Chamnee, Maurice

Chamnee, Maurice a Roman Catholic writer, probably born in London, was bred a friar at the Charter House. He was imprisoned in the reign of Henry VIII for refusing the oath of supremacy with eighteen others of his order, all of whom lost their lives for fidelity to their conscience, Chamnee alone escaping to write a history of their execution. His convent was also destroyed. Fearing persecution, he fled beyond the seas, and passed the rest of his life on the Continent, dying in 1581. See Fuller, Worthies of England (ed. Nuttall), 2, 382.