Edmund Chambers became the tenant of Haggs Farm in 1898, moving from a small-holding in Eastwood, where he had run a milk-round. It was whilst living in Eastwood that the Chambers and Lawrence families became acquainted. Edmund was the son of Jonathan Chambers who ran a grocers and pawnbrokers business in the Breach at Eastwood, as his father William had before him. In 1881, Edmund married Sarah Ann Oats and in due course 7 children were born, Jessie was the third child and Jonathan David, the only one born at the Haggs, the youngest.

The two eldest girls were both baptised at the newly built church at Underwood (consecrated in 1890), May at the age of 16 on 11th December 1899 and Jessie shortly before her sixteenth birthday on 1st December 1901. Both the church, and Underwood school which the Haggs children attended, were built on land provided by Earl Cowper, the major landowner in the village. The school had opened in 1879 and the first mention of the Chambers family is in 1902 when the log book records that Jessie Chambers, a monitoress from the mixed school was assisting in the infants school. In November the same year, Jessie is recorded as a pupil teacher at the mixed school under the Headmaster George Stringfellow. She obviously found her duties rather stressful, for two months later the Head noted that "Miss Chambers obliged to go home ill through being overworked with a large Standard III."

Edmund Chambers remained at the Haggs until March 1910 when he took the tenancy of Arno Vale Farm, Woodthorpe on the outskirts of Nottingham - sometimes referred to as Swinehouse Farm. Four of the children - Bernard, Hubert, May and Mollie emigrated to Canada. Bernard, Hubert and May settled in Saskatchewan, the two men farming, and May employed as a teacher. In 1921, Bernard married Lizzie Marsh, a friend of the family, who made the journey to Canada as a potential bride at the suggestion of Bernard's mother! The marriage was a success and their descendants are still living in Mervin and Turtleford, Saskatchewan. Hubert never married, Bill and May Holbrook eventually moved to British Columbia and died childless. Mollie also settled in that state but had little contact with the rest of the family.

The eldest son, Alan, married Alvina Reeve, nee Lawrence, a cousin of the novelist. He ran a dairy at Breck Hill Road, Mapperley, near his parents' farm at Woodthorpe. David had a distinguished academic career, ultimately becoming Professor of Economic History at Nottingham University.

From "Haggs Farm, The Chambers Family and D. H. Lawrence", 1997