English and Irish will?

[lizone]

Thanks Jeremy and everyone else who has contributed.

I think I've finally got there ... ! Inheritance rules etc are a bit muddy for me. I'll plough on and hope I can uncover something, but just by going back and looking at Susannah Chapman's will again last night and revisiting my notes has thrown up another family connection with the Chapmans in Huntingdonshire, so I think I'm basically on the right lines ... with a little detour to Ireland.

Liz

[lizone]

Just a quick update - I now have the marriage bond and allegation for Russell Chapman's marriage to Ann Holgate in 1744 and it clearly shows he was indeed a Widower, so that all fits together with his daughter's will, plus Chapman's signature is a good match to that on the letter written from Cork. All (!) I need to do now is figure out the missing Irish family members...

Liz

[lizone]

Okay, so I have taken advantage of the TNA downloads site and now have a set of Army Lists which show the following for Russell Chapman (jnr):

1763 - Ensign in 73rd Regiment of Foot, Ireland (appointed 1762)
1764 – 1769 – Listed as ‘Irish Half Pay’
1771 – 1773 Ensign in 70th Regiment of Foot, Charibee Islands (appointed 1770)
1774 - Ensign in 70th Regiment of Foot, named crossed out
If Chapman (jnr) was married in 1766, it does seem quite possible that he could have had two children before he was sent abroad in 1770. After 1774, I can find no information on him or his family, but the history of the Regiment suggests that a considerable number were lost to disease in the Caribbean.

On Russell Chapman (snr), his letter of 1763 ‘in support of his case’ to the Secretary of War mentioned a certain ‘Mr Calcraft’ who would ‘act on his behalf’. I now find that Mr Calcraft was the agent of the 60th American Regiment of Foot and is a fascinating research subject himself. Chapman (snr) appears to have retired from the regiment in 1759 after 2 years along with Colonel Commendants Charles Jeffreys and George Augustus, Lord Viscount Howe. There’s a very useful book on the Regiment ‘The Royal American Regiment: An Atlantic Microcosm 1755 – 1772’ by Alexander V Campbell and mention of the characters in the George Washington Colonial Series papers.

Liz