debts hoping that
Chambers would buy them himself and 'live at Derby and my deare Wife to Table with him'.
Thomas, the son of John Chambers, was bom in All Saints
parish Derby on 10 December 1660.
There is a monument in the church, a white marble slab, a companion to Bagnold's
memorial, set into the chancel floor on the south side:
Under this marble lyes Interred Thomas Chambers Esquire
Merchant and Citizen of London, Son of John Chambers late of Derby Gentleman deceasd. He
Marryed Margaret the only Daughter of John Bagnold of the same, gentleman deceased by
whom he had Issue, Thomas who dyed young, Arabella who Marryed William Bates of Foston
Esquire, and Hannah Sophia who Marryed the Right Honorable the Earl of Exeter.
He departed this life at Bristol, the tenth of December, being his birth day, Anno Dom 1726,
aged Sixty Six
In other records his father, John Chambers, appears as a
merchant with London and East India Company connections. Thomas Chambers' mother was Hannah
(c. l6l7- 1699), the daughter of Thomas Hamond, a London merchant. A now lost monument in All Saints church was
recorded for the College of Arms in l7l0:
Here lyeth the body of Hannah Chambers, the wife of John
Chambers of Derby, Gent. who was daughter of Mr. Thomas Hamond of London, Merchant. She
dyed the l6th day of February 1698&9. Aged 82.11
Hannah Parker, Margaret Bagrold's mother, was also a Hamond
and London merchant Thomas Hamond would have been a useful uncle to the young Thomas Chambers as he
started out in life.
Thomas Chambers had a wealthy uncle, William Chambers, his
father's elder brother who also lived in Full Street.
In 1692 Derby Corporation had leased the
Gunpowder mill to George Sorocold for the erection of a water house and water engine to pipe water
around Derby. By an Indenture of 1696 William loaned Sorocold f200 so that he could complete the work. In a
codicil to his will William Chambers bequeathed one third of the lease of the water engine and a malt mill to his son John
which suggests that the loan was not repaid.
William Chambers wealth is manifested in his will, written on 1 1 April 1722,
which states that Thomas, his second son, had been given £1000 'to advance him in the world'. A loan of £2728
for which Thomas was indebted to his father was waived.
Thomas Chambers profited greatly from his family connections and
invested in the growing West Country copper industry. Cornish copper mining had developed at the end of the
seventeenth century with the invention of the reverberatory furnace and rapidly expanded with the
introduction of Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric steam engine in 1710, by means of which the vertical seams
ofcopper could be reached by deep shaft mining.
Demand for copper increased after the Mines Royal Act of 1689 ended
the royal monopoly of brass making, brass being an alloy of zinc and copper.
In the Forest of Dean, the
Redbrook copper works was set up before c1691 by John Coster (d. 1718). He likewise set up the English Copper
Company at Lower Redbrook at about the same time and with Thomas Chambers formed The Company of Copper Miners
in England. A copper works had been established on the river Avon at Conham in 1698 and a major
brass making industry developed around Bristol.
Thomas spent part of his time in Bristol overseeing his
interests there. He became the proprietor of a network of copper mines and when he died he was the Governor of the
Company of the Copper Miners of England.
...............................
Chambers and The Company of the Copper Miners of England.
British Library, Add MS 6654/Pluto CLXXXIV D, Derbyshire
Collection, Mineralia Mus. Brit. ex Legato A Wolley Arm., 207-17.
The Effect of Technical Change in the British Copper Industry Between the Sixteenth and the Eighteenth Centuries * by G. Hammersley University of Edinburgh, 1991.
https://search.proquest.com/openview/404715b146c54fab96580173fc8d9236/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1819397
This consists of the articles of an agreement concluded in
1720 between the Company of the Copper Miners of England,
"Thomas Chambers, who was its governor, John
Essington, James Bradley and Case Billingsley, all giving addresses in either
London or Wandsworth.52 It concerns the reorganisation and
re-financing of the company, which had been established on 3 August 1691, when
it had issued 700 shares. Now it had been decided to issue another 20,300
shares, allegedly to improve its general operations, and to enable it to buy up
mines, land and property in England.
