The proceeds arising from his earliest musical compositions were devoted to the relief of the famine of 1846–7. He was president of the Classical Harmonists' Society established at Belfast in 1852. About 1861 he brought forward a scheme for the establishment of an Athenæum in Belfast. To the working men's association in the same town he delivered in the winter of 1852 a series of lectures on the 'Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century.' His health was for some years declining, and he died at Naples 15 Feb. 1853, aged only twenty-six. He was the author of: 1. 'Two Generations, or Birth, Parentage, and Education,' 1851, 2 vols.; and 2. 'Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, a course of lectures,' 1852, both of which bore his own name. The following books are also ascribed to him: 3. 'Masters and Workmen, a Tale,' 1851, 3 vols. (by Lord B——'). 4. 'The Farce of Life,' 1852, 8 vols. 5. 'Wealth and Labour,' 1858, 3 vols. 6. 'The County Magistrate,' 1858, 8 vols. 7. 'Naples, Political, Social, and Religious,' 1856, 2 vols.; and 8. 'The Fate of Folly,' 1859, 8 vols, (all 'by Lord B******,' or 'the author of "Masters and Workmen"'). But the authorship of those numbered 3, 4, 5, and 6 has been questioned by his relatives. To the 'Northern Magazine' he contributed, under the signature of 'Campana,' two articles, 'A Spirit's Wanderings, a Tale,' December 1852,' p. 297–804, and 'Twelfth-day at Cannes,' February 1853, pp. 838–42.
[Gent. Mag. April 1863, p. 428; Northern Mag. June 1852, p. 117.]
CHICHESTER, ROBERT (d. 1156), bishop of Exeter, described without any satisfactory reason as a native of Devonshire, was dean of Salisbury when in April 1138 he was elected bishop of Exeter, receiving consecration on 18 Dec. following. The next year, in company with Archbishop Theobald and other bishops, he attended the council held at Rome. He made other journeys to Rome, gave largely, it is said, to the building of his cathedral church, and enriched it with many relics. He died 28 March 1155, and was buried on the south side of the high altar of Exeter Cathedral.
[Gervase, col. 1346 (Twysden); Cont. Flor. Wig. ii. 106, 114; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), i, 267; Fuller's Worthies.i. 276 (Nichols); Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 1 86; Godwin, De Præsulibus, p. 402.]
CHIFFINCH, THOMAS (1600–1666), keeper of Charles II's jewels and his majesty's closet, comptroller of the excise, &c., born at Salisbury in 1600, was brought to the court of Charles I by Brian Duppa, bishop of Salisbury (1641). In 1644 Sir E. Walker, Garter king-at-arms, gave a grant of arms gratis to Chiffinch, who was at that time one of the pages of his majesty's bedchamber and holding other offices. Duppa, tutor to the Prince of Wales, and afterwards bishop of Winchester (1660), was zealously careful about the character of the prince's companions, as was shown at Barnstaple in 1645, when he caused the expulsion of Wheeler (Clarendon, History, bk. ix. par. 53, note). From this date Chiffinch continued in attendance on Prince Charles. He appears to have belonged to the Chiffinches of Staplehurst in Kent, and married Dorothy Thanet of Merionethshire, by whom he had one son, Thomas. They went abroad with Charles II after his father's execution, and continued with him until the Restoration. Thus we find record that from 22 April 1656 until 7 Feb. 1657–8 he was at Bruges, his name and allowance being entered on a list at the hôtel de ville: ‘Le Seignieur Hugh Griffith et Le Sr. Thomas Chiffinch, Pages de la Chambre du Lict du Roy’ (Archælogia, xxxv. 242, 1853). At the Restoration Chiffinch was appointed keeper of the king's jewels, &c., and his wife Dorothy became laundress and sempstress to the king on 30 May 1660. On 9 April or 9 Sept. 1663 the king granted to him, conjointly with Thomas Ross, the office of receiver-general of the revenues of the foreign plantations in America and Africa (Egerton MS. 2395, fol. 370). He was trusted fully in delicate money matters, and seems to have been honest and loyal in all transactions, far more so than his brother William, with whom he is often confounded, each being successively closet keeper and page of the backstairs [see Chiffinch, William]. His autograph appears on his receipt for 3,000l. from Sir John Shaw, 9 Aug. 1661 (Addit. MS. 23199, Plut. ccccxlvii. E). A still more interesting document, but in another hand, is the list of twenty-two pictures received for the king's use, at stated prices, signed by him, ‘Thomas Chiffinch,’ to the value of 600l. Among them were an ‘Adoration of the Shepherds,’ and three others, by Tintoretto, one being the painter's own portrait; works by Giorgione, Palma, Guido Reni, Spagnoletto, Vandyke, Teniers, Paul Brill, and Holbein's Henry VIII when young. Chiffinch's name is also appended to another list of fifty pictures, purchased for his majesty, costing 2,086l., 20 Aug. 1660 (ib.) He consulted John Evelyn as to the arrangement in ‘fit repositories of those precious treasures and curiosities committed to Chiffinch's charge’ at Whitehall, so as to preserve the collection entire, and render it accessible ‘to great princes and curious
