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E. Beresford Chancellor

British historian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ36474950
Source-derived summary

Edwin Beresford Chancellor FRHS FSA (1868 – 4 February 1937) was an English author known for his works on the history of London and it environs. He wrote his first book, Historical Richmond (1885), when only 17 years old. In 1924-25, he completed a six-volume history of The Lives of the Rakes.

Early life and family

Edwin Beresford Chancellor was born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1868 to Albert Chancellor, an estate agent, and his wife Emma. He read history at the University of Oxford. He married Ellen Porter in Bromley, Kent, in 1894. They had two sons, Richard and Francis. Chancellor's second marriage was to Constance Lilian May Crouch in Hastings, Sussex, in 1930.

Career

Chancellor's early career was as a land and estate agent. By the time of the 1911 census he was describing himself as an author.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “E. Beresford Chancellor” as british historian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Beresford, Chancellor and British.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1868, 1937, 1885, 1924—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1868-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Beresford, Chancellor and British providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “E. Beresford Chancellor”, the useful work is to connect “british historian” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q36474950. VIAF identifies the subject as 22509514. The Library of Congress control number is n79091582. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1868, 1937, 1885 and 1924.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “E. Beresford Chancellor”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow E. Beresford Chancellor primary sources, E. Beresford Chancellor archive and Beresford research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from E. Beresford Chancellor” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.