1670 On 3 March, John Chipman, son of John Chipman was born [in Barnstable, Massachussetts]. [1]
"John Chipman: This transient resident came in the early part of the 18th century from Sandwich. He was related by marriage Nathan Bassett, being a native of Barnstable, the son of Elder John and Hope (Howland) Chipman. He was born March 3, 1669-70, and resided in Sandwich from 1691 to 1719, when he removed to Chilmark and staid a couple of years. Returning to Sandwich, he lived there from 1714 to 1720 and again settled here. He was a man of distinction, versed in legal knowledge which he exercised in a professional way, though calling himself a "cordwainer." [*Dukes Deeds, III, 93.] While here he was local agent for the Society for Propagating the Gospel. He removed to Newport, R. I., about 1727, soon acquired political prominence and became one of the Governor's assistants. He died in 1756, aged 86 years. He was thrice married, (1) to Mary Skiffe, (2) widow Elizabeth Russell and (3) to Miss Hookey of Rhode Island." [2]
John Chipman was a Magistrate, a member of the General Court, and a militia officer. After living for a time in Sandwich and Chilmark, MA, in 1727 he settled in Newport, Rhode Island. [3]
Handley Chipman wrote [4]:
He was when he lived at Sandwich, Crowner or Coroner, a Capt. Lieutenant, and a Representative to the General Assembly at Boston, as I find by his Commission Left. While he lived on the Vineyard he was Justice of the Peace and one of the Judges of the Inferior Court, &c.
After he removed to Rhode Island Government, he was for some time the first of the Governors Council, and was also Chief Judge of the Superior Court or Court of Equity, as it was then called, and continued in said office until he was about 70 years old when he of choice flung up all offices by reason of his old age, and soon after my Mother in Law dying he Left off his Shopkeeping, broke up housedeeping, and went to live with my own Sister who had married a worthy person, a Capt. Moore.
My Dear father was a professor of Religion, of the Congregational persuasion and Accounted one of the Strictest Moral honest men in that Government of Rhode Island and Elsewhere, &c. And he took care and pains to instill principals of Strict Morality into the minds of his Children and all around him, observing that however a man or a person might be led on to be a Moral Man in his dealings and worldly transactions, from Selfish principals or otherwise influenced by by-Ends, and yet not be a real Christian, yet he would aver there was no such thing as being a real Christian without being strictly a moral honest person, and that the whole run of the Scriptures Maintained it, &c.
Handley Chipman wrote [5]:
My dear fathers first wife dying at said Sandwich, Leaving said nine children, He some time after, it may be two years, married her that was my dear mother, at Capt. Popes at Dartmouth, her first husband was his oldest Son, her second husband was one Capt. Russel, with whom I have been told She lived about 17 months, at Rhode Island or near there about. her first husband Pope got the Small Pox in Boston, came home and died in his father said Capt. Popes Chamber. She had no Child or Children that Lived by Either of these husbands. by my dear father She had my Self, her son Handley, and my dear sister Rebecca. Soon after her birth my dear father removed from Sandwich to Marthas Vineyard, where he lived it may be 7 years. My dear pious and godly Mother having Lingered Long with a Consumption, went in a vessel across the Sound in Sept. I think 1724 from the Vineyard to the Said Capt. Popes, who Set much by her, hoping as did her Doctr. Sanders, it might be for her health, and took me with her, but as it often is the Case, man appoints, but God dissappoints. For alas, alas, the next day after she got to Capt. Popes, She was taken so ill, in the very chamber where her first husband died with the Small Pox, as is beforementioned, that she was never out of it until she was carried out to her Grave. My dear father having news of it came off the Vineyard, with a horse, Visited my dear Sick Mother, returned home and carried me with him, and I never saw her more, but hope through Christs blessed Merits to meet her err long in glory, where I doubt not She is now United with Saints and Saraphs in their pure ardous of Glory.
My Dear Father used to go back and forward to visit her until about the 30 day of Jany A. D. 1725 when she departed this Life I trust for a better, and was buried in the burying yard by Dartmouth Congregational Meeting house. I would remark here that a Little before my dear father went off of the Vineyard the last time to Visit my dear Mother, there was a Vessel from the West Indies one Capt. Case Master very sick on board, was cast away on said Vineyard, Vessel lost but the Mens Lives saved. the owner at Rhode Island, one Mr. Vernon, being sent for, came to the Vineyard and brought with him the Sick Capt. Case's wife who arrived at the house where her husband was carried in sick about a quarter of an hour after he had expired. We may easily conceive what a Most Melancholy and Sad Meeting this must be to the widow. She attended her husband's funeral, and the said owner and she went over the ferry off of the Island to go home at the same time that my dear father went off to visti my dear Mother said Last time and as they was both bound one way so far as my dear father was going, he sometimes carried her behind him and sometimes the Said owner, the Roads being bad, and the owner, and now widow, having but one horse between them, &c. Just about a year after my dear Mothers Death, my dear father married the Said widow Case at Newport on Said Rhode Island. She had had two husbands, one a Griffen, the other said Capt. Case. by said Griffin She had a daughter who lived to grow up and Married by dear fathers son Stephen, who died in Said West Indies Leaving no Child. My mother in Law's maiden name was Mary Hoockey, and after my dear father had Lived with her 19 years She died also with the Comsumption Leaving no Child by my dear father. My dear father, soon after he thus Married at Rhode Island, sold his farm at the Vineyard, to one Mr. Norton for 1200 pounds, money then at s5/ pr. ounce. he removed then to Rhode Island and Let his money to Interest, but it depreciating fast he called it in and went to shopkeeping.
