 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
THE CHAPMAN FAMILY
The name Chapman is of Saxon origin. The Saxon word
chapman means a chapman, marketman, merchant, monger or
cheapner. The several American branches of this family had
their origin in England where the family has long been prominent,
letters of nobility having been granted as early as the fifteenth
century. In 1854 it was estimated that more than twenty members
of this family were clergymen in the Established Church in
England.
The Royal Book of Crests (London 1863) shows the crests
of ten different branches of the Chapman family. The different
families have, however, the same coat of arms which is described,
as follows:
Per chev. argent and gu. in the centre a crescent counterchanged.
Crest:
Arm embowered in armour holding a broken spear
encircled with a wreath.
Motto:
Crescit sub pondere virtus.
The first members of this family to come to Virginia were
Richard and Thomas Chapman who arrived on the ship "Tryali"
in 1610. Other members of the family came on the ship "Bonaventure"
April 3, 1635 and from this date to the present the
family of Chapman has had unbroken representation in Virginia.
The family is not largely represented in Caroline today, but
in the past has been one of the largest, wealthiest and most
influential. Of the Caroline house, now residing out of the
county, there are known to the author Professor William Robert
Chapman, of Lois, Fairfax county, son of the late Orville Claud
Chapman and Lucy Ann Green. Professor Chapman was born
in 1872 and is a great nephew of Reuben Chapman who was the
eleventh Governor of Alabama. Mrs. Lillian Chapman Hudson,
of Alameda, California, published the genealogy of the Chapmans
in 1894, and to this work the reader is referred for more complete
genealogical data.
Reuben Chapman, eleventh Governor of Alabama, was born
in Caroline county, near Bowling Green, and was the son of
Colonel Reuben Chapman and Anne Reynolds. His father was
a soldier in the Revolutionary War. His mother was a native
of Essex county, Va. He was educated in Caroline and in 1824
removed to Alabama, making the journey on horseback. He
Judge Samuel Chapman who had preceded him to Alabama by
several years. On his admission to the Bar, Reuben Chapman
established himself at Somerville, Morgan county. In 1832 he
was elected to the State Senate, and in 1835 he was elected to
Congress by a large majority over R. T. Scott, of Jackson, and
William H. Glascock, of Madison. Two years later he was reelected
over Governor Gabriel Moore, his majority being six
thousand three hundred.
In the four succeeding elections he had no opposition save in
1841, when the Hon. John T. Rather, of Morgan county, was a
candidate on the Whig ticket. Among the questions voted on
during his term of office was the issue of Treasury notes, which
he favored.
He was elected Governor of Alabama in 1847, his opponent
being Hon. Nicholas Davis, of Limestone county. It was said
that he received the nomination entirely without solicitation,
and in order to remove him from his apparently life-time contract
with the people of his district to represent them in Congress.
His inauguration was rendered remarkable in a social way by a
public reception given by him at Montgomery on a scale of
extraordinary liberality and hospitality. When he was inducted
into the office of Governor, Alabama was financially embarassed
because of the mismanagement of the affairs of the State Bank
and its trustees. He had the good fortune to be able to remedy
the difficulty and relieve the Treasury. His term was characterized
by wisdom and devotion to duty, as was acknowledged by all.
In the Convention which chose his successor he received a majority
of votes but yielded to the "two-thirds rule." which he believed
to be right. He then withdrew from political life and devoted
himself to the care of a handsome estate until 1855, when, on the
demand of the Democratic party, he consented to become a
candidate for a seat in the State Legislature in opposition to the
Hon. Jeremiah Clemens, who represented what was then known
as the American Party. This was his last political experience
except that he was several times a delegate in the National Conventions
of his party.
Soon after retiring from official service he went with his
family to Europe, and was residing in France when the Civil
War began. He then came home and attended the Baltimore
Convention, held in the interest of peace, doing his best to bring
and nearly succeeding. During the Civil War he
was imprisoned, and his home and property were destroyed by
Federal troops.
During the career of Mr. Chapman in Congress many questions
of vital importance to the country came up for consideration,
and it was said that few statesmen ever exercised more sagacity
with reference to the interests of his country, or exhibited greater
familiarity with its political history.
In the community where he lived it was said of him that,
"his worth and weight could not be measured, for in all matters
requiring manhood, judgement and honor, personal or political,
he stood forth as an exemplar and a sage."
Governor Chapman was a man of splendid figure and proportion,
erect in his carriage, handsome in feature and frank in
expression. He was married in 1839 to Felicia Steptoe, daughter
of Colonel Steptoe and Sarah Chilton Pickett, of Faquier county,
Va., but then residing in Limestone county, Ala. They had
two daughters and two sons, one of whom was killed in battle
during the Civil War. Governor Chapman died in Huntsville,
Ala., on May 17, 1882, at the age of nearly four score years.
For a more detailed biography the reader is referred to the
National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |