John Chapman, Sr.

JOHN CHAPMAN, son of Abraham and Susan (Olden) Chapman, born in February, 1720, was the first of the Chapman family to locate in Upper Bucks. The date of his arrival in upper Bucks County from Wrightstown is somewhat uncertain. He married about 1740, Mary Twining, born about 1720, daughter of Stephen and Margaret (Mitchell) Twining. Stephen Twining was born in Eastham, Mass., December 30, 1684, and came to Bucks County in 1695, with his parents Stephen and Abigail (Young) Twining. Stephen Twining, father of Mary Chapman, took up 500 acres of land in Springfield Township, near Springtown, in 1738, and erecting a mill thereon, lived there for a number of years, but finally returned to Wrightstown, where he died in 1772. John Chapman and Mary, his wife, either accompanied or followed her parents to Springfield Township, and resided there for several years. No certificate appears on the records of Richland Meeting, and it is therefore apparent that they arrived prior to the organization of the Monthly Meeting in 1743. On November 16, 1758, Stephen Twining and Margaret, his wife, conveyed to their son-in-law, John Chapman, 110 acres in Springfield adjoining the mill property and plantation of Twining and the land of Isaac Kirk and others. On February 20, 1761, John Chapman, of Springfield, Esquire, and Mary, his wife, conveyed 104 acres of this tract to Jacob Kockert. John Chapman, Jr., is then mentioned as an adjoining land owner, and probably acquired the remaining 6 acres.

On 9 mo. 17, 1761, John Chapman and wife and several of their children were granted a certificate by Richland Monthly Meeting to Wrightstown. John Chapman evidently met with a violent or sudden death in Wrightstown in 1766. Letters of administration were granted on his estate to his widow, Mary, on January 17, 1767, Stephen Twining and John Mitchell becoming her sureties. The Inventory of his estate was made December 16, 1766, and amounted to £25 10s. The widow and administratrix filed her account March 14, 1768, and takes credit for the following items: — “Paid William Doyle, Coroner, 2 2s 0d” “Paid Cadwallader Evans, Doctor, 3 8s 6d”

John Chapman being mentioned as “Esquire” in the deed of 1761, — it is evident that he was a Justice of the Peace at that date, it being the universal custom to so designate a justice. He is referred to in one instance as a Surveyor, and probably followed that profession, as did many of his uncles and cousins.

Mary Chapman, the widow, survived her husband for thirty years, and died in Wrightstown in 1796. Her will dated 6 mo. 20, 1786, was probated 6 mo. 26, 1797. It makes her son James and nephew John Hillborn executors, and names her sons James, Robert, Abraham and Charles, and daughters Elizabeth Black, Sarah Chapman, and Susanna Chapman, and granddaughters Mary and Margaret Ashton, and Agnes and Elizabeth Vance. Her two daughters Mary and Myra were evidently deceased. Mary had married 1 mo. 13, 1763, Thomas Ashton, (See No. 5, page 47), and Myra had married in 1780 John Vance, as shown by the records of Richland Monthly Meeting. There evidently was a son John, who married Hannah Antrim, 11 mo. 30, 1769. He was probably the John Chapman, Jr., referred to in the deed of 1761. His name does not appear on the records of Richland Meeting so far as we can learn, but on the minutes of the Women’s Meeting Hannah Chapman is granted a certificate of removal 10 mo. 17, 1773. Her destination is not given. But on 3 mo. 21, 1776, she brought her certificate back to Richland from Ohio, and on 7 mo. 18, 1778, took another certificate to some unnamed place. The History of the Twining Family states that John Chapman, Jr., removed to Kentucky. By deed dated June 10, 1781, James Chapman and Rebecca his wife, John Black and Elizabeth his wife, Charles Chapman and Elizabeth his wife, Robert Chapman, Susanna Chapman, Sarah Chapman, and Abraham Chapman, “all of Bucks County,” conveyed to their mother their right of reversion in 50 acres of land in Springfield, devised to Mary by her father Stephen Twining for life and then to revert to her children. Little is known of any of these children excepting of James. None of the other children seemed to have remained in Richland, although Myra Chapman brought a certificate to Richland in 1755, and was married there to John Vance in 1780, and Elizabeth Black also brought a certificate from Wrightstown to Richland in 1770. Charles [598] Chapman lived and died in Wrightstown Township. He married Elizabeth Linton, in 1775, and left a number of children.