Page:A catalogue of notable Middle Templars, with brief biographical notices.djvu/70

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
50
Chetwynd — Chitty.
CHETWYND or CHETWIND, WALTER.
Antiquary.
d. 1693.

Admitted 2 December, 1651.

Son and heir of Walter Chetwynd of Ingestre, Staffordshire. He was a person of distinction in his native county, of which he was High Sheriff in 1680, and which he represented in Parliament in 1689—90, but he is chiefly remembered for his assistance to Plot in his Natural History of Staffordshire, and for his own collections which were used by Shaw, and by Burton for his History of Leicestershire. He died 21 March, 1692-3, and was buried at Ingestre, the church of which he had rebuilt in 1673. He was elected a F.R.S. 31 Jan. 1677-8.


CHEWTE. See CHUTE.


CHILDREN, GEORGE.
Electrician.
1742—1818.

Admitted 11 December, 1753.

Only son of John Children of Tunbridge, co. Kent. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford. He was called to the Bar 29 May, 1767, but devoted his leisure to scientific pursuits, taking especial interest in the discoveries of Volta, upon whose batteries he improved and enlarged. In these experiments he was able to indulge as the possessor of a considerable fortune; but through the loss of this by a Bank failure in 1816 he was compelled to relinquish them, and to retire into an economical home at Chelsea, where he died 21 Aug. 1818. He became a Bencher of the Inn 22 May, 1789, was appointed Reader in 1797, and Treasurer in 1804.


CHILDREN, JOHN GEORGE.
Man of Science.
1777—1852.

Admitted 21 November, 1789.

Only son of George Children (q.v.), one of the Masters of the Bench of the Middle Temple. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, but left without graduating in 1798, and devoted himself to the study of mineralogy and mechanics, and in 1807 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He assisted his father in his chemical experiments and in the construction of his galvanic battery. After the bankruptcy of his father he obtained the post of librarian in the Antiquarian Department of the British Museum (1816), and in 1826 became one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society. Whilst thus employed he published a number of papers on scientific subjects, as well as translations from foreign authors. He died at Halstead, Kent, 1 Jan. 1852.


CHITTY, JOSEPH.
Legal Writer.
1776—1841.

Admitted 17 January, 1794.

Eldest son of Joseph Chitty of Chadwell Heath, Romford, Essex. He was called to the Bar 28 June, 1816. Before that he had practised with great success as a pleader, but he is best known as the author of many legal works, of which the following is a list in the order of publication: The Laws of Bills of Exchange (1799); Precedents of General Issues (1805); Pleading and Parties to Actions (1808); Prospectus to a Course of Lectures on Commercial Law (1810); The Law relating to Apprentices and Journeymen (1811); The Game Laws and Fisheries (1811); The Law of Nations relative to Belligerents and Neutrals (1812); The Practice of the King's Bench (1816); A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law (1816); On Foreign and Domestic Commerce (1818); Reports of