John Chambre (1470 - 1549), physician and cleric

John Chambre was born in Northumberland. He studied at Oxford University and was elected a fellow of Merton College in 1492. After taking orders he became vicar of Tichmarsh, Northamptonshire. Subsequent to gaining his M.A. he travelled to Italy to study medicine at Padua University, graduating in 1506. On returning to England he became physician to Henry VII and later to Henry VIII.

John was one of the six founders named in the 1518 charter for the College of Physicians. He was censor in 1523 and in 1531 received the degree of DM at Oxford. Chambre was also associated with the incorporation of surgery in England, appearing in a Holbein picture of the granting of a charter to the barber-surgeons in 1541.

In addition to his career as a physician he also had a successful career in the church, as listed bellow:

1508 vicar of Bowden, Leicestershire.
1494 - 1509 he was prebend of Coringham
1509 -1549 he was prebend of Leighton Buzzard
1525 - 1549 Archdeaconry of Bedford
1510 - 1543 treasurer of Wells
1537 canon of Wivelscombe, Somerset
1524 - 1549 precentor of Exeter
1509 -1549 canon of Windsor
1525 - 1544 warden of Merton College, Oxford
1540 - 1542 archdeacon of Meath
Dean of the Collegiate Chapel of St Stephen's, Westminster

John Chambre died in July 1549 and was buried in St Margaret's Church, Westminster.