CHALMERS, GEORGE Scottish antiquarian and political writer, was born at Fochabers, Moray, and emi grated to Maryland in 1763, where he practised as a lawyer until the outbreak of the war of American Independence, when he re turned to England. In 1786 he was appointed chief clerk to the ' privy council, an office which he held until his death in London May 31 1825.
Of some 3o works which he wrote the most important are Political Annals of the present United Colonies from their Settle ment to the Peace of 1763 (1780) , drawn from the American State papers, and Caledonia, An Account, Historical and Topo graphical, of North Britain (1807-24) . Neither of these is com plete. Of the Political Annals only one volume was published, bringing the history down to 1688; and Caledonia covers only the southern counties of Scotland.
Chalmers wrote biographical sketches of Defoe, Allan Ramsay, Sir David Lyndsay, and others, prefixed to their collected works, and a Life of Mary Queen of Scots (1818) . He engaged in many literary and historical controversies with Malone, Steevens, Dr. Jamieson, and others.