"Steve J. Camer" wrote:
What country (Ireland?) did the Chapin name come from?
England. According to "Genealogies of New England Families," by NEHGS,
p. 450-451:
"It seems probable that the Chapins of the two parishes of Paignton and
Berry Pomeroy, which were in the hundred of Haytor, co. Devon, were
descended from, or at least related to, the Chapin family of the
neighboring hundred of Coleridge. In 1524 Robert Chopyn and Christopher
Chopyn were at Cornworthy in the hundred of Coleridge, and in 1525 Henry
Chopyn and Thomas Chopyn were at Harberton in the same hundred. At
Totnes, also in the hundred of Coleridge, the parish in which Roger
Chapyn, who was probably the grandfather of Dea. Samuel Chapin, lived,
there was a Stephen Chapin as early as 1489, a fact which seems to
indicate that the ancestors of Samuel Chapin were living at Totnes as
early as the fifteenth century; and the appearance of the Christian
name Stephen in the family at that date seems to point to a connection
between the Chapin families of Totnes and Cornworthy, for a Stephen
Chapin was born at Cornworthy in 1570 and moved to Dartmouth. Thomas
and Christian were names that were common in both families. The Chapin
family is found in Coleridge as early as 1333, when Petro Chapyn was
taxed 8d.(pence), and six years earlier, in 1327, a Nicholas Chopyn was
taxed at the manor of Sheftbeare in the hundred of Haytor--the first
appearance (so far as is known) of the surname in Devonshire."