JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE OF DESCENT FROM
EDWARD CHAPMAN OF IPSWICH*
Compiled by FLORENCE E. WHEELER
With an Introduction by ROBERT PRICE
Who Was Johnny
Appleseed?--Introduction
Even before the death of John Chapman in
1845, the "Johnny
Appleseed" story growing out of the
man's colorful life had be-
gun to break away from the roots of fact
and to flower purely as a
popular myth. In the years since, the
apocryphal addenda, aided
and abetted by much fiction, poetry, and
uncritical biography have
become a major item in American
folklore. There is little wonder
that many persons have doubted that the
man ever existed at all.
But "Johnny Appleseed" was not
only an actual fact but an
important one. During the past few
years, carefully accumulated
evidence, still largely unpublished,
tends to prove that although
the real John Chapman was very unlike
the creature of the legends
and pseudo-biographies, he was quite
unusual enough, quite ad-
venturous and significant enough a part
of the Middle Western
frontier to warrant not only the stories
that monumentalize him
but a place in documented history as
well.
One of the particularly difficult
problems in "Appleseed"
research has been the matter of his
paternal origin. More or less
seriously recorded statements have fixed
John Chapman's birth-
place variously in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Ohio; they have given him
a parentage ranging
all the way from a Calvinistic divine to
a half-breed redskin. For
half a dozen years now, however, it has
been definitely known that
John Chapman was born in Leominster,
Massachusetts. From the
records there, his mother's lineage can
be traced with comparative
ease through the vital statistics of
various towns to an established
place in an old and occasionally
distinguished New England family.
* Copyright, 1939, by Florence E.
Wheeler.
(20)
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE: WHEELER 21
But Nathaniel Chapman, the father, has
remained a mystery
beyond the facts of his family in
Leominster, a service in the
Continental Army, and a later family by
a second marriage in
Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Efforts to
identify him have usually
ended with the unsupported statement,
now known to be an error,
in the Daughters of the American
Revolution, Lineage Book
(Washington), Vol. LX (1922), p.159, and
in the Official Roster
of the Soldiers of the American
Revolution buried in the State of
Ohio (Columbus, 1929), p.74, that Nathaniel Chapman was born
in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1740.
It has remained for Miss Florence E.
Wheeler, librarian of
Leominster, to complete the difficult
detective work which ties
Nathaniel Chapman and his son,
"Johnny Appleseed", to the
descendants of Edward Chapman of
Ipswich, for many years one
of the better known families that weigh
down the shelves of
recorded New England genealogy. Miss
Wheeler's findings con-
stitute a major contribution to current
"Johnny Appleseed" re-
search. ROBERT PRICE.
Chapman Genealogy
The evidence collected in the following
pages points directly
to the conclusion that John Chapman, who
became the "Johnny
Appleseed" of middle western
frontier history and folklore, was
a direct descendant of Edward Chapman, a
grantee of the town
of Ipswich, Massachusetts, in the year
1642. The exact date of
Edward's settlement in Ipswich is
uncertain, as it is given as 1642,
1643, and 1644 by different authorities.
He is said to have been
an immigrant from Yorkshire, England,
who reached Boston
about 1639. After settling in Ipswich he
became a prosperous
miller and farmer. Although his
descendants are numerous this
record notes only the direct line of
descent from Edward(1) of
Ipswich to "Johnny Appleseed",
as follows:
1. EDWARD(1) CHAPMAN,1 born
-----, was in Ipswich,
Massachusetts,2 in 1642 and
died there April 18, 1678.
He married first, MARY, daughter of Mark
Symonds.
1 James Savage, Genealogical
Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England
(Boston, 1860-1862); Ipswich, Mass., Vital
Records . . . to . . . 1849 (Salem,
Mass.,
1910), II, 519.
2 All places hereafter mentioned are in Massachusetts.
22 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
She died June 10, 1658. He married,
second, DOROTHY,
daughter of Richard Swan, and widow of
Thomas Abbot
She, as Edward's widow, married on
November 13, 1678,
for her third husband, Archelaus
Woodman, of Newbury.
Children of Edward(1) and
Mary (Symonds):
i. SIMON,(2) b. 1643; m. MARY
BREWER.
ii. MARY,
b. 1648; m. JOHN BARRY.
iii. NATHANIEL, b. -----; m. MARY
WILBOR.
iv. SAMUEL, b. 1654; m. 1st RUTH
INGALLS; 2nd PHOEBE BALCH.
