In 1860, a New London, Connecticut newspaper, The Repository, published a biographical sketch of James Chapman as part of a series of historical profiles. James Chapman (1709 – 1784) and his wife, Mary Wyatt Chapman (1712 – 1748) were my 6th great grandparents.
It’s a bit long and not very exciting, but I thought that you might enjoy reading it, so I am going to share the story with you in its entirety.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES
Number Fifteen
JAMES CHAPMAN, Sen
By F.M.C.
In a secluded part of the old Township of New London, on a farm which has since been called Rockdale, there lived, a hundred years ago, a quiet honest, religious, hard working man, named James Chapman. The country around him was almost wilderness. The few half cleared farms of that region, of which his own was one of the most rugged and hard to cultivate, were intermingles with rocky pastures, cedar thickets and swamps of elder and sumac. His house of one story stood upon a rock, and was well shaded with orchard trees. Here, from year to year, he planted, mowed and harvested, made cider, milked his cows, turned the cheese in the press for his wife, shelled the corn and carried it to mill, read his Bible morning and evening, and duly as the Sabbath came, went into town with his family, and ascending the hill to the old meeting house, reverently imbibed the dew as it was distilled from the lips of the venerated minister.
Those were the
chief transitions of his life. In a
quiet way he loved to go up among the rocky ridges of his farm, and look off
upon the water, tracking the white sails along the coast, or watching the hawks
as they flew inland with their fishy prey.
The birds that haunted his orchard seemed to know him, and never fled at
his presence. Robins, wrens, and
sparrows he fed at his window seat and around his doorsteps. With every opening spring some of the guests
of the former year were sure to return, announcing their arrival by a gentle
peck on the window pane, or a plaintive chirp from the rose bush near.
Mr. Chapman’s wife was Mary Wyatt, a discreet, industrious, home-keeping woman, who knew how to spin and weave, to transform milk into butter and cheese, to make and mend the garments of the family, to dip candles, bake johnny-cakes, boil suet puddings and make poultry pies. She knew, moreover, that her Bible was true. It is probably that she had been taught to write and had once worked a sampler; this was the sum of female education in her day.
They were married Feb. 25th, 1731, and between that date and the close of the year 1748, they had ten children, five sons and five daughters, all of whom, it is supposed, were born and passed their childhood at Rockdale. The daughters were Hannah, Mercy, Rebecca, Mary and Lydia, who in due time married respectively Pain Kenyon, Jonathan Brooks, Sperry Douglass, Thomas Hempstead, and a Mr. Udell.
With respect to the sons, it may be said that their history gives no countenance or confirmation to the truth of the proverb, “Like father, like son.” In disposition they were totally unlike their father – They seemed born for action, enterprise and adventure. Before they had hardened into manhood, they sought the busy scenes of social life, and rushed with eagerness into the great struggle of their times for honor and liberty. Society and their country, diversities of place and occupation, peace and war, land and sea, were all included in their aspirations and pursuits. The old farm-house therefore was early deserted of its children. The mother died, and Mr. Chapman married for his second wife Mrs. Hannah Accourt, daughter of Richard Manwaring, and widow of Dr Carles Accourt, an English physician, who had lived a few years in New London.
With this wife, twenty years of advancing age glided away in peace. Life at Rockdale retained its ancient simplicity, but the scene was often varied by visits from children and grand children, and other relatives of the family. At such times the good old farmer, tall, gray headed, with a countenance full of benignity, sat comfortably in the corner of the large fireplace, joining with a quiet smile in the decorous mirth of the young people, and cracking walnuts or popping corn for their entertainment.
He died Sept 25th, 1784, aged 76. The New London Gazette, after announcing his death, added this record:
“He never went out of the town but once in his life, and then he was summoned to Norwich as an evidence in Court.”
His widow died in August, 1806, very aged. Her life covered almost the whole of the eighteenth century. The old man and his first wife were buried in the ancient burial ground; the venerable relict in the second; neither of the three has any memorial head-stone.
Our next number
will be devoted to the sons of James Chapman, men of action and enterprise,
whose varied fortunes stand in bold relief against the quiet character, simple
pursuits and retired life of the father.
Though the newspaper cites the author as F.M.C., this biographical sketch was written by Frances Manwaring Caulkins when she was 70 years old. Frances was born about 10 years after James Chapman’s death, so her information for the story was likely gleaned from talking to family and locals. Frances, a prolific writer of historical and genealogical manuscripts during her life, was probably related to James Chapman’s second wife, Hannah Manwaring.
* * * * *
Key Individuals:
James Chapman (1709 – 1784)
Mary Wyatt (1712 – probably 1748); James’ 2nd wife was
Hannah Manwaring
Mercy Chapman
(1738 – 1806)
Samuel Bill (1739
– 1766); 1st husband, married in 1759
Elisabeth
Bill (abt 1760 – 1819)
David
Bill (abt 1862 – 1780)
Jonathan Brooks
(1735 – 1807); 2nd husband, married in 1766
Notes:
1) And just to let you know, our family line does NOT descend from any of James Chapman’s wonderful sons that were such noble men of action, full of enterprise and wondrous adventure. No, we descend from James & Mary’s second daughter, Mercy Chapman (1738 – 1806). In 1759, Mercy Chapman first married Samuel Bill (1739 – abt 1765). Samuel Bill died young, however, leaving Mercy a widow with two young children, David and Elisabeth. After Samuel died, Mercy married Jonathan Brooks in 1766 and had five more children, four of which lived to adulthood. Our line comes down through Mercy Chapman & Samuel Bill’s daughter, Elisabeth Bill, who married Nathaniel Dickinson in 1778.
2) And for anyone who wants to see the article, here you go!
- Jane Scribner McCrary
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