Person:Dorcas Chapman (2)

Dorcas Chapman was baptised on 12th March 1719 at Benington in Hertfordshire, daughter of Dorcas Chapman, formerly Meagre, and her husband John Chapman, a yeoman. Dorcas was the second of the couple's three daughters. When Dorcas was seven years old her mother died. Dorcas's father married shortly afterwards, with a lady named Ann becoming Dorcas's stepmother. Just over a year after Dorcas's mother died, Dorcas's father died too. Dorcas was therefore an orphan at the age of eight.

The month after Mary's father's death, Mary's stepmother Ann renounced her right to administer the estate, apparently including the guardianship of the three young girls. Instead the girls were looked after by a butcher named Thomas Smith from the neighbouring parish of Aston. He apparently looked after the children "beyond what their fortunes will allow" in the view of one of their neighbours at Aston. The arrangement was formalised with a bond of guardianship in 1733.^[3]

By the age of 21, Dorcas was living in the town of Ware, a few miles to the south-east. She was married at Ardeley, a village near her native Benington, on 8th September 1840, to a butcher named George Walby from Aston. Dorcas and George appear to have had eleven children together between 1740 and the mid 1760s, although her son Charles died in 1765, aged two.

In 1744, Dorcas and her sisters Lydia and Mary were named in a deed relating to a property at Cudden End. Dorcas was described as the daughter of John Chapman and wife of George Walby of Aston, butcher.^[4]

Dorcas's first known grandchild was born in 1766. Several of her children moved to nearby town of Hatfield, where George's cousin had left some of them property in 1764. Others of her children moved to London, and others stayed local to the Aston area. Her son William died as a young man in Hatfield in 1770, whilst her daughter Dorcas died in London in 1775.

George died in 1776, aged 66. His will left the family's home at Aston to their son Benjamin but on condition that Dorcas would be able to continue living there with Benjamin, or that if she chose to live elsewhere Benjamin would be responsible for paying for her upkeep.

Dorcas outlived George by nearly 24 years. She lived to see at least 51 grandchildren born in her lifetime. She also outlived several more of her adult children: Charity died in Tewin in 1783, Sarah died in Ardeley in 1791 and Lydia died in Hatfield in 1799. Of Dorcas's eleven children, only three are known to have definitely outlived her.

Dorcas died at the age of 80. She was buried at Aston on 3rd February 1800.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish Registers of Benington. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   1718: Dorcas filia Johan[nes] et Dorcae Chapman Martis 12
   (1718: Dorcas daughter of John & Dorcas Chapman March 12 - i.e. 12 Mar 1718/9)

   This baptism has been linked to the Dorcas Chapman who married George Walby on the basis of the manorial record of 1744 which names Dorcas wife of George Walby and her two sisters and confirms that the three women were all daughters of John Chapman.

2. ↑ Church of England. Aston Parish registers, 1558-1980. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   1800: Dorkis Walby Feb[ruar]y 3 (previous entry crossed out, but clearly said: Dorkis Walby, Widow, 1800 Feby 23)

3. ↑ See administration documents transcribed on Dorcas father John's page.
4. ↑ Access to Archives, accessed 8 Mar 2012, DE/AS/1078, 1 Aug 1744. Manorial records, title deeds and family papers of the Abel Smith family of the Woodhall Park Estate, Hertfordshire, 1139-1917 Deed to levy and declare uses of fine, 1 Aug 1744 Contents: 1. John Heylock of Sawston, carpenter, and Lydia, his wife; George Walby of Aston, butcher, and Dorcas his wife; Thomas Howard of St Albans, butcher, and Mary his wife. [The wives are all daughters of John Chapman]. 2. John Coulson of Benington. 3. John Hollingsworth of Benington, butcher. Messuage or tenement and lands at Cudden End.