While the resulting transactions give
an appearance of complexity, they seem superficially straightforward.
Chambers held the lease of Lower Redbrook Copper Works from the Society for 33 years
at £100 а year and had a interest in some Cornish copper mines; the
other three had, for £9,400, bought the lease of the "Copper Mill at
Wimbledon" for 31 years as from 1 July 1691 at a rent of £42 p.a. All four had now agreed to assign their works to the Society; at 25 per share, Essington,
Bradley and Billingsley are to buy 5,000 of these each, and Chambers 4,300, while
the Society could dispose of the remaining 1,000 shares, as it wished. From
the total of £96,500 cash paid by them, Chambers was to receive £17,000
for Lower Redbrook, £4,500 less than he paid for his shares, while the other
three were to be repaid their £9,400 for Wimbledon, leaving £65,600 of
theirs invested in the Society. Of the remainder, Chambers was to have another
£10,000 for distribution to the holders of the first issue of shares, of
which he himself held 203, the deputy governor 40, and everyone else named a
smaller number. That, of course, left Chambers's net cash investment
at below £1,700.
Despite the peculiar features of parts of the transaction,
the values given to the two copper works leases may bear some realistic
relationship to their proper valuation. Chambers and his deputy governor held
fewer than half of the 524 old shares listed (it is, of course, impossible to
guess at the effects of the 176 remaining shares omitted from the list); Essington,
Bradley and Billingsley do not appear among the original shareholders. This
kind of relationship might plausibly have modified the degree of skullduggery
involved.
It is not clear whose property Wimbledon had been before the
set of transactions here outlined, but its purchase price may have been raised
by its proximity to London; it seems probable that the relationship between its
rent of £42 yearly and that of Lower Redbrook at £ 100 may
correspond more nearly to their respective size and capacities. Wimbledon may
have been mainly intended to smelt or refine imported ores (perhaps mostiy
from Barbary), while Redbrook worked up, first Devonian and then,
increasingly, Cornish ores.
Very crudely assessed, the figures may suggest a
capital cost of a copper works in the early eighteenth century two or three times as
large as that of the Cumbrian works in the late sixteenth century; output of
copper may have been quadrupled for the later works, though quality had almost
certainly deteriorated".
......................
Publications of Company of Copper-Miners in England mentioning Chambers.
from
https://www.grubstreetproject.net/organizations/2498/works/
1720.
Company of Copper-Miners in England.. Articles of agreement
made, concluded, and agreed upon the twentieth day of July, in the year of our
Lord one thousand, seven hundred and twenty. Between the Governor and Company
of Copper-Miners in England, of the First Part. Thomas Chambers, Jun. of the
Transfer-Office in the East-India-House, London, Gent. of the Second Part. And
John Essington of Wandsworth in the County of Surrey, Esq; James Bradley, and
Case Billingsley of London, Merchants, of the Third Part. With some short
Observations. London: printed for T. Warner at the Black-Boy in
Pater-Noster-Row, [1725]. ESTC No. T22503. Grub Street ID 247064.
John Essington, Billingsley, and Tho: Chambers to Cole, March 31, 1721, SRO, GD 1/170. Articles of Agreement Made, Constituted, and Agreed upon upon the twentieth day of July in the Year of our Lord One thousand, seven hundred and twenty. Between the Governor and Company of Copper-Miners in England, of the First Part. Thomas Chambers, jun. of the Transfer-Office in the East-India House, London, Gent. of the Second Part. And John Essington of Wandsworth in the County of Surrey, Esq;James Bradley, and Case Billingsley of London, Merchants, of the Third Part (London, 1725) (British Library shelf mark 522.m.12
........................
