A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Chapman, James
CHAPMAN. (Lieut., 1814. f-p., 10; h-p., 32.)
James Chapman was born 9 April, 1791.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Oct. 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Nassau 64, Capt. Robt. Campbell; attained the rating of Midshipman, 22 June, 1808; and – if we except the period of a few months, from 25 Nov. 1809, to 4 April, 1810, when we find him on board the Owen Glendower 36, Capt. Wm. Selby, stationed off Cherbourg – continued uninterruptedly to serve under Capt. Campbell, in the Nassau, the Stately, another 64, and the Tremendous 74, until July, 1814. During that period, while in the Nassau, he was for two years employed in blockading the Texel, and, after attending the expedition to Copenhagen in Aug. and Sept. 1807, was (on the Nassau’s hard-wrought extrication from a mass of ice in which she had been blocked up during the whole winter) present, 22 March, 18O8, in company with the Stately 64, at the capture and destruction, on the coast of Zealand, of the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian-Frederic, after a running fight of great length and obstinacy, in which the Nassau sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 16 wounded. In Oct. 1813, being then in the Tremendous, Mr. Chapman served on shore with the batteries at the reduction of Trieste; and from 12 Feb. to 9 April, 1814, while detached in united charge of the imperial armed vessel Fidèle and of two of the ship’s boats for the purpose of co-operating with the Austrian forces under Marshal Bellegarde, he was actively employed in preventing supplies from being thrown into Venice, Chioggia, and Malamocco, and, on 23 March, commanded and led the troop-boats which stormed and carried Fort Caranella, near the Po di Levante, on which occasion he took up a formidable position before Brondolo, and acquired for his conduct the thanks of the officer above mentioned and of Generals Marchal and Pulszky. Having passed his examination, 4 Dec. 1811, he was promoted, from the Malta 84, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benj. Hallowell, to a Lieutenancy in the Orlando 36, Capt. John Clavell, 24 Oct. 1814. He was placed on half-pay, after serving for some time at the blockade of the Chesapeake, 16 Aug. 1815, and has not been since officially employed.
Lieut. Chapman’s name appears, as a supernumerary for passage, on the books of no fewer than 73 ships of war, owing to the circumstance of his having been appointed Master of 18 or 19 different prize-vessels. He married, 31 Oct. 1826, Eliza, third daughter of Thos. Hatton, Esq., a wine-merchant of Liverpool, and has issue six sons and three daughters.