2. v. JOHN, b. ------; m. REBECCA SMITH.
2. JOHN(2) CHAPMAN [Edward(l)],
born -----, married
REBECCA SMITH, September 30, 1675.3 He
died Novem-
ber 19, 1677.4 She married, second, FRANCIS YOUNG of
Ipswich.5
Child:
3. i. JOHN,(3) b. July 7, 1676.6
3. JOHN(3) CHAPMAN [John,(2)
Edward(1)], (called SENIOR),
born at Ipswich July 7, 1676; died in
Tewksbury, Octo-
ber 7, 1739, aged 63y. 3m.7 He married ELIZABETH
DAVIS, October 28, 1702.8 Note that here
we find the
surname Davis which was later introduced
as a forename
and carried down from generation to
generation. Eliza-
beth (Davis), wife of John Chapman, died
in Tewksbury,
September 26, 1736, aged 55y. 3m. 6d.9
An error in the
printed Vital Records of Ipswich
is corrected in the fol-
lowing list, which was copied from the
original record of
births and baptisms:
Children:
i.
MARTHA,(4) b. February 10,
1703, dau. John and Elizabeth.
ii. ELIZABETH, b. October 19, 1704, dau.
John and Elizabeth.
iii. REBECCA, bp. May 10, 1713, dau.
John and Elizabeth.
4. iv. JOHN, bp. 2: 12m.: 1714, son of
John.
v. DAVIS, bp. 20: 11m: 1716, son of John
and Elizabeth.
3 Savage, Genealogical Dictionary; Ipswich,
Vital Records, II, 98.
4 Essex County, Mass., Probate Files,
Docket 5,037.
5 Ipswich, Vital Records, II, 94.
6 Ibid., I, 83.
7 Tewksbury, Mass., Vital Records . .
. to ... 1849 (Salem, Mass., 1912), 198.
8 Ipswich, Vital Records, II, 93.
9 Tewksbury, Vital Records, 198.
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE: WHEELER 23
The following, taken from the Topsfield
church rec-
ords10 of baptisms, may also
belong to this family:
John Chapman, his REBECCA bp. July 17,
1720.
John Chapman, his MARY bp. March,
1722/3.
A later record definitely places the
family in Topsfield.
4. JoHN(4) CHAPMAN [John,(3) John,(2) Edward(1)], (called
JR.
on some records) was baptized, we note
from the records,
in Ipswich, on December 2, 1714; d.
December 7, 1760, in
Tewksbury. He had a brother Davis on
whom we later
depend for family identification. John's marriage is
recorded in Ipswich, Vital Records, p.
93, as follows:
Chapman, John Jr., of Topsfield and wid.
MARTHA BODMAN, at
Topsfield, March 1, 1738/9.
The Topsfield, Vital Records, p.
129 add variety thus:
Chapman, John Jr., and MARTHA BORMAN of
Ipswich, March 1,
1738/9.
The Boardman name is variously spelled,
as: Bodman,
Borman, Bordman, Borland, and Boardman.
The widow
MARTHA (PERLEY) BOARDMAN was the
daughter of John
and Jean Perley. She was born August 24,
1704, married,
first, NATHANIEL BOARDMAN of Topsfield, April 1, 1736,
was widowed on August 26, 1736, and
married, second,
JOHN(4) CHAPMAN on March 1, 1738/9. She died of
consumption, according to the Tewksbury
Congregational
Church Record, on February 22, 1753,
aged 48y., 5m.,
18d. The gravestone, however, records
the year of death
as 1752.11
Note that from Martha (Perley) Chapman
the surname
Perley was introduced as a forename and
it, too, was car-
ried down through later generations.
From the Perley
family12 Martha's line is
traced as: Allan,(1) Samuel,(2)
John,(3) Martha.(4)
Two deeds in the Middlesex Registry of
Deeds,13 dated
10 John H.
Gould, ed., "Early Records of the Church in Topsfield," Essex Insti-
tute, Historical Collections (Salem, Mass.),
XXIV (1888), 202-3.
11 Tewksbury, Vital Records, 198.
12 M. V. B. Perley, History and Genealogy of the Perley
Family (Salem, Mass.,
1906), 27-8.
