CAMDEN, William, English antiquary and historian : b. London, 2 May 1551 ; d. Chiselhurst, Kent, 9 Nov. 1623. He was educated at Christ's Hospital and Saint Paul's and Oxford. In 1575 he was appointed second master of West minster School, and at this time began to make collections for his greatest work the (Britannia,) written in Latin and giving an account of the British Isles from the earliest ages. It was published first in 1586, and gained a high repu tation at once. It was revised and enlarged by the constant work and study of Camden, and by 1607 had passed through six editions. In the same year it was translated into English by Philemon Holland; by Edmund Gibson in 1722 (2 vols.); by Gough and Nicols (2d ed., 1806). Hume, in his 'History of England> ranks Cam den's works among the best historical produc tions composed by any Engishman.
In 1593, Camden became head master of Westminster, for which school he drew up a Greek grammar (1597). The same year he obtained the office of Clarencieux King-at-Arms. In 1622 he founded a professorship of history at Oxford which he endowed with the valuable manor of Bexley in Kent. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. His house at Chiselhurst was the residence of Napoleon III (1871-73). His other works consist of (Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum regnante Eliza betha, ad annum salutis' (1559, latest ed., 1717). (A Collection of Ancient English Historians' (Frankfort 1603, 6th ed., 1607); (An Account of the Monuments and Inscriptions in West minster Abbey' (1600) ; (Narrative of the Con spiracy called the Gunpowder Plot> (1607) written in Latin at the King's command.