1694 December 18 "James Chipman the son of John Chipman and Mary Chipman his wife was Born the 18th day of Decemr Anno Dom: 1694." [6]
1697 September 18 "John Chipman the son of John Chipman and Mary Chipman his Wife was Born the 18th day of Septemr Anno Dom 1697." [7]
1699 December 11 "Mary Chipman and Bethyah Chipman Daughters of John Chipman and Mary Chipman his wife was born the 11th day of Decemr Anno 1699." [8]
1702 September 28 "Perez Chipman the son of sd John and Mary Chipman was Born the 28th day of September Anno Domini 1702." [9]
1704 Decenber 6 "Deborah Chipman the Daughter of the sd John and mary Chipman was Born the 6th day of December Anno Domini 1704." [10]
1708 June 9 "Stephen Chipman and Lydia Chipman the Son & Daughter of the above named John and Mary Chipmna Born ye 9th of June Anno dom 1708." [11]
1709 November 13 "Ebenezer Chipman son of the sd John and Mary Chipman Born the 13th day of November Anno Domini 1709." [12]
1717 August 31 "Handley Chipman son of the sd John Chipman and Elizabeth Chipman his now wife was Born the Last Day of August Early in ye morning Anno Dom 1717. " [13]
1719 November 10 "Rebecca Chipman Daughter of ye sd John and Elizabeth Chipman was Born the 10 th day of Novemr Anno Domini 1719." [14]
1725/26 Elizabeth died on January 30. Her death is described in the diary of William Homes as "February 6, 1725/26 Mrs. Chipman departed this life last Saturday night about midnight. She died in Dartmouth at Captain Popes. She was a pious good woman and died well, with a rational assurance of her future well being. She had long been in a languishing condition. She went in the fall to visit Captain Pope and sickened there. She was buryed the Tuesday following in Dartmouth." [15]
1756 John Chipman died on January 4 and was buried in the Common Burial Ground, Farewell St, Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island. The memorial inscription on his gravestone states, [16]
In Memory of John Chipman Esqr who died Janry 4th 1756 in ye 85th Year of his Age.
Research Notes:
Thomas Pope, born "Sept. 1, 1677. Was a mariner, and was concerned with his father in the coastwise trade. Was master in 1702 of sloop Hopewell, trading between Boston and Connecticut. Married first (date and place unknown), Elizabeth Manser, of Charlestown (b. 1672), and second. July 16, 1702, Elizabeth Handley. of Boston (b. 1680, d. Jan. 29, 1725-6). He must have died some years prior to 1720, as in that year his widow is mentioned in his father's will as 'my former daughter-in-law, now wife of Lt. John Chipman of Sandwich.' Names of his children, if any, have not been ascertained." [17]
[1] George Ernest Bowman, "Barnstable, Mass., Vital Records," The Mayflower Descendant 4 (1902), 120-122 and 221-227, at 121, citing Barnstable Town Book Anno. 1736, p. 405, [InternetArchive].
[2] Dr. Charles Edward Banks, "Annals of Chillmark," The History of Martha's Vineyard Dukes County, Massachusetts, Vol. II (Boston: George H Dean, 1911), 29-41, at 40, [GoogleBooks].
[3] Arthur Adams, "William Inglis Morse," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 106 (1952), 241-243, at 243, [AmericanAncestors].
[4] Mrs. Arthur James Trethewey, "A Chipman Family History," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 91 (1937), 159-176, at 161. Images of Handley Chipman's family memoir are available in the Digital Collections of the Acadia University Library, [AmericanAncestors], [Acadia_University].
[5] Mrs. Arthur James Trethewey, "A Chipman Family History," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 91 (1937), 159-176, at 160. Images of Handley Chipman's family memoir are available in the Digital Collections of the Acadia University Library, [AmericanAncestors], [Acadia_University].
[6] 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), 48, [AmericanAncestors].
[7] 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), 48, [AmericanAncestors].
[8] 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), 48, [AmericanAncestors].
[9] 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].
[10] 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].
[11] 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].
[12] 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].
[13] 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].
[14] 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].
[15] 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 50:159, [InternetArchive].
[16] Rhode Island: Historical Cemeteries, 1647-2000 (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018), (Transcriptions by volunteers of Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project; compiled by John Sterling. "Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Database," 2017), [AmericanAncestors].
[17] Charles Henry Pope, A History of the Dorchester Pope Family. 1634-1888 (Boston: privately printed, 1888), 286, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].