13 Folio 42, p. 438-9.
24
OHIO ARCHEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
December 24, 1741, prove that John
Chapman, Jr., and
Davis Chapman, both of Topsfield,
purchased extensive
farm property in Tewksbury "on the
road from Billerica
to Borland's Farm." The fact that
both items were
transferred to some one else on the date
of purchase is
of no interest to us, but it is of
interest to follow the
trail that leads from Topsfield to
Tewksbury. There we
find the two families established according
to the vital
statistics, from which we gather the
following data:
Children of John(4) and
Martha (Perley):14
i.
PERLEY,(5) b. October 30, 1739; d. 1758.
ii. ELIZABETH,
b. November 19, 1741.
iii. MARTHA,
b. August 30, 1743 (probably died young).
5. iv. NATHANIEL, b. September 13, 1746.
Baptized nearly 4 years later, the
Congregational Church record
reads: Nathaniel, son of John bp. August
26, 1750.
JOHN(4) CHAPMAN
married, second, MRS. MARTHA
HUNT on July 5, 1756.15
Her death from dropsy is re-
corded in the Church Record as of April
27, 1786.16 Her
gravestone states "in her 64th
year." Therefore she was
born about 1722. In the Hunt
Genealogy17 there is record
of Martha,(3) daughter of
Samuel(2) of Tewksbury,
Samuel(1) of Ipswich, born
October 15, 1722. She mar-
ried a Chapman, concerning whom there is
no further in-
formation. She may or may not be the
Mrs. Martha Hunt
who married John Chapman, Jr., as his
second wife. The
age coincides. As she would have been
considered an
elderly spinster at the age of
thirty-four, it is possible
that the "Mrs." in her
marriage record was merely a title
of courtesy.
Children of John(4) and Martha (Hunt):18
v. PATTY,(5) b. February 7, 1757.
vi. MARY, b. April 7, 1759.
14 Tewksbury, Vital Records, 18, 110, 198-9.
15 Ibid., 110.
16 Ibid., 198.
17 T. B. Wyman, Jr., Genealogy of the
Name and Family of Hunt (Boston,
1862/3), 78.
18 Tewksbury, Vital Records, 18.
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE:
WHEELER 25
Returning now to the
death of JOHN(4) CHAPMAN we
note that although the
Tewksbury church records19 in-
dicate his death from
smallpox on January 23, 1761, at
the age of 46 years,
18 days, his former church in Tops-
field also records his
death as:
CHAPMAN, JOHN, died of
ye Small Pox, Dec. 7, 1760.20
As it seems unlikely
that his death would have been
recorded while he was
still living, the writer has accepted
this Topsfield earlier
date believing that the Tewksbury
later date was a
delayed entry. The baptismal record
also influences this
choice.
In the Middlesex
Probate Court records there is a
glimpse of the
intimate affairs of this family in the fol-
lowing inventory of
JOHN CHAPMAN'S estate, the final
accounting made by his
widow, MARTHA (HUNT) CHAP-
MAN, and her bond. It
is of interest to note specific men-
tion of the widow's
children in the second document.
INVENTORY: JOHN
CHAPMAN ESTATE21
Inventory of the
estate of MR. JOHN CHAPMAN. Late of Tewksbury
. . husbandman,
deceased. As it was apprised by us the subscribers we
being appointed & sworn
for that purpose viz.
To about 3 acres
meadow land lying in said Tewksbury and a quarter
part of a Fish place
with a privilege of passing & repassing all
apprized . . . ?? 12- 0-
0
Personal Estate as
Follows
To Books ??
1- 0- 0
"Wareing
Apparrill 3-16-
3
Beds, Bedding &
Linen & mill'd cloth 10-
4- 2
Pewter Brass &
Iron wairs 5-
9- 8
Desk Chests &
Draws & other wooden ware 3-
6- 8
Yarn wool & Flax,
& Leather 2-18-
0
Corn & Grane 10-10-
7
Salted meat & Fat 2-13-
4
Cider & Caskes 6-18-
6
Other Utensils of
House hold Ware 0-12-
8
Husbandry Tools &
Iron 3-16-
4
Bridles & Saddles
45s/4d Pilyon 8/ 2-13-
4
Hay 0-
8- 0
Cash 6-
2- 0 1/4
To a debt by Note from
Mr. Jedde Ingals dated July
18, 1758 with Intrist
fr the date of Sd Note 2- 4- 0
19 Ibid., 198.
20 Topsfield, Mass., Vital Records . . . to . . . 1849 (Salem,
Mass., 1903), 210.
