Hon. Ward Chipman

Descendant of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley

Birth: Jul. 30, 1754

Death: Feb. 9, 1824

Ward Chipman, a Loyalist, was appointed New Brunswick's attorney general, then its solicitor general, after he was exiled to England at the outset of the American Revolution. He sat in New Brunswick's first House of Assembly. He drew up the Charter for the city of Saint John and he designed Saint John's corporate seal, still in use today. In 1806 he became a Legislative Councilor, and in 1809 he was appointed to the New Brunswick Supreme Court. The sixth child of John Chipman and Elizabeth Brown, Ward Chipman was born July 30, 1754 in Marblehead, Mass. Ward Chipman studied law in Massachusetts with Jonathan Sewall, Sr., former best friend of President John Adams. According to Saint John historian Ann Gorman Condon, Ward Chipman likened his relationship with Sewell to a father-son relationship. Ward Chipman was active in assisting, in the defence of Judge Sewell's house at Cambridge, Massachusetts, September, 1774, when it was violently attacked by a mob. Dr. Condon wrote that, six years earlier, Sewell not only contributed himself toward the continuance of Ward Chipman's education after the death of his father, but he urged the gentlemen of the Bar to follow suit.Further evidence of Ward Chipman's bravery is found at Trinity Church. The Royal Coat of Arms was originally located in the Council Chambers of the old State House in Boston. Two best friends and Harvard graduates, Edward Winslow and Ward Chipman, removed it at the evacuation from Boston of the Loyalists. Edward Winslow had the Coat of Arms sent from Halifax to Ward Chipman, who chose Trinity Church as its home. As solicitor general, he was responsible for preparing the bill incorporating Trinity Church in Saint John in 1789 and he was for many years a vestryman of the church. The Royal Coat of Arms was rescued from the church during the Great Saint John Fire of 1877. Jonathan Sewell, Jr., left England in early 1785 under the care of New Brunswick Attorney General Jonathan Bliss. He studied law with Ward Chipman, the Solicitor-General for New Brunswick. Jonathan Sewell, Jr., became Chief Justice of Lower Canada from 1808-38. Stephen Sewell, Jonathan Sewell, Jr.'s, brother, also studied under Ward Chipman. Ward Chipman had taught both boys Latin when he resided with the Sewells. Ward Chipman and Jonathan Bliss defended Benedict Arnold in his lawsuit against Munson Hoyt, his business partner, for slander. Munsun Hayt had said that Arnold had deliberately set fire to their general store to collect fire insurance. Ward Chipman and Benedict Arnold were life-long friends. In an oft-quoted letter to Ward Chipman from Benedict Arnold, he wrote that he sent him a small parcel containing flannel hose, socks, and a pair of gloves that he would find serviceable if he was again attacked with the gout.In 1785, Ward Chipman was a founder of the New Brunswick Bar. In 1800, Ward Chipman and Samuel Denny Street defended pro bono the right of Nancy, a slave woman, to obtain her freedom. Thirty-one years earlier, in 1769, a suit was commenced against Judge Lechmere by Jonathan Sewall in favor of a negro demanding his freedom. The suit was terminated in favor of the negro. This is said to be the first case in which the question was settled abolishing slavery in Massachusetts. Ward Chipman was interred three times: first, on the opening of the navigation of the St. John River, his remains were brought to St John, and interred in the Old Burying Ground (a.k.a., Loyalist Burial Ground); secondly, they were removed to the Church of England Burying Ground facing Courtney Bay, and thirdly, to Fernhill Cemetery, where they were finally interred in the Chipman-Hazen plot.