Chatham
Chatham names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Chatham WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF, an English statesman, the son of Robert Pitt of Boconnoc, in Cornwall; born Nov. 15, 1708, and educated at Eton and Oxford. He entered Parliament and soon attracted notice as a powerful opponent of Walpole. In spite of the King's dislike Pitt was powerful enough to win a place in the administration (1746). In 1756 he became Secretary of State and real head of the government. Dismissed in 1757 on account of his opposition to the King's Hanoverian policy, no stable administration could be formed without him, and he returned to power the same year in conjunction with the Duke of Newcastle. It was under this administration and entirely under the inspiration of Pitt that Great Britain rose to a place among the nations she had not before occupied. Wolfe and Clive, both stimulated and supported in their great designs by Pitt, won Canada and India from the French, and the support the Great Commoner gave Frederick of Prussia contributed not a little to the destruction of French predominance in Europe. The accession of George III. br brought Lord Bute into power, and Pitt, disagreeing with Bute, resigned in 1761. In 1766 he strongly advocated conciliatory measures toward the American colonies, and undertook the same year to form an administration, he going to the House of Lords as Earl of Chatham. But the ministry was not a success, and in 1768 he resigned. After this his principal work was his unsuccessful appeals for a conciliatory policy toward the colonies. Chatham died May 11, 1778.
Chatham a parliamentary borough
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a parliamentary borough, naval arsenal, and port of England, county Kent, on the Medway, about 34½ miles by rail from London. The importance of Chatham is due to the naval and military establishments at Brompton in its immediate vicinity. The royal dockyard was founded by Queen Elizabeth previous to the sailing of the Armada. It has been greatly enlarged in recent times, and has now capacious us docks, in which the heaviest warships can be equipped and sent directly to sea. Building-slips, sawmills, metal-mills, etc., and all the requisites of a great naval station are here on the largest scale and in the finest order. The military establishments include extensive barracks, ar-ich senal, and park of artillery, hospital, store-houses and magazines, etc. The town is poorly built, but is defended by a strong line of fortifications which also serve as a flank defense. Pop. about 45,000. town of Ontario,
Chatham a Canada, on the Thames
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Canada, on the Thames; 67 miles S. W. of London, with a number of flour, wool, and steel mills and foundries, sugar, automobile, carriage, metal, cement, packing, tobacco, fertilizer plants, etc., etc., and an active trade in grain, pork, and wood. Pop. about 15,000. Also a port of entry in the N. of New Brunswick, on the Miramichi, 6 miles N. E. of Newcastle, with a good harbor, shipyards, foundries, and other industries, a Catholic cathedral, and a college. Pop. about 5,000.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's wrote in 1921 that Chatham in Kent owed its importance entirely to the royal dockyard founded under Elizabeth I, with docks able to equip "the heaviest warships"; that dockyard was closed by the Ministry of Defence in 1984, and its Georgian core now survives as the Historic Dockyard museum and heritage site, with other parts redeveloped as a marina, university campus and commercial port. Chatham is no longer a parliamentary borough either: since 1998 it has been part of the Medway unitary authority, and its population is roughly 75,000 rather than the 45,000 given. Both Canadian Chathams have likewise been absorbed into larger units, the Ontario town into the municipality of Chatham-Kent in 1998 and the New Brunswick port into the city of Miramichi in 1995. The account of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, needs no revision, though modern historians give rather more weight to colleagues such as Newcastle in the successes of the Seven Years' War that Collier's credits "entirely" to Pitt's inspiration.
Written for this edition, 2026.