Jonathan Chapin

Father of Jotham Chapin, and the eldest son of Jonathan Chapin of the Elbows (Palmer) and Anna Hitchcock. The Chapin Book calls him Capt. Jonathan Chapin and says: "This Jonathan Chapin who married Abigail Munn was a Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. He enlisted Apr. 6, 1759, discharged Dec. 3, 1759. Was in the Invasion of Canada. His grave is in the Monson Cemetery. His brothers Abner and Luke were also in the War. His father was called Jonathan Jr., of the Elbows" (source). The enlistment of 1759 was in the last French war, when he was twenty: the "Descriptive Roll of men enlisted in Col. John Worthington's regiment, invasion of Canada, 1759," printed in Temple's History of Palmer, has "Jonathan Chapin, of Palmer, age —, enlisted Apr. 6, discharged Dec. 3" (source). His brother Luke died at Mount Independence in September 1776. Ella (Chapin) Browne joined the DAR in 1900 partly on his service: "Jonathan Chapin, (1738-1819), served in the Mass. militia" (source).

He married Abigail Munn, a great-granddaughter of Japhet Chapin, and they lived at Monson, where all seven of their children were born: Jotham (1764), Ann (1767, Mrs. Charles Burt), Persis (1769, Mrs. David Wood), Augustin (1772), Gideon (1775), Jonathan (1777) and Amasa (1780). Jotham, Ann and Persis went to Winfield, New York, in the 1790s. He died at Monson in 1819; Abigail lived on there until 1838, dying at 98.

Research: Patricia Hatten's Browne–Chapin side: the pedigree, notable ancestors and famous kin.

Open questions

• Temple gives "Jonathan, Jun., b. Oct. 12, 1738, m. Bethna Parsons, 1771." The Chapin Book gives that marriage (2 May 1771, "Bertha Parsons, widow") to his father, a year after Anna (Hitchcock) Chapin's death, and marries this Jonathan to Abigail Munn, whose son Jotham was born in 1764. Temple has probably attached the father's second marriage to the son.
• The DAR line says he was born at Mendon; The Chapin Book says Palmer, where his parents lived.
• His Revolutionary service as a lieutenant needs a record (Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors).