Camden William

Camden, William, antiquarian and historian, was born in 1551 in London. Educated at Christ's Hospital, St. Paul's school, and Oxford, he in 1575 became second master of Westminster school. Here it was that he began to collect the material for his Britannia, a book that gives an historical and topographical account of the British Isles from the earliest times. It was published, after 10 years' labour, in 1586, and was at once bought up, winning a great reputation for the author, and by 1607 having reached its sixth edition. In 1593 Camden became head-master of Westminster grammar school, and in 1597 Clarencieux King-at-arms in the Herald Office. Among his other works the chief were a history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, an account of the Gunpowder Plot, and a collection of the epitaphs in Westminster Abbey. All his books were written in Latin. He died in 1623 at Chislehurst - in the house subsequently occupied by Napoleon III. during his residence in England. The "Camden Society," founded in 1838, was named in his honour.