21 Middlesex, Mass.,
Probate Files, Lib. 36, p. 276.
26 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL
QUARTERLY
For the sum of
To a Debt Due by a
Note fr Mrs. Eleanor Bootman
Dated June 7, 1758
With Intrist . . . 2-11- 1
1/4
To a Debt Due by a
Note from Mr. Peter Hunt Juner
Dated Feb 13, 1759 ..
. 5-13-
6 1/2
4 Cows 15-10-
8
1 pr oxen 8-
0- 0
Young Cattle 10-
0- 0
24 Sheep & 17
Lambs 13-
8- 8
Horses 6-13-
4
3 Swine 1-
0- 0
Winter grane &
tillage 1-
0- 0
1-4 part of a Nett
& other utensills for Fishing 0-10-
0
139-14-10
TEWKSBURY May 8, 1761
Signed NATHAN BAYLEY]
Committee
MIDDLESEX June 1
1761 DAVID BAYLEY ]
for
DAVIS CHAPMAN] said
work
June 22 1761
MARTHA CHAPMAN the
administratix exhibited the foregoing
Inventory on oath.
S. DANFORTH J.
PROBATE
JOHN CHAPMAN ESTATE
FINAL ACCT.22
The acct of MARTHA
CHAPMAN on the estate of her late husband Mr
John Chapman Late of
Tewksbury in the Co . . . Deceased.
Intestate The sd acct
charges her self Dr to sd estate the whole
of the personal
estate as mentioned in the inventory thereof as
exhibited in the
Registry of Probate in & for the County aforsd
on the 29th of June
1761 in the whole amounting (in lawful
money) to the sum
of ? 133- 1-
6
And she craves
allowance for the several services by her done &
the sums by her paid
for sd estate in lawful money as fol-
lows (viz)
To a Journey to
Cambridge with 2 Bondsmen to
take Administration
with Expense in said Journey£ 0-17- 2
To cash paid in
Probate Office 0-
9- 2
To travil after the
Committee in notifying them Re-
lating to the
apprizel of Sd Estate 0-
2- 0
To
Administrat-attending on Sd Com. 0-
3- 0
" Providing for
Sd Com. while apprizing 0-
6- 0
To Persons hereafter
named VIZ:
" paying Joseph Osgood, Physician 1-10-10
Nehemiah Abbot " 0-11-10
Funeral Charge of
Deceased 1-
1- 5
Green & Russell 0-10-
8
Hannah Campbell 4-
6- 8
James Campbell 6-
0- 0
Mary Bowers 0-18-
0
Aaron Beard 0-12-
0
Abial Wineyfield 4-15-
4
Saml Abbot 5-
6- 8
22 Ibid., 198.
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE: WHEELER 27
William Hunt 0-12-
2
Amos Stickney 1-10-10
John Hardy 1-
6- 0
Nathan Bayley 0-
9-10
Davis Chapman 3-12-
6
Solomon Pollard 0-
3- 6
John Flint,
Constable 0-
6- 2
Daniel
Foss
0- 8- 0
Oliver Whitney 0-
4- 4
David Hunt 0-
3- 0
David Bayley 1-
4- 0
To the
Adminisse for her care of & bringing up two of
the Deceasds
Children both under 7 years of age 24-
0- 0
To ditto for
her trouble in administrn hitherto 2-10-
0
To providing
for the Support of the Family the first
year 10-
0- 0
Examing &
allowing this Acct. & ye Vouchers etc. 0-
6- 0
Recording &
Copy 0-
5- 0
?? 74-11- 1 1/2
MIDDLESEX April
2d 1764 MRS. MARTHA CHAPMAN the Administx
exhibited the
foregoing acct, I having examined the Same do
allow thereof
S. DANFORTH J
Pro C.
In abbreviated
form Martha Chapman's bond reads
as follows23:
Know all men by
these presents that we MARTHA CHAPMAN, Widow,
DAVID BALEY,
yeoman, & DAVIS CHAPMAN yeoman all of Tewksbury in
the County of
Middlesex . . . are holden . . . in sum of 5 hundred pounds
.. .Dated the
twenty second Day of June . . . One Thousand Seven
Hundred and
Sixty one . . .
The Condition
of this present . . . obligation is such That if the
above bounden
Martha Chapman this day admitted administratrix of the
Estate of her
late husband John Chapman late of Tewksbury aforesaid
Deceased Intestate . .
