I enjoyed your grandfather's memories very much. Thanks.
Bridgett
-----Original Message-----
From: david.jennie <david.jennie(a)xtra.co.nz>
To: CHAPMAN-L(a)rootsweb.com <CHAPMAN-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 5:39 PM
Subject: [CHAPMAN-L] New to List: - surnames
Hi my name is Jennie and I am in New Zealand. I am posting information
that
I have gathered on my Chapman Line. Any information would be appreciated.
I apologise in advance for the long posting, but I thought that my
grandfathers memories of his childhood would be of interest to someone.
Jennie
Generation No. 1
1. ?1 CHAPMAN. He married ELIZABETH Abt. 1830.
More About ELIZABETH:
Census: 1851, Age 60
Martial Status: 1851, Widow
Occupation: 1851, Supported by the Parish
Child of ? CHAPMAN and ELIZABETH is:
2. i. JOHN2 CHAPMAN, b. Abt. 1832, Devonport United Kingdom.
Generation No. 2
2. JOHN2 CHAPMAN (?1) was born Abt. 1832 in Devonport United Kingdom. He
married ELIZA BRIMACOM, daughter of HENRY BRIMACOM and SUSAN.
Children of JOHN CHAPMAN and ELIZA BRIMACOM are:
i. EMMA J3 CHAPMAN, b. Abt. 1858.
Notes for EMMA J CHAPMAN:
MAY HAVE LOST HERE LIFE IN FLU EPIDEMIC IN THE LATE 1920'S
3. ii. JOHN RICHARD CHAPMAN, b. 13 July, 1862, 5 James Street, Ope, West,
Devonport; d. 31 October, 1929, Millbrook Torpoint NR Plymouth, Devon.
iii. HENRY CHAPMAN, b. Abt. 1867.
iv. ALFRED J CHAPMAN, b. Abt. 1869.
Generation No. 3
3. JOHN RICHARD3 CHAPMAN (JOHN2, ?1) was born 13 July, 1862 in 5 James
Street, Ope, West, Devonport, and died 31 October, 1929 in Millbrook
Torpoint NR Plymouth, Devon. He married FLORENCE WITHERIDGE 1892 in Stoke
Damerel, Devon, England.
Children of JOHN CHAPMAN and FLORENCE WITHERIDGE are:
i. ERNEST4 CHAPMAN.
ii. JACK CHAPMAN.
Notes for JACK CHAPMAN:
ALSO MAY HAVE BEEN KNOWN AS JACK OR JOHN
iii. LEN CHAPMAN.
iv. REGINALD EDGAR WITHERIDGE CHAPMAN, b. 2 June, 1898, Devonport United
Kingdom; d. 23 January, 1984, Lower Huttt New Zealand; m. RUBY LIGHTBOURNE
OLIVER, 30 April, 1925, Lower Hutt.
Notes for REGINALD EDGAR WITHERIDGE CHAPMAN:
MEMOIRS
OF
REGINALD E W CHAPMAN
1898 - 1984
1898 - MY CHILDHOOD - 1913
I was born on the second day of June 10 the year 1898, in the parish of ST
ALBYN, DEVONPORT, ENGLAND. The third of a family of five boys and two
girls, my father being a journeyman painter and my mother a loving mother
or
counsellor to us all.
At a very early age our family moved to the small village of KINGSAND a
twin
village to CAWSAND situated on CAWSAND BAY on the CORNISH side of the
port
of PLYMOUTH. It was here that I lived a very happy and adventurous
childhood. My first memory is of an event, which almost cost me my life.
I
remember looking at some oil in the sea below the landing steps in the
bay
which changed into pretty colors and fascinated me, so much that I fell
into
the sea. I was rescued by a lad named BILL FORSYTH, who later
received an
award for rescuing me. Later I remember lying in bed surrounded by people
including the vicar and his wife, who had been very concerned about my
recovery.
