Chambers family

He was nominally the fourth son of Abraham Chambers (d. 1782) of Totteridge, Hertfordshire; his eldest brother Samuel (1763–1843) became a prominent London banker and was knighted.

[1] William was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and bought out his brothers' interest in the estate of Bicknor, Kent, acquired by Abraham.

[2] William moved into the old Stepney mansion, Llanelly House, and immediately began to play an active part in local affairs.

He served as sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1828, became a portreeve of Llanelli in 1831 and a burgess in 1835, in which year he also formed a gas company for the town; he established a Mechanics Institute in 1840 and a savings bank in 1847.

They married belatedly in 1829, but William junior's illegitimacy, which had to be admitted publicly during one of the lawsuits with Stepney Cowell, disqualified him from inheriting the estate.

Following his father's death he purchased the famous Hafod estate in Cardiganshire, but the expense proved crippling and he eventually lost it when he went bankrupt in 1871.