William Chambers was born on April 17, 1800, in Peebles, Scotland.

He was a publisher and politician. As an avid reader, he started an apprenticeship with a bookseller in Edinburgh in 1814. He taught himself bookbinding and typesetting before venturing into publishing in 1818. He worked with his brother Robert Chambers (1802–1871) and in 1832, he founded the publishing firm of W. & R. Chambers Publishers. The same year they launched a successful weekly paper Edinburgh Journal and produced a Gazetteer of Scotland in 1833. He was a keen advocate of popular education and his firm pioneered the use of industrial technologies of publishing to make print available cheaply. They published school textbooks, People’s Editions of literary works, the famous Chamber’s encyclopaedia (1865-1869), and Chamber’s English dictionary. William Chambers was elected Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1865 and worked to improve sanitary conditions in the city as well as the restoration of St. Giles Cathedral. He was also a director of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Chambers Street is named after him and his statue stands outside the National Museum of Scotland.

In 1833, he married Harriet S. Clark (1801–1885). He died on May 20, 1883, in Edinburgh, Scotland.