. signed
her
MARTHA X CHAPMAN
mark
In Precence of DAVID
BAYLEY
ANDW BORDMAN DAVIS
CHAPMAN
NATHAN BAYLEY
ELIZABETH and
NATHANIEL, children of JOHN(4)
CHAPMAN by the
first wife, furnish the most important
clue to the
family line so far discovered. Their clue es-
tablishes the
last link in the chain from EDWARD(1)
CHAPMAN of Ipswich to "JOHNNY
APPLESEED." After
the death of
their father, Elizabeth and Nathaniel applied
23 Ibid., Lib.
30, p. 452.
28 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
to the Court to have their "Uncle
Davis Chapman" ap-
pointed as their guardian. The records
follow:24
I NATHANIEL CHAPMAN of Tewksbury in the
County of Middlesex
& Province of Massachusetts Bay in
New England Being Four-
teen years of age Do Choose & Desire
that my sd uncle Davis
Chapman may be made Guardian For me
according to Law as
Witness my Hand TEWKSBURY June 13th 1761
NATHANAEL CHAPMAN
Witnesses BETTSEY BAILEY
NATHAN BAYLEY
I ELISABETH CHAPMAN of Tewksbury
in the County of Middlesex
and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in
New England. Being
nineteen years of age Do Chose and
Desire that my sd uncle
Davis Chapman may Be made Gardean for me
according to law
as Wittness my Hand
ELISABETH CHAPMAN
TEWKSBURY June ye 20th 1761
In abbreviated form Davis Chapman's bond
is as fol-
lows:25
DAVIS CHAPMAN, yeoman and DAVID BAYLEY
yeoman both of Tewks-
bury in the Co . . . are holden sum 500
pounds . . .
Davis Chapman be guardeen unto Elizabeth
and Nathaniel Chap-
man . . . both minors upward of 14 years
of age children of
John Chapman late of Tewksbury . . .
deceased . . .
DAVIS CHAPMAN
DAVID BAYLEY
June 22, 1761
With so many Johns and Nathaniels
throughout the
Chapman family, it was almost impossible
to trace this
line with any degree of certainty until
these guardianship
papers provided John with a brother
Davis. The unusual
name of Davis then identified the family
to which
brother John belonged and thus proved
the line presented.
5. NATHANIEL(5) CHAPMAN [John,(4) John,(3) John,(2)
Ed-
ward(1)], born at Tewksbury, September 13, 1746; died
February 18, 1807, Salem, Ohio. The
guardianship
papers close his record in Tewksbury. We
next find him
a few miles away in the town of
Leominster. As evi-
dence that Nathaniel of Tewksbury was
also Nathaniel of
24 These applications were not recorded.
They are filed in Middlesex, Probate
Court, with the recorded bond, all three
as: Ser. 1, 4291. Nos. 1, 2, 3. Elizabeth's ap-
plication is entirely in her own writing.
25 Middlesex, Probate Files, Lib. 30, p.
400 (Ser. 1, 4291-1).
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE: WHEELER 29
Leominster, the following document lends
weight. In
the Leominster Public Library there is
preserved an un-
dated copy of a military return made up
chiefly of
Leominster men under a Leominster
captain. It is
headed:
A Return of Capt David Wilder Company of
Leominster in Coll. Asa
Whitcomb Reg't. Thare Name Age
Stature Com-
plection What colur thair Hare and eyes
What masters
and trade and when enlisted August ye -----
Unfortunately, only the columns for age
and stature
were used. Among the 68 names is that of
NATHANIEL
CHAPMAN whose age is given as 28 and his
stature 5:9.
By reckoning the given ages of other
Leominster men
from their birth records, the date of
this document points
to 1775. Nathaniel Chapman, born
at Tewksbury Sep-
tember 13, 1746, would have been 28
years and about 10
months on "August ye" 1,
1775, a fact which seems to
be good evidence that Nathaniel of Tewksbury
and
Nathaniel of Leominster were identical.
(Later, a de-
tailed account of his military service
will be presented.)
Nathaniel(5) Chapman married
first in Leominster.