Village life was a closely-knit one, in time of illness or adversity
everyone would do all they could to help one another. They were all
closely
attached to the church, no family would miss church on Sunday and most
of
us
boys became choirboys, as we grew old enough to sing. There were two
churches attached to the village. One in the village itself (ST PAULS) and
the other known as 'MAKER CHURCH adjoining the ESTATE of MT EDGECOMBE on
MAKER HEIGHTS, the vicarage being half way between. The Morning service
was
held at 'MAKER' and the evening, at ST PAULS in the village.
We would wait
for the vicar to arrive in his horse and gig and then fellow him into the
church. Religious holidays such as Xmas, Good Friday, Easter, Whit Sunday
were all kept honestly and it was nice to see all the young girls dressed
in
white on Whit Sunday. There were military Forts on Maker Heights with
heavy
guns to protect the port of Plymouth and from these forts the soldiers
would
parade for church service a 'MAKER CHURCH' on Sunday mornings.
They were
headed by a billy goat all dressed in regimental colors and it was a treat
to see them drill outside the church and at times being inspected by the
EARL of MT EDGECOMBE. HARVEST FESTIVAL was a high light of the church
Calendar and all would being produce to the church, which would be
decorated
also with beautiful flowers.
My boyhood as I previously mentioned was very active and happy one. It was
lived mostly on land at first, but as I grew older more of my time was
spent
on the water. My time on land was divided between hunting for rabbits
along
the cliff sides with a friendly dog from the village, cutting up chaff for
MCHADDYS horses, making ice cream for the local sweet shop, raiding farmer
WATKINS orchard, beating for pheasants when the shooting season came,
searching for pheasant eggs, and seagull eggs at RAME HEAD, climbing trees
in the plantation for chest nuts, picking blackberries, finding birds nest
and many other activities.
A highlight of the village life was "REGATTA DAY". The fishermen faced
each
other in their fishing boats, both rowing and sailing, there was a
greasy
pole rigged out from the side of one of the larger boats and anyone
reaching
the end without falling off would get a prize. Yachts and club rowing
boats
would also come from Plymouth for the occasion. My Favorite yacht was
the
DIANA, ____ and many an Hour I would watch her racing in club races on
Wednesday and Saturdays. She was one of the best of the smaller yachts. We
also used to watch TOMMY LIPTON'S SHAMROCK and others of the big yachts
that
used to race. On the evening of regatta day there would be
festivities on
the village Green. There would be amongst others country folk dancing, a
may pole and it was great to see all the young dancers going around the may
pole to the accompaniment of the old time accordions. There was also a
greasy pole, which I have much cause to remember as my dad was always, one
of the competitors and fairly often the winner. They had to climb to the
top and burst a bag of flower and their prize would be a whole lot of
groceries. I used to get quite concerned if dad slipped down the pole - as
He invariably did at first attempts, but I became very elated when he
eventually got to the top and the flour came floating down, and would soon
be over to get the groceries to take home. The crowd would shout out "go on
Johnny stick it" and there would be a lot of OHs and ahs as he tired to
get
to the top of the greasy old pole.
Cawsand Bay was always very busy. Big Cunard liners such as the "OLYMPIC"
with four big red funnels would anchor off the bay with passengers etc from
AMERICA, and tenders would come out to take them into Plymouth. Sometimes
if the weather was favorable we would pull out or sail out to them. At
about noon each day the Plymouth trawlers (all sailing ships) would be
returning from the fishing grounds and according to the wind be making
their
way to the Barbican in Plymouth Harbour. Cawsand Bay also had a
torpedo
range and the Navy torpedo boats would be out some days running their
torpedos. Sometimes the torpedos would over run and come ashore and we
boys used to go down to the beach to watch the Sailors collecting them with
their whale boats and taking them back to the ship.
