Reuben Atwater Chapman (Sept. 20, 1801

Russell, Massachusetts Russell is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,643 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Russell was originally part of the Pocumtuc ( ...

– June 28, 1873

Flüelen Flüelen is a municipality in the canton of Uri in Switzerland. History Flüelen is first mentioned in 1266 as ''Vluolon''. Flüelen formed an important transshipment point on Switzerland's transport system for many centuries, and at least sin ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) was an American attorney who served as chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court from 1868 until his death in 1873. As a youth he was employed as a store clerk in Blandford, Massachusetts when he was given the opportunity at the age of 19 to read law as a clerk in a law office. Admitted to the bar, he successively practiced in Westfield, Monson, and Ware, before settling in Springfield, Mass., where he practiced in partnership with Whig politician

George Ashmun George Ashmun (December 25, 1804 – July 16, 1870) was a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts. Ashmun was born in Blandford, Massachusetts, to Eli P. Ashmun and Lucy Hooker. He graduated from Yale in 1823 and ...

as Chapman & Ashmun. The firm became one of the most successful in the state and in 1860 Chapman was appointed an associate justice of the state supreme court, subsequently being elevated to chief justice in 1868. He was a presidential elector for Lincoln in 1860, and served on the Harvard Board of Overseers. He handled some legal matters for

John Brown John Brown most often refers to: *John Brown (abolitionist) (1800–1859), American who led an anti-slavery raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 John Brown or Johnny Brown may also refer to: Academia * John Brown (educator) (1763–1842), Ir ...

when Brown was in business in Springfield, and later, when Brown was imprisoned in Virginia facing hanging after the abortive Harper's Ferry raid, he wrote to Chapman asking him to either come himself or send legal assistance: "I have money in hand here to the amount of $250 ..do not send an ultra abolitionist," which Chapman was unable to do at the time. Chapman died in Switzerland in 1873.Chapman, Frederick William. ''The Chapman Family, or The Descendants of Robert Chapman''. Case, Tiffany & Co., 1854, p. 324. His younger sister was

Clarissa Chapman Armstrong Clarissa Chapman Armstrong (May 15, 1805 – July 20, 1891) was an American missionary in the Hawaiian Islands and Marquesas Islands, from 1832 until 1847. She was part of the Fifth Company of missionaries sent to Hawaii by the American Board of ...

, a missionary teacher in the Hawaiian Islands. Through her, Reuben Atwater Chapman was uncle to

Samuel Chapman Armstrong Samuel Chapman Armstrong (January 30, 1839 – May 11, 1893) was an American soldier and general during the American Civil War who later became an educator, particularly of non-whites. The son of missionaries in Hawaii, he rose through the Union ...

, an

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

general and founder of

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missiona ...

, and to William Nevins Armstrong, Attorney General in the Kingdom of Hawaii.Robert Francis Engs
''Educating the Disfranchised and Disinherited: Samuel Chapman Armstrong and Hampton Institute, 1839-1893''
(University of Tennessee Press 1999).

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* 1801 births 1873 deaths Massachusetts lawyers 1860 United States presidential electors Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Massachusetts Republicans People from Hampden County, Massachusetts 19th-century Massachusetts state court judges 19th-century American lawyers {{Massachusetts-state-judge-stub