There, in the church record is the
marriage intention of
Nathaniel Chapman and ELISABETH SIMONS,
both of
Leominster, August 9, 1769. The marriage
was recorded
as of February 8, 1770.26 She died July 18, 1776.27
Elizabeth was daughter of James and Anna
(Lawrence)
Simons, a name also spelled Simonds or
Symonds. The
family line of Elizabeth Simons, mother
of "Johnny
Appleseed" is summarized in a note
at the end of the
present Nathaniel Chapman genealogy.
Children of Nathaniel(5) and
Elizabeth (Simons):28
i. ELIZABETH,(6)
b. November 18, 1770.
6. ii. JOHN, b. September 26, 1774 ("JOHNNY APPLESEED").
iii.
NATHANIEL, b. June 26,
1776.
From the Leominster church record we
glean the
facts that NATHANIEL CHAPMAN and wife
were taken
26 Leominster, Mass., First
Congregational Church, Records, 130.
27 Leominster, Mass., Vital Records
. . . to . . . 1849 (Worcester, 1911), 301.
28 Ibid, 36-7.
30 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL
AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
into full communion June 25, 1775;29 and
that Eliza-
beth, and John, children of Nathaniel
Chapman and
Elizabeth were baptized on the same
day.30
Nathaniel(5) Chapman married,
second, LUCY COOLEY
of Longmeadow. The event is recorded in
the local
pastoral records as follows:
July 24, 1780, CAPT NATHLL CHAPMAN (Late
of Leominster) & LUCY
COOLEY of this place were joind in
marrige.31
Lucy Cooley was daughter of George and
Mabel Cooley
of Longmeadow. Her family, which was an
extensive
one, has been well recorded in the
Longmeadow and
other genealogical records.
Children of Nathaniel(5) and
Lucy (Cooley):
iv. NATHANIEL,(6) b.
December 1781.
v. ABNER, b. July 16, 1783.
vi. PIERLY, b. March 6, 1785.
vii. LUCY, b. July 21, 1787.
viii. PATTY, b. February 26, 1790.
ix. PERSIS, b. November 15, 1793.
x. MARY, b. January 19, 1796.
xi. JONATHAN COOLEY, b. February 2,
1798.
xii. DAVIS, b. April 25, 1800.
xiii. SALLY, b. April 23, 1803.
For this record, we are indebted to Proceedings
at the
Centennial Celebration of the
Incorporation of the Town
of Longmeadow, prepared by R. S. Storrs (Longmeadow,
1884).32
According to the same reference
Nathaniel removed
with his family from Longmeadow to the
western country
in 1805. He died February 18, 1807, at
Salem (Wash-
ington County), Ohio.
It is interesting to identify the family
names that re-
appear
among Nathaniel's children.
Elizabeth was
named for his wife, perhaps also for his
sister, and
grandmother (Davis); John, for his
father; Nathaniel
is repeated, a fact which proves that
the infant Nathaniel,
29 Leominster, Congregational Church,
Records, 32.
30 Ibid, 59.
31 The Rev. Doctor Williams' Records
of Baptisms, Admissions into and Dis-
missions from the Church . . . in the
Town of Longmeadow; also Springfield,
Mass.,
Marriage Records (in City Hall), 174.
32 "Genealogical Appendix," p. 26.
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE: WHEELER 31
born in Leominster, died young; Pierly
is obviously a
misspelling of Perley, the maiden name
of his mother, a
name also given to his brother who died
young; Patty is
a pet name for Martha, his mother's
name, and also that
of his stepmother; Davis, the maiden
name of his
Ipswich grandmother, was also given to
his uncle. These
names quite definitely link the
generations, and they add
to the evidence previously presented.
After the death of his wife Elizabeth in
1776, Nathan-
iel Chapman seems to have continued in
the service of
the Continental Army. Both of the
following military
records undoubtedly apply to him:
CHAPMAN, NATHANIEL, Leominster. Private,
Capt. John Joslin's co.
of Minute-men, Col. John Whetcomb's
regt., which marched on
the alarm of April 19, 1775, to
Cambridge; service, 11 days;
reported enlisted into the army; also,
Capt. David Wilder's co.,
Col. Asa Whitcomb's regt.; muster roll
dated Aug. 1, 1775; en-
listed April 26, 1775; service, 3 mos.
13 days; also, receipts for
wages for Aug. and Sept., 1775, dated
Prospect Hill; also, com-
pany return (probably Oct., 1775).33
CHAPMAN, NATHANIEL.
Captain of wheelwrights, Maj.
