Japhet Chapin

Japhet was the only son of Deacon Samuel Chapin born in New England: he was baptized at Roxbury in October 1642, just before the family moved to Springfield (source). On 22 July 1664 he married "Abilenah Cooley, dau. Samuel Cooley, of Milford, Conn.," and "probably for time resided in Milford, Conn. John Pynchon deeded land in Springfield to him 1669" (source). From about 1664 his father lived with him at Chicopee, and it was Japhet who recorded the old Deacon's death: "My father was taken out of this troubelsom world the 11 day of November about eleven of the clock in the eve, 1675." He and Abilenah had ten children between 1665 and 1688: Samuel, Sarah (b. 15 Mar 1668), who probably married Nathaniel Munn, Thomas, John, Ebenezer, two Hannahs, David and two Jonathans.

King Philip's War. At the town meeting of 1 Feb 1675/6, four months after Springfield was burned, "Japhet Chapin is chosen Constable of Springfeild for the yeare ensueing" (The First Century of the History of Springfield, 2:126): the town's officer for rates and warrants through the war year. In May he rode with Capt. William Turner's men to the Falls above Deerfield, where at daybreak on 19 May 1676 they fell on the Native fishing camp at Peskeompskut; "Thirty-eight of the English were slain, and all but one after they left the falls" (History of Hadley, p. 164). Others of the family rode with him: his sister Hannah's husband John Hitchcock, shot through one arm with the other broken, and John's brother Luke Hitchcock; John and James Munn, brothers of his future son-in-law Nathaniel Munn; and Thomas Stebbins, husband of their sister Abigail. Sixty years later his name was on the list of "the Soldiers yt were in ye falls fight," "Chapin, Japhett, Springfield," and his son Thomas claimed his share of the township granted to them and their heirs: "Thomas Chapin, Springfield, son Japheth Chapin" (Soldiers in King Philip's War, pp. 250-253; A History of Deerfield, 1:159).

On 2 May 1677 Springfield voted to send a man to the General Court to settle its accounts, "as also that the account with reference to our expences at ye fals fight be brought in to & taken Care of by Japhet Chapin and John Hitchcock" (Burt 2:131). On 5 Feb 1677/8 he was chosen a selectman, and when the town fortified its new meeting-house he promised "1 rodd of stuffe to place" (2:135-136). He was "a deacon in the church in Springfield" (The Chapin Book).

Abilenah died in November 1710, and on 31 May 1711 he married Dorothy Root of Enfield. He died at Springfield on 20 Feb 1712.

Research: Patricia Hatten's Browne–Chapin side: the pedigree, notable ancestors and famous kin; the war: King Philip's War: the Connecticut valley, the Colony of Connecticut, Long Island and New Paltz.