Dad use to give me a bit of a hiding sometimes for getting my boots wet,
until I found a solution to the difficulty. Dad had an allotment garden
where he used to grow a few potatoes and other vegetables. He liked to
have
seaweed to manure the ground, so if I got my boots wet I would get
hold of
a
sack fill it up with seaweed and so get excused.
As I grew older I became more attached to the sea and boats. In the
village
lived a retired seaman, who was known as CAPTAIN BORNFIELD. He has a
couple
of boats, one an ex naval skiff and the other and ex naval whaler
called
'KATHALENE' named after to his Daughter. I think I stared off with tending
to his boats as the tide went in and out. He used to go out into the bay
fishing or venture out to the whiting grounds half way out to the EDDY
STONE
LIGHTHOUSE. It wasn't very long before I was asking him if I
could
accompany him when he went out. After I had got my mothers permission he
allowed me to do so. I used to get up in the morning, very keen, go down
to
his house, throw some sand up to his window to wake him up. He had a
white
beard and would put his head out of the window and tell me if the weather
was suitable. If it was ok, I would get the fishing boxes with the fishing
lines in all ready, take them down to the beach, haul the boat ashore by
the
mooring line and everything was ready by the time he arrived.
Sometimes if
the weather was a bit fresh we would just sail around the bay, put about
four spinner lines out and catch mackeye. If it was suitable we would go
out to the whiting grounds. When the old fellow wanted to fill his pipe he
would let me take the tiller and sail the boat, and as time went on. I
would be doing quite a lot of sailing. One day something happened which I
have often had a laugh about since. We had been out to the whiting grounds
and the wind had freshened so much that the old captain thought it
advisable
for us to return home. The wind was blowing off shore and we had to
beat
back against it. We were making good progress when the old boys hat blew
off, I had hold of the tiller at the time and not thinking, I jibed the
boat
around stern to wind and of course she capsized. When I picture it
now to
see the captain bobbing about out there with his white beard above water,
always makes my laugh. Needless to say we both could swim pretty well and
were no afraid of drowning, so we hung by the boat, but didn't get his hat
and lost all our fish. Any how we were spotted by a Pillot boat, P5 was
her
number and after she had tacked about a bit to reach us, we climbed
aboard
her up a Jacob's ladder that they had put over the side. There was no
steam
or motor pilot boats at that time. It wasn't long before they had
us sea
worthy again, and we came home under just a foresail sail and mizzen. that
was a well learnt lesson by me to always go about head to wind in a naval
whaler anyhow. Often I would sail around the bay in the whaler or skill on
my own, with just a spinner line out to catch a mackerel or two but never
turned either boat over again.
I had the early part of my education at the KINGSAND CHURCH of ENGLAND
SCHOOL, I think to about STANDARD IV. After that I was sent to the
MILLBROOK NATIONAL SCHOOL, the village of MILLBROOK being one and half
miles
over a hill from KINGSAND, but still on the CORNISH SIDE of the river
FAMAR.
When about 12 years of age our family went to live at MILLBROOK and I
had
to
forego a lot of my pastimes. I finished up my schooling in STA XVII,
there
being no secondary schools at that time near rural districts. My education
was pretty good and has helped me fairly well through life. It was at
MILLBROOK that my sporting like turned toward football. I started playing
for the school team and we did quite well winning the school championships
of the PLYMOUTH districts, our biggest rivals being CATTEDOWN SCHOOL. On
leaving school, I started working at a boat building yard at CREYLL near MT
EDGECOMB. My dad used to paint all the big yachts and pinnaces that were
built and came in for overhaul. My brother ALF was an apprentice boat
builder there also. There was no vacancy as apprentice for me at the time
so I was put to work on the big saws. I must have worked there for over a
year but apparently was not satisfied with what I was doing or else I was
out of work. Jobs not being to easy to get in England at that time. Si I
must have been talking over it with my good counsellor & mother. I
remember
her saying to me "Join the navy lad and be sure of three meals a
day".
v. ELSIE CHAPMAN, b. 10 March, 1907; d. 6 October, 1968.
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