Joseph
Eayrs's co., Col. Flower's regt. of
Artillery artificers; Continental
Army pay accounts for service from March
19, 1777, to Dec. 31,
1779; also, Captain, Maj. Eyres's corps
at Springfield; Continental
Army pay accounts from Jan. 1, 1780, to
Sept. 30, 1780.34
6. JOHN(6) CHAPMAN [Nathaniel,(5)
John,(4) John,(3) John,(2)
Edward(1)], (called "JOHNNY APPLESEED"), son of
Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Simons)
Chapman, was born
at Leominster, according to records
previously quoted, on
September 26, 1774, and he died,
unmarried, in Fort
Wayne, Indiana, March 18, 1845.35
The family line of Elizabeth (Simonds)
Chapman is as
follows:36
1. WILLIAM SIMONDS, SR., came in Planter, 1635, settled in
Woburn about 1644. He married JUDITH
(PHIPPEN)
HAYWARD, widow of James Hayward, January
18,
33 Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors
of the Revolutionary War (Boston, 1896-
1908), III,
338.
34 Ibid.
35 Fort Wayne,
(Ind.) Sentinel, March 22, 1845.
36 Samuel Sewall, History of Woburn, Mass. (Albany,
N. Y., 1868); Woburn.
Mass., Woburn Records of
Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Woburn, 1890-); Leominster
Vital Records.
32 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
1643/4. He d. June 7, 1672. Judith d.
January 3,
1689/90.
2. JAMES SIMONDS, their tenth child, b.
November 1, 1658; d.
September 15, 1717. He married
SUSANNA, dau. of
Samuel and Ruth Blodgett, December 29,
1685. She d.
February 9, 1714/15.
3. JAMES SIMONDS, their eldest child, b.
November I, 1686; d.
July 30, 1775. He married MARY, dau. of
James and
Mary Fowle, June 17, 1714. She d. March
9, 1762.
(Their daughter Ruth was mother of
"Count Rum-
ford.")
4. JAMES SIMONDS, their second child, b.
March 10, 1717; d.
-----. He married ANNA LAWRENCE, May 12,
1740,
both of Woburn. Their death dates are
unknown. They
lived in Leominster, where nine
children were born be-
tween 1740 and 1760. Anna, Jeames,
John, Mary, Re-
backah, Ruth, and Jacob were evidently
recorded under
phonetic spelling as their family name
is given as Simons.
Under Simonds, the family record
continues, and there
we find Zebede, and
5. ELIZABETH (also entered as
ELISABETH), dau. James and
Anna,, b. February 2, 1748/9; d. July
18, 1776, place
of burial unknown. She married NATHANIEL CHAP-
MAN, February 8, 1770, both of
Leominster. She was
the mother of "JOHNNY APPLESEED."
JOHN CHAPMAN'S LINE OF DESCENT FROM
EDWARD CHAPMAN OF IPSWICH*
Compiled by FLORENCE E. WHEELER
With an Introduction by ROBERT PRICE
Who Was Johnny
Appleseed?--Introduction
Even before the death of John Chapman in
1845, the "Johnny
Appleseed" story growing out of the
man's colorful life had be-
gun to break away from the roots of fact
and to flower purely as a
popular myth. In the years since, the
apocryphal addenda, aided
and abetted by much fiction, poetry, and
uncritical biography have
become a major item in American
folklore. There is little wonder
that many persons have doubted that the
man ever existed at all.
But "Johnny Appleseed" was not
only an actual fact but an
important one. During the past few
years, carefully accumulated
evidence, still largely unpublished,
tends to prove that although
the real John Chapman was very unlike
the creature of the legends
and pseudo-biographies, he was quite
unusual enough, quite ad-
venturous and significant enough a part
of the Middle Western
frontier to warrant not only the stories
that monumentalize him
but a place in documented history as
well.
One of the particularly difficult
problems in "Appleseed"
research has been the matter of his
paternal origin. More or less
seriously recorded statements have fixed
John Chapman's birth-
place variously in Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Ohio; they have given him
a parentage ranging
all the way from a Calvinistic divine to
a half-breed redskin. For
half a dozen years now, however, it has
been definitely known that
John Chapman was born in Leominster,
Massachusetts. From the
records there, his mother's lineage can
be traced with comparative
ease through the vital statistics of
various towns to an established
place in an old and occasionally
distinguished New England family.
* Copyright, 1939, by Florence E.
Wheeler.
(20)