Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chetham, James
CHETHAM, JAMES (1640–1692), writer on angling, eldest son of Edward Chetham of Smedley, near Manchester, a kinsman of Humphrey Chetham the founder [q. v.], was born on 29 Dec. 1640. In 1681 he published anonymously 'The Angler's Vade Mecum, or a compendious yet full Discourse of Angling, by a Lover of Angling,' London, 12mo, an excellent work, which gives him the rank of an original writer on the sport. A second edition, enlarged, was published in 1689, with a preface dated from Smedley, near Manchester, and a third edition appeared in 1700. He died unmarried in 1692, and was buried in the Manchester Collegiate Church on 4 Dec. in that year. His will, dated 27 Nov. 1691, by which he left his property to his brother George, and disinherited his brother James, gave rise to long litigation.
[Chetham papers in Chetham Library, Manchester; Westwood and Satchell's Bibliotheca Piscatoria, 1883, pp. xvii, 59-60; Whatton's Hist, of Chetham's Hospital, 1833, p. 138, where he wrongly ascribes the Angler's Vade Mecum to a nephew of the author.]