1717 Handley Chipman was born on 31 August 1717. [1]
1722 Jane Allen was born on 28 August 1722.
1740 "Handley Chipman and Jane Allen were married April 24" by the Reverend William Homes on Martha's Vineyard in Chilmark, Dukes County, Massachusetts. [2]
1748 Handley Chipman wrote [3]:
"I would just note a saying of my dear Deceased father to me when I was put in Justice of the Peace in Newport on said Rhode Island, in the year 1748. Handley Saith he, I understand you are Chosen Justice Peace, and that without the Least opposition of any person ... You had best take Commission for the office, for we know that it is necessary that some do serve in such Like offices, and further saith to this Effect. I have been in some office or offices almost since I was a young man and now by reason of old age and the Infirmities thereof have of choice quitted all offices and I have my Son, the Satisfaction to Look back on my conduct in the General discharge of my duty therein, with Comfort and a clear conscience, But have found by Experience that if I had never medled with any publick office at all I should have been in the Course of my Life the happier for it, for Let a Magistrate Conduct ever so carefull and Circumspect, he will find ill designing men will misrepresent his conduct and cast reflections on him when things are not transacted to their minds. And depend on it my Son, if God Should Spare your Life to old age and you Enjoy offices, You will Experience the Same troubles from Ungreatful designing men that I have done, in a greater or lesser degree, and be fully of my Mind on the Matter, &c. But Look to God, by earnest prayer for his direction and assistance, in the discharge of your duty, and keep a clear conscience and then you can appeal to God as Witness for you my dear Son, which will be to you, the greatest Comfort immaginable. Let sinfull man treat you as they will. And blessed by God, I trust I have in the Main taken his Advice and done by Gods assistance as he my dear aged father Advised and directed me, although not without Sin, failings and infirmities therein for which I hope through Christs Strengthening me, I have sincerely begged pardon of my Compassionate forgiving God and Still So am determined to do, as the blessed God shall Enable me. But have fully experienced much Unthankfullness at times in the discharge of my duty in the publick Stations of Life, Especially in this town of Cornwallis, by a number thereof, tho not all, but yet by the Majority, as I have in some other writings more fully mentioned, but I forgive them as I hope for forgiveness. O may God forgive them also and bring them to see their folly as some has done."
1758 On August 6 Handley Chipman submitted a petition for a Lottery License to the Rhode Island General Assembly. He stated that he was in extreme financial trouble, that there was no offer to buy his property at a reasonable price, and asked permission to hold a lottery to raise money to pay his debts. His request was granted on August 26. [4]
1761 Handley and Jane (Allen) Chipman moved to Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia with their sons John, Thomas Handley, and William Allen and daughters "The Township survey plan showed that Handley Chipman's grant was in Division No. 6, with forty-four acres, thirty-eight rods wide … At first, Handley Chipman lived at Town Plot on the so-called British farm on Church Street. After he sold it, he bought other farms, including the one on which he lived until the time of his death. The early one was close to the Church of England building on nearby Fox Hill. The simple place of worship had been built in 1764 at the north west corner of the present cemetery at Lower Church Street. When Handley sold that farm, he moved to the area which became identified with the Chipman name, near the Congregational meeting house, erected in 1768. The area about Chipman Corner farmland was mostly flat terrain. To the south stood the parade ground, and to the north the cemetery." [5]
1775 Jane Allen Chipman died on April 5. "In the issue of the [Nova Scotia ] Gazette of April 11, 1775, the following laudatory obituary of a King's County woman, Mrs. Handley Chipman, appears: 'On Wednesday evening, the 5th instant, departed this life, much lamented by all who knew her, Mrs. Jane Chipman, the amiable consort of Handley Chipman, Esq., of Cornwallis. The particular relations which she sustained of a wife, a mother, a mistress, a neighbour, and a friend, she discharged with a propriety equalled only by few. She opened her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue was the law of kindness. Her death was occasioned by a fall from a horse on the 20th of December last, which broke both bones of her left ankle in a most terrible manner, under which, and a fever which ensued, she lingered a hundred and six days. She bore the whole of her long, distressing confinement with remarkable Christian patience and resignation, and as the life which she lived in the flesh appeared to be 'by the faith of the Son of God', so her latter end was peace, having finished her course with joy, in the confident hope of a glorious immortality. She was daughter of Col. John Allen of Martha's Vineyard, and granddaughter to the Rev. William Holmes, deceased, formerly minister on said Island. She has left behind a disconsolate husband, three sons, and two daughters. On the Sabbath evening after, she was decently interr'd; previous to- which, the corps being carried to the Meeting House, the Rev. B. Phelps preached a sermon suitable to the occasion, from St. John 20th and 28th,' My Lord and my God', and the Rev. Mr. Bennett in his own church preached also a sermon suitable to the melancholy occasion. The memory of the Just is Blessed. Daughters of Eve, feel with what force the bright Example shines. She was what you should be.'" [6]
1775 Handley Chipman and Nancy Post were married on December 14. Handley Chipman later wrote in his memoir, [7]
Stephen Post was the first person that was buried in the Burying place by our Meeting house in which Mr. Graham preached. I wrote his Will, at his request and on his Earnest Soliscitation was Executor to the Same and got Matters all Settled referring thereto. I charged not one farthing for my trouble in Settling said Little Estates and got the Creditors to fling in about three Shillings in the pound by which the Little farm was kept clear from breaking in upon, whole, for the Son. But little did I then think of ever being related to the family, my present wife then being a Little Girl that used to be a Companion of my then dear Little daughter Rebecca. I once asked her, Nancy my present wife, to Stop and drink coffee along with me and my Little Becca. But so bashful was she then, that no argument I could use would prevail with her to stay and drink coffee with us. But strange things in the course of Divine Providence is sometimes brought about quite Contrary to what we could any way suppose. And my dear wife she now is and an Excellent one She is, as it is well known, as well as known by my self, and as we are as happy as this frail State will well permit of.
[1] Caroline Lewis Kardell and Russell A. Lovell, Jr., Vital Records of Sandwich Massachusetts to 1885, Vol. 1 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996, online database at AmericanAncestors.org), 49, [AmericanAncestors].
[2] Charles Edward Banks, "Diary of Reverend William Homes," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 48 (1894), 446-453; 49 (1895), 413-416; and 50 (1896), 155-166, at 48:450, [InternetArchive].
[3] Mrs. Arthur James Trethewey, "A Chipman Family History," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 91 (1937), 159-176, at 164-165. Images of Handley Chipman's family memoir are available in the Digital Collections of the Acadia University Library, [AmericanAncestors], [Acadia_University].
[4] Acadia University Library Planters Database, Handley Chipman Petition for Lottery License, Rhode Island State Archives, Petitions to Rhode Island General Assembly, Petitions Vol.10 p.58, [AcadiaUniversity].
[5] James Doyle Davison, Handley Chipman, Kings County Planter, 1717-1799 (New Minas, Nova Scotia: Ronald E. Bezanson, 1988), 40, [GoogleBooks].
[6] Arthur Wentworth Hamilton Eaton, The History of Kings County, Nova Scotia, Heart of the Acadian Land (Salem, Massachusetts: The Salem Press Company, 1910), 446, of 446-447, [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].
[7] Mrs. Arthur James Trethewey, "A Chipman Family History," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 91 (1937), 159-176, at 174. Images of Handley Chipman's family memoir are available in the Digital Collections of the Acadia University Library, [AmericanAncestors], [Acadia_University].