Samuel Chapin

One of the leading first settlers of Springfield, and the man the Saint-Gaudens statue The Puritan was made to honour. The family descends from him through his son Japhet, whose great-granddaughter Abigail Munn married Lt. Jonathan Chapin, and possibly a second time through his eldest son David (see Jonathan Chapin (1711)).

Paignton. He was baptized at Paignton, Devon, on 8 Oct 1598, “Samuel s of John Chapin,” and married Cicely Penny there in February 1623/4; their son David was christened on 4 Jan 1624/5. The vicar of Paignton certified these entries in 1910, and the will of Cicely’s father, Henry Penny, baker, in 1630 names “Cicelly Chapin my daughter” and the grandchildren David, Katherine and Sarah Chapin (source).

Roxbury. He came to New England by 1635, “probably with his father and family.” A Roxbury record shows him with 24 acres and “eight persons in his family, himself, wife, father and five children”; in 1641 he bought a house and lot and became a freeman. The Chapin Book thinks he knew William Pynchon in England and that Pynchon’s influence drew him west (source): his son Japhet was baptized at Roxbury in October 1642, and the family was at Springfield by January 1642/3 (source).

Springfield. He was one of the town’s first board of five selectmen, chosen on 26 Sept 1644, and “held the office of Selectman continuously from 26 September 1644, to 22 November 1652.” When William Pynchon, convicted of heresy over his book, went back to England in 1652, the General Court commissioned John Pynchon, Elizur Holyoke and Samuel Chapin as magistrates, with “full power and authority to govern the inhabitants of Springfield; to hear and determine all cases and offenses, both civil and criminal, and to inflict all punishments not reaching life, limb, or banishment” (source). He helped lay out “the plantations that became Northampton and Hadley.” He is first called deacon in the records on 21 Feb 1650, and he “conducted the Sabbath services, including preaching, for several years when the church lacked a pastor.” In the meeting-house his wife’s seat was assigned “alonge with Mrs. Glover, and Mrs. Hollyock,” the minister’s wife and Pynchon’s daughter (source). In 1650 Pynchon’s warrant for the Indian who had stolen “her best new kersey petticote” from his daughter Sarah, the wife of Rowland Thomas, told the constable “you shall not use violence” (source).

He gave his lands to his sons in his lifetime and lived with Japhet at Chicopee. Springfield was burned by the Indians in October 1675, and “Deacon Chapin did not see the town rebuilt”: he died on 11 Nov 1675, and Japhet wrote, “My father was taken out of this troubelsom world the 11 day of November about eleven of the clock in the eve, 1675.” His children were David (bp. 1624/5, d. Boston 1672), Catherine, Sarah, Henry, Josiah, Japhet and Hannah (source).

The Puritan. In 1881 Chester W. Chapin, railroad man and congressman, commissioned Augustus Saint-Gaudens to make a statue of his ancestor, unveiled at Springfield on 24 Nov 1887 and now in Merrick Park. “St. Gaudens’ statue, in figure and costume is intended as an ideal of Dea. Samuel Chapin as given by tradition current among his descendants for there is of his face and features no oral or written record in existence” (source).

Research: research/hatten/Browne_Chapin_Cumins.md.