William Chambers (publisher)

William Chambers of Glenormiston FRSE (/ˈtʃeɪmbərz/; 16 April 1800 – 20 May 1883) was a Scottish publisher and politician, the brother (and business partner) of Robert Chambers. The brothers were influential in the mid-19th century, in both scientific and political circles.

Chambers was born in Peebles the son of James Chambers, a cotton mill owner, said to have 100 looms in his factory, and his wife, Jean Gibson. William was educated locally, but well, being trained in the Classics.

The family moved to Edinburgh in 1814 to work in the book-selling trade. William was apprenticed to a John Sutherland, a bookseller with a circulating library based at 9 Calton Street at the base of Calton Hill. William was paid 4/- per week, from which he paid 1/6 per week for lodgings at Boak's Land off the West Port at the west end of the Grassmarket.

William opened his own bookshop in 1819 on Broughton Street, an ancient sloping and winding street absorbed by Edinburgh's New Town. In 1820 he began printing his own works. In 1832 he founded the publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers Publishers with his younger brother Robert. They were keen advocates of popular education and his firm pioneered the use of industrial technologies within publishing to make books and newspapers available cheaply. They produced books and periodicals of Scottish interest, such as Gazetteer of Scotland. They also made money in promulgating the many new science discoveries as the modern world emerged from prior modes of thinking in such periodicals as the Edinburgh Journal.

Their publishing business prospered, and in 1846 William purchased the Glenormiston estate (near Peebles) from William Steuart. This house had been built by William Hunter in 1805. Chambers remodelled it in 1849, also adding many murals to the interior. In 1859 Chambers founded a museum and art gallery in Peebles. The brothers collaborated on the publication of Chambers Encyclopaedia between 1860 and 1868. The Chambers Dictionary in 1872 was one of the first generally affordable dictionaries, allowing its use as a standard school text book.

William was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1860, his proposer was John Shank More. His address was then given as 13 Chester Street, a large townhouse in Edinburgh's west end.

As Lord Provost of Edinburgh from 1865 to 1869, Chambers was responsible for instructing the restoration of St Giles Cathedral and other major town planning exercises, including the creation of Jeffrey Street, St Marys Street and Blackfriars Street. These streets were all created under the Edinburgh Improvement Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict. c. xliv), including one named in his memory: Chambers Street.

In 1868 he built a new printworks immediately west of the City Chambers (demolished in the 1930s).