An important source of information regarding Thomas Chambers and his family ref East India Co. etc
Making Britain in Empire: John Shore, Nation and Race in the Eighteenth-Century East India Company World by Sarah Pearson - A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in
accordance with the requirements for the award of the degree of PhD in History in the Faculty of
Arts, School of Humanities
September 2020
https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/352495747/PGR_submission_Pearson_Sarah_P1353533_redacted.pdf
.....................
As Thomas Chambers became very rich so his standing in Derby rose.
After the delapidated medieval nave and chancel of All Saints were caused to be demolished by Dr Michael Hutchinson its minister, in
February 1723, Thomas Chambers gave £100 to the rebuilding fund, his name immediately following the Dukes of Devonshire
and Rutland and his donation only £5 less' after a visit to him in London by Hutchinson
Hutchinson died in 1730.
In 1725 a proposal was made to sell seats to help pay for the
cost of rebuilding, a suggestion so fiercely opposed that only six double seats were sold. However, two lay seats
were reserved, one for 'Mr. Osborne', who had paid £20 for a block of seats, otherwise a pew, in 1705, and the
other for'Merchant Chambers' as these seats had been held in the old fabic.'Merchant Chambers' pew, which was
in the middle aisle and large enough for eight persons, was annexed to the Full Street and later sold as part
of the property.
Thomas's son and heir, also Thomas, died in his youth. His
daughters, Arabella and Sophia would however make advantageous marriages which elevated the family's
social standing. Arabella's (c1701-1726) husband was William Bate of Foston Hall and the dowry was a rumoured
though not credited, £90,000.
Hannah Sophia's marriage to the 8th Earl of Exeter was arranged in 1723.
Thomas quickly sued for and obtained a Grant of Arms, the shield bearing threc copper cakes (ingots) and a cannon
barrel (chamber piece), the crest a copper miner in a mine.
The marriage took place at St. James, Westrninster, on
18 July 1724: The Right Honorable Brownlow Cecil, Earl of Exeter, was married on Saturday last to Mrs
(sic) Chambers, a Merchant's daughter of this City, whose Fortune is Forty Thousand Pound down, and
as much more at the Death of Her Father
Stamford
Mercury, July 1724. Brownlow Cecil, b c I702 and died 30 April 1765.
Thomas lived to see the Derwent made navigable in 1721 and a
new wharf established on the Morledge but he died before smelting, slitting and rolling mills were
erected in 1734, making Derby a centre for the production of copper sheeting for sheathing the country's naval fleet.
Thomas had properties in London and in Bristol, but after his death in Bristol on l0 December 1726 at the age of 66,
his body was brought back to Derby and in January it was interred in All Saints Church.
Newcastle Courant, 24 December 1726. - On Saturday last, dyed at Bristol, Thomas Chambers, Esq., of
this City: he was Governor of the Company of Copper Miners in England; and hath lefi only
two Daughters, one of whom is married to the Earl of Exeter, and the other to a gentleman
in Derbyshire. He hath lefi a very great Estate; the Bulk of which goes to the said Earl.
Margaret Chambers outlived her husband by nine years and
died in 1735. She was buried at All Saints on 2 May:
Derby Mercury April 14. Yesterday morning dy'd aJier a long lllness,
at her house in the Full Street in the Town, the Relict of Thomas Chambers Gent., a wealthy
Merchant, who dy'd some years ago. She has lefi only one Daughter living who is married to
the Earl of Exeter, to whom the bulk of her estate now descends. We hear it will be a
considerable Time before the Intemment of her Corpse.
She left a bequest, one third of the income from the
Gunpowder Mill, to light the streets of Derby with 80 lamps and has been credited with this innovation. However, a deed
in the Derbyshire Record Office makes clear that the bequest was money that had already been set aside by her husband and
the credit for the first lighting scheme in Derby ought properly go to Thomas Chambers.
