John Chapman

While the Chapman family was not very prominently identified with the Friends Meeting at Richland, several members located in Upper Bucks quite early, and were identified with the affairs of the Friends colony there, making it proper that some mention of them should be made in this narrative. The pioneer ancestor of the Chapman family of Bucks County was John Chapman, a native of Stanghah, in the Parish of Skelton, Yorkshire, England, who, with his wife Jane and their five children, came to Pennsylvania in 1684. Having sailed in the Ship Shield from New Castle on the River Tyne, they arrived in Maryland on September 15, 1684, from which point they migrated overland to Bucks County, in the latter part of October. John Chapman was born at Stanghah in 1626 and, as early as 1656, was a convert to the principles and faith of Friends, suffering imprisonment and other persecutions for his religious priciples. In 1660 he was confined in York Castle for eight weeks, for refusing to take a prescribed oath and at several times thereafter had goods seized for the payment of fines imposed for attending non-conformist meetings. He married, first, on 10 mo. 14, 1665, and had one daughter Ann, who died in childhood. His wife died 8 mo. 2, 1668, and he married, second, 4 mo. 12, 1670, Jane Sadler, of Lagenby, Yorkshire. To this marriage were born seven children, five at Stanghah, and two in Bucks County.

He had purchased, while a resident of Yorkshire, 500 acres of land, in the present township of Wrightstown, (then the extreme frontier of the English Settlement in Bucks County), including the site of the present [596] village and meeting house bearing that name, and located thereon immediately on his arrival. The family spent their first winter in Bucks County in a hastily constructed dugout, at a short distance west of the Durham Road at Wrightstown on the road leading to Penna Park, and here were born on 12 mo. (February) 12, 1684-85, the twins, Abraham and Joseph, who with their elder brother John, born in England, in 1678, represented the male portion of the family in the second generation. All of them, as well as many of their sons and grandsons, were prominently identified with public affairs in Bucks County, filling many important positions in the county and province.

[Ref. The following is a retype from EARLY FRIENDS FAMILIES OF UPPER BUCKS, with Some Accounts of Their Descendants, by Clarence V(Vernon) Roberts, assisted by Warren S. Ely, Originally published Philadelphia, 1925, Reprinted Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., Baltimore MD 1975. Comments in ( ) are note inclusions from the publisher/writer; Comments in [ ] are from me personally ]

Links

• http://pagenweb.org/~bucks/BIOS_DAVIS/chapmanfamily.html

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pioneer settler of Wrightstown, Bucks County

"Two years and three months after William Penn and his immediate followers had landed upon the banks of the Delaware, John Chapman, of the small town of Stannah (2), in Yorkshire, England, with his wife Jane, and children Mara, Ann, and John, took up his residence in the woods of Wrightstown, the first white settler north of Newtown. Being a staunch Friend and having suffered numerous persecutions for opinion sake, including loss of property, he resolved to find a new home in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Of the early settlers of Wrightstown, the names of John Chapman, William Smith and Thomas Croasdale are mentioned in "Bessies' Collections," as having been frequently fined and imprisoned for non-conformity to the established religion, and for attendance on Friends' meeting. Leaving home June 21, 1684, he sailed from Aberdeen, Scotland, and reached Wrightstown sometime toward the close of December. Before leaving England Mr. Chapman bought a claim for 500 acres of one Daniel Toaes, which he located in the southern part of the township, extending from the park square to the Newtown line, and upon which the village of Wrightstown and the Friends' meeting- house stand." ~• note 'Bessie's Collection' in most probably Besses Sufferings ~• from Davis' History of Bucks County

It is well known to all who have examined the subject, that the original white settlers above Newtown were encroachers on the country owned by the Indians. The Proprietary was censured for permitting this intrusion on the Indians, and the latter made mild protest against it. The upper line of Markham's purchase, July 15, 1682, ran through Wrightstown, a short distance below the Anchor, and therefore all the settlers in this township north-west of it were intruders. The same may be said of those who first settled in Buckingham and Solebury, and all above. In truth, all the land settled upon north of Newtown prior to the "Walking Purchase," in 1737, belonged to the Indians, and the whites were really trespassers. John Chapman settled on land to which the Indian title had been extinguished before he left England, but some of the early settlers were not so careful to observe treaty obligations. http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/bucks/history/local/davis/davis16.txt see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Purchase#/media/File:Walking_...

source: Kim Carson, kailadan17@gmail.com