John Chapman (abt. 1626 - 1694)

Born about 1626 in Stanghow, Yorkshire, England

Husband of Jane Sadler — married 12 Jun 1670 in Yorkshire, England

Descendants

Died 5 Jul 1694 at about age 68 in Wrightstown, Bucks, Pennsylvania

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Biography

John Chapman was a part of William Penn's Pennsylvania Settlers community.

John was a Friend (Quaker)

This profile is part of the Chapman Name Study.

John Chapman was a Quaker, and most notably, considered to be the first European settler north of Newtown, and founder of Wrightstown Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – having arrived there in October 1684. He was also one of about 300 first purchasers of Pennsylvania.

John was born about 1626 in the village of Stanghah (present-day Stanghow), located in the parish of Skelton, Yorkshire, England.^[1] He was the son of John and Jane Chapman and a mariner by profession. The details of his early life were provided in A History of the Early Settlement of the Township of Wrightstown, by Charles W. Smith, drawing upon the manuscript of Dr. Isaac Chapman of Wrightstown and an original manuscript, chiefly in the hand-writing of John Chapman, the son of the first settler in Wrightstown.^[2][3]

On December 14, 1665 (10 mo. 14, 1665 Quaker Old Style "OS"), John married Mary Helme^[4] and after her death, married Jane Sadler on June 12, 1670 (4 mo. 12, 1670 OS).^[5] Both marriages were recorded in the Guisborough Monthly Meeting, as were the births of five of his children: Marah (b. 1671), Jane (b. 1672), Anne (b. 1676), John (b. 1679) and Ruth (Jul 1682-Aug 1682).

John was a godly man and according to Smith, "He suffered considerably for his profession, as being one of the people called Quakers, by several imprisonments, and fines to a considerable amount. He had at various times much property taken from him, (at one time not less than nine head of cattle,) and was often imprisoned for attending Friends’ Meetings." Some of these infractions were noted in A collection of the sufferings of the people called Quakers by Joseph Besse (aka "Besse's Collection).^[6]

By 1680, as many as 10,000 Quakers had been imprisoned. Many of them began seeking refuge oversees in New Jersey in the 1670s, and in Pennsylvania the following decade after Quaker leader, William Penn, received a charter from Charles II for the land in 1681. It was several years later, in 1684, when Chapman decided to uproot his family and leave England in search of a better life where he could worship freely.^[7] At the age of 58, John took passage with his wife and children on the ship Shields of Stockton, with shipmaster, Daniel Toaes (sp. var. Towes), at its helm. Much has been written about the harrowing journey, including the loss of their daughter, Jane, just 12 years of age, who died at sea and was thrown overboard.^[3] Below in an excerpt from A History of the Early Settlement of the Township of Wrightstown:

"On the 12th day of the 7th month, they had a mighty storm, which blew so tremendously, that, in short, it first carried away the bowsprit, and afterwards their three masts, flagstaff and all, by the board, before the sailors were able to get them cut. It likewise took their awning from above their quarter deck, and left not so much as a yard of rope above their heads, all which was done in the course of half an hour; and they lay thus distressed, like a pitiful wreck, all that night, (they having lost their masts about 12 o’clock in the day,) and two days after, at the mercy of the sea, the waters being mountains high, occasioned by the storm and wind. Thus they lay without hopes of recovery, being two hundred leagues from the land; but through God’s mercy they got in sight of the Capes of Virginia, within fifteen days or thereabouts, by reason of a fair wind, having had a passage of nine weeks from Aberdeen to the capes of Virginia." The ship reached the shores of Maryland in October 1684, eventually making its way up the Delaware River to Philadelphia."^[2]

According to old Wrightstown manuscripts, Chapman bought his land the day before he left for America, using money from his mother’s will about two years prior. He purchased the land from Captain Towes, the aforementioned shipmaster. The deed was for five hundred acres in “Pennsollvania” [sic]. At the time he set out, John had never heard of Wrightstown nor had any intention of settling there since his land was not apportioned in the wilderness until he reached Philadelphia.^[3] It was there he met up with a man named Phineas Pemberton, whose father-in-law, James Harrison, had purchased five thousand acres of land in Bucks County, part of it in "Wright's town". After receiving intelligence of that part of the country, John decided to settle there. With his family in tow, he first went to Pemberton's plantation near the Falls of Delaware, and then onward to his new home in Wrightstown.^[8] His family's arrival was recorded in The Book of Arrivals, which was the official registry of all arrivals of the first settlers of Bucks County up to 1687, kept by Penn's secretary, Phineas Pemberton.

John Chapman and family in The Book of Arrivals[1]

The land upon which he and his family settled was then a wilderness. He was the furthest into the woods, being a great distance from any English settlement. The only nearby dwellings were the habitations of Native Americans, who being then numerous, frequently visited his family, offering them corn and other provisions that at the time were scarce. The Chapman family lived in a cave nestled into the side of a bank, until John was able to build a log house.^[2] A Wikipedia article about the history of Wrightstown, Pennsylvania states:

Wrightstown's first settler was John Chapman, who emigrated from England in October 1684, with his wife and children and settled on land which was part of the original William Penn Grant. According to legend, they first lived in a "cave" or "sod hut", probably on what is now Penns Park Road. Twin boys were born in their dwelling during the first winter, originating a long life of descendants, among whom was Henry Chapman Mercer. Although the first dwelling no longer exists, there are seven houses in the Township which were the homes of second and third generation Chapmans. William Smith, who arrived the year after the Chapmans, built a log house which still stands on Mud Road. In addition to the Smith house, there are 140 other houses in the Township which are at least 100 years old.

