Edward Chilton 1658-1707

Edward CHILTON 1658-1707

Biographical Note

Born at Little Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire, son of Edward Chilton. Matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin 1674, and at St John's College, Cambridge 1676, but no graduation is recorded. He moved to Virginia soon afterwards, where he was a clerk of the Governor's Council in 1682, and began acquiring land. He became attorney general of Virginia in 1691, but returned to England in 1694, where he was admitted to the Middle Temple and called to the Bar in 1696. He then developed a successful practice as a barrister in London, while also being summoned to testify before the Board of Trade about the administration of affairs in Virginia. He moved to Barbados in 1699 and was appointed attorney general there. Falling out with the governor, Sir Bevil Granville, who dismissed him in 1705, Chilton returned to England to clear his name; he died in Portsmouth in 1707 while waiting to return to Barbados. He published an edition of Sir Edward Coke's Reports in 1697, and a report of the same year on affairs in Virginia which he part-authored was published in London in 1727 as The present state of Virginia.

Books

Chilton's brief will has no mention of books, and left all his estate (in England and Barbados) to be divided between his wife, sisters and niece. His library was sold by auction in London, together with that of another unnamed "gentleman, deceased", beginning 6 March 1710; no catalogue survives, but the sale was advertised in the Daily Courant and Post Boy as "consisting of the compleatest collection of the most valuable law books ... several of them of the largest paper, well bound and letter'd, also manuscripts".

Characteristic Markings

None of Chilton's books have been identified.

Sources

• Will of Edward Chilton, The National Archives PROB 11/495/367.
• Encyclopedia Virginia.
• Alston, R. C. Inventory of sale catalogues 1676-1800. St Philip, 2010
• Venn, J. & J. A. Alumni Cantabrigienses. Cambridge, 1922.