On the death of the 8th Earl of Exeter at Burghley in November 1754 the house reverted to Hannah Sophia and in
December 1757 it was put up for sale. An
advertisement in The Derby Mercury, mentions several
additions:
TO BE SOLD. The House, Gardens, Coach-Houses, and Stables,
with the several Tenements adjoining, and belongtng to the Right Hon. the Countess of
EXETER, also three Closes ; all situate in and near DERBY. For further Particulars enquire
of Mr. JOHN HEATH in DERBY.
The three Closes lay on the Derwent's east bank opposite
Exeter House. They were attached to the House as an extended garden together with areas of orchard, meadow and
pasture, although directly accessed from it only by boat until the early 19th century. It was from this area
that the panoramic East Prospect of Derby was drawn in 1728, marking it as'Mrs Chamber's garden'. The 'Closes' are
further described in a Marriage Seftlement of 1771 as stretching from the Derwent to 'the messuage held
by William Duesbury' ,that is to the Nottingham Road where Duesbury was manufacturing porcelain now known as
Royal Crown Derby. They were named Derby Close and the'Ford Closes'. By 1757 two coach houses
and two stables stood there to serve the House but were probably attached to it from at least John
Bagnold's time as in his will he refers to stables, gardens, backsides and middling places.
A Miniature of Hannah Sophia, Countess of Exeter, née
Chambers (1702-1765), by Christian Friedrich Zincke, (1685-1767) at Burghley
Enamel, oval, in a gold frame, the reverse engraved with
cypher below an earl’s coronet, 4.5cm.
https://collections.burghley.co.uk/collection/hannah-sophia-countess-of-exeter-nee-chambers-by-christian-friedrich-zincke/
Hannah Sophia was the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas
Chambers, the industrialist of Derby.
The miniature was painted in 1725, a year after her marriage
to Brownlow Cecil, 8th Earl of Exeter (1701-1754); perhaps to celebrate the birth of
a son and heir that year.
The marriage restored the Cecil family fortunes, which had become much depleted by
the extravagant collecting of his grandparents, the 5th Earl (1648-1700), and
his wife Anne (1649-1703), during the course of four Grand Tours.
"Records show that Hannah Sophia Cecil Countess of Exeterled an unusually independent
life, given the times in which she lived" ??.
Another Miniature by Zinke of Hannah Sofia Cecil nee Chambers as Mary Queen of Scots
https://collections.burghley.co.uk/collection/hannah-sophia-countess-of-exeter-school-of-christian-friedrich-zincke-18th-century/
..........................
James Gibb's Derby Connection.
Maxwell Craven.
From The Georgian Group Journal Vol XXVII 2019. pp 113 - 124.
https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2019_08_Craven.pdf
The architect James Gibbs designed the new All Saints Church at Derby (now the Cathedral)
The Rev. Canon Dr Michael Hutchinson had a genius for raising money but was rather lax in his accounting neverthe lss James Gibbs was paid £25 in December 1725 for his design - later reprofuced in his Book of Architecture 1728 - Plates XXVI and XXVII
................................
The Will of Thomas Chambers of Ormond St,
.............................
For a portrait of the Chambers daughter Hannah Sophia see
https://collections.burghley.co.uk/collection/portrait-of-hannah-sophia-chambers-wife-of-brownlow-8th-earl-of-exeter-maria-verelst-1680-1744/
...................
The Life size Roubiliac Bust of Alexander Small, Surgeon (1670 - 1752).
on the Monument in the Church at Clifton Reynes,
Bucks.
Painted terracotta.
From ther Monument dated 1752.
This terracotta, which is made using the same techniques as
Roubiliac's terracotta busts, does not conform to a Scheemakers type but is one
further example of the re-use of the Tyers/Ray/Streatfeild drapery
pattern".
Included here as an example of Roubiliac's virtuoso modelling of the curls of the wig.
This bust was probably modelled earlier as a prototype for a marble and then used on the 1752 monument.
see my post https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-bust-of-alexander-small-on-monument.html
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