John Chapman and his 2nd wife Jane Sadler had 5 children born in England, and twin boys born in Bucks County. The Monthly Meeting of Guisborough recorded the marriage of John and Jane. He became a large landowner in Wrightstown. Friends meetings were held at his house until a Meeting house could be built. John was buried on the July 19, 1694 (5 mo. 19, 1694 OS)^[9]

Research Notes

John Chapman's Birth

Much of the confusion surrounding John Chapman's birth can be traced back to inaccurate text from William Davis’ “A History of Bucks County,” first published in 1876. In a biographical sketch on the Chapman family found on page 379 in Vol. 3, the author wrote that John Chapman was born at Stanhope, or Stanehaugh, in the county of Durham about the year 1635. He was the son of John Chapman of Frosterly, Durham, and the Parish records show that the family had been residents in that locality for several generations.^[10] The information in Davis' book has since been disproven. For starters, John was recorded as being 58 years at the time he emigrated to America in 1684, which places his birth about 1626.^[1]

In 1913, Henry Chapman Mercer, descendant of John Chapman, spoke at the Friends Meeting House in Wrightstown, where he addressed the misinformation.^[3] He stated that his grandfather, Henry Chapman, went to England in 1875 in search of John Chapman's birthplace. There he found Stanhope in County Durham, 30 miles north of Guisborough, which was where John attended Monthly Meetings. Henry Chapman consulted with the local bishop in Stanhope and was shown a baptism record for John Chapman, son of John, born in 1626 "and that the forefathers of this John lay buried there and in the churchyard at a village called Frosterly nearby. So convinced was my grandfather to these facts to which he had been led to by a remarkable series of coincidences, that he called his new house Frosterley, and embodied the information not only in Davis’ History of Bucks County, then being written, but also in an English book, Memorials of Old Stanhope, in which the English writer, on my grandmother’s authority, refers to John Chapman as having left the church to his ancestors to join the Society of Friends, and gives an account of his descendants here in Wrightstown."

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Battle, J.H. "Chapter XXIV: Appendix, Book of Arrivals," History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Including an Account of Its Original Exploration… (Philadelphia, PA: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1887), p. 678, digital images courtesy of GoogleBooks (https://books.google.com : accessed 21 February 2022).
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Smith, Charles W. "A History of the Early Settlement of the Township of Wrightstown," William J. Buck. History of Bucks County (Doylestown, Pennsylvania: John S. Brown, 1855), Appendix pp. 8-10, digital images courtesy of HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org : accessed on 21 February 2022).
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Mercer, Henry C. “John Chapman First Settler of Wrightstown,” Mercer, Ely, Yerkes, Hotchkiss, Fackenthal, eds. A Collection of Papers Read Before the Bucks County Historical Society, Vol. IV (Doylestown, Pennsylvania: 1917), pp. 441-447, digital images courtesy of GoogleBooks (https://books.google.com : accessed 21 February 2022).
4. ↑ "England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837," database with images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed on 21 February 2022) > Yorkshire > Piece 1092: Monthly Meeting of Guisborough (1602-1749, 1661-1743), John Chapman of Stanghow in the County of York married Mary Helme of Moor, 14th day of the 10th month 1665; citing "The National Archives; Kew, England."
5. ↑ "England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837," database with images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed on 21 February 2022) > Yorkshire > Piece 1092: Monthly Meeting of Guisborough (1602-1749, 1661-1743), John Chapman of Stangah in the County of York married Jane Sadler of Lazenby, 12th day of the 4th month 1670; citing "The National Archives; Kew, England."
6. ↑ Besse, Joseph. A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers, Vol. 2 (London, England: Luke Hinde, 1753), pp. 101, 131, 141, digital images courtesy of GoogleBooks (https://books.google.com : accessed 21 February 2022)
7. ↑ Library of Congress, "Faith of Our Forefathers: Religion and the Founding of the American Republic," blog post, Information Bulletin (https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9805/religion.html : posted May 1998).
8. ↑ Proud, Robert. History of Pennsylvania. Volume I (Carlisle, Massachusetts: Applewood Books, 1798), pp. 223-224, digital images courtesy of GoogleBooks (https://books.google.com : accessed 21 February 2022)
9. ↑ Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Record of Births and Burials, 1680; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: RG2/Ph/B86 3.2; Ancestry.com
10. ↑ Davis, William W. H. History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time. Volume III (New York, NY: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905), pp. 379-380, digital images courtesy of GoogleBooks (https://books.google.com : accessed 21 February 2022)

• "The History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania" : History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time; Ancestry.com
• Find a Grave, database and images accessed May 6, 2024, memorial page for John Chapman (1626–Jul 1694), Find a Grave Memorial ID 193997643, citing Wrightstown Friends Meeting Cemetery, Wrightstown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA; Maintained by contributor 47345651.