Thanks be to God both I and my wife enjoy a tolerable share of health and can both work and sleep tolerably well.________ died about last Candlemas, which has made the society at Hawnby almost vacant for a class leader, but I go as often as I can and your friend, Benjamin Wedgewood, speaks to them when I am not there.Tho most of the old methodists at Hawnby are gone to Eternity, yet there is about thirty yet.James Hewgill is married and both him and his wife are joined in the society.There us preaching settled at Swainby and I believe a yearnest Society of aboyt Seventeen members.I often go there on Sundays to preach.There has just been a Confirence at Leeds and good old Mr.Wesley was there among them, very healthy and strong, though 86years of age.At our Hawnby Love Feast I had Mr.Swinburn and his wife 2 nights at my house.They seem to be people who have religion truly at heart and both earnestly desired me to remember them Both to you in kind love and also to all their religious friends.I saw Nelly very lately at her house in North Allerton.She desires you all to pray for her, which she does for you all.My dear friends what Shall I say more to you, But only desire you to continue in the good ways of God, and never grow weary or faint in your minds, and then we hope to meet you in heaven.Pray give our kind loves to our old friends, your father and mother, and tell your Father when I see my Tooth drawers then I think of him, for he made them.My dear friends, farewell, our and our Family's kind love to you and all your Family, and also all the Chapman Familys, James and Ann Chapman.Mary Flintoff and Sara Bently are Both alive and remains at their old Habitations, But Mary never goes to the meetings.Their children are all alive, But Sarah Flintoff and she died at York about three or four years Since.James Flintoft is with his unkle George Cossins at London."The Chapmans were very fond of military life, and in the old muster, days took an active interest in the general muster.As a consequence there was usually a colonel, a major, an adjutant or a captain in every neighborhood where the name was found.
A story is told of Captain Henry Chapman, on his way to general muster, meeting a man with a loaded team, whose hope was to get clear of mustering that day on the plea that he had not been long enough in the district.The captain ascertained the man's views on the matter, and then with an emphasis that indicated he was in earnest, he said, "If you are not on the muster field by one o'clock I will have you fined to the full extent of the law." One who witnessed this interview said it was laughable to see the frightened look on the man's face, and the rush he made to unhitch the team and get away to the muster field within the time stated.This same Captain Chapman was one of the kindest of men, but duty to Queen and country must not be neglected.
There was, too, a good deal of the sporting instinct in the family.Ahorse race or a fox hunt appealed to something in their nature that stirred the pulse like wine and furnished material for conversation on many a day afterward.
Like a good many of the first generation born in this country, the Chapmans were men of grand physique.The five sons of Colonel Henry Chapman, of Point de Bute, each measured six feet or over, and were finely proportioned.Two of the sons, Joseph and Stephen, were among the volunteers in the war of 1812, and they both lived to pass the four-score mark.
The children of the first Wm.Chapman were: William, who married a Miss Dixon, of Sackville, and settled in Fort Lawrence on a part of the old Eddy grant; and Thomas, who married Miss Kane, formerly a school teacher, from New England.They settled beside William.John married Sarah Black, of Amherst, and settled in Dorchester.Henry married Miss Seaman, of Wallace, and remained on the farm at Point de Bute.
Mary married George Taylor, Memramcook.Jane married John Smith, of Fort Lawrence, and was the mother of nine strapping boys, all of whom proved good men for the country.Sally married Richard Black, of Amherst.They settled first at River Philip, but later came back to Amherst and lived on the farm his father first purchased in Cumberland.
Nancy was twice married--first to Thomas Robinson, and after his death to James Roberts.Her home was in Amherst.
James Dixon, in his "History of the Dixons," says he thinks the descendants of William and Mary Chapman now number more than the descendants of any of the other Yorkshire families.Rev.Douglas Chapman, D.D., Rev.Eugene Chapman, Rev.Carritte Chapman, Rev.W.Y.
Chapman, and Ephraim Chapman, barrister, are of this family.
The late Albert Chapman, of Boston, U.S., was very much interested in looking up family history, and spent a good deal of time in gathering information about the Chapman family.The following letters and extracts which were received by him some years before he died may add interest to this sketch:
"13 CHIPPING HOUSE ROAD, "SHARROW, SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND, "Jan.15th, 1881.
"MR.CHAPMAN,"SIR,--You will no doubt be surprised to receive a letter from an unknown relative.
"We were much pleased to learn you had made enquiries about the Chapman family after so long a silence.We often heard father speak of uncle who left Hawnby Hall for America and could not get any letter answered.
Most of the Chapman family have passed away since he left.We have the four grandchildren left belonging to Thomas Chapman, brother to your grandfather.The grandfather has been dead eighty years, and our father has been dead forty-five years.
"We should be glad to see you or any of the Chapman family if you could take a tour and see the place where your ancestors lived.The house and farm are still in the family and should be glad to accommodate you if you could come over, and we shall be glad to hear all the news about the family who lived and died in America.
"With best wishes to you and your,"I remain yours, "MARY WALTON."Extract from a letter from Thos.J.Wilkinson to A.Chapman, Boston:
"YORK UNION BANK, "THIRSK, YORKSHIRE.
