Person:Jonathan Chapin (2)

Confused Identities

Gilbert Chapin says, "There has been great difficulty in identifying Jonathan Chapin who married Elizabeth Burt. He was concerned in the Land Bank Scheme of 1740, though already living in King's Field, as Palmer was then called. The Land Bank was almost exclusively an Eastern Massachusetts enterprise, and the only other Chapins concerned in it were known to be of eastern families, rather than from the Connecticut Valley. Exhaustive study has been made of all possible Jonathans in this district; also careful study of Land Bank records, deeds, etc., and by a process of elimination we arrive at the theory that Jonathan, son of David and Lydia (Crump) Chapin is our best guess, but absolute proof is impossible." and has this Jonathan Chapin marrying one Elizabeth Burt on 20 April 1710 (location not stated), with one son, also Jonathan, born 8 July 1711.^[2]

The list of the participants in the 1740 Land Bank Scheme (NEHGR 50:103) identifies the concerned Jonathan Chapin as being of Kingsfleld, Kingstown or Brimfleld. This was almost certainly the younger Jonathan Chapin of Brimfield/Palmer since the elder is said to have died in 1710 and, if still alive, would have been 85 years of age.

Mr. Camp also has another Jonathan Chapin, born at Springfield, 23 September 1688, marrying one Elizabeth Burt on the same date at Springfield (p. 22). Willard Allen, in a serial article in NEHGR [32:303] says that Elizabeth, daughter of Jonathan Burt, born February 23, 1689, married Jonathan Chapin of Chicopee

The most reasonable conclusion is that Elizabeth Burt of Springfield married Jonathan Chapin, born at Springfield, 23 September 1688 and that the wife of this Jonathan Chapin, born 1655 in Boston, is unknown. Likewise, the date and place of birth of this man's (apparent) only child, Jonathan, is unknown.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States. Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699 (A Report of the Record Commissioners): Document 130. (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1883)
   95.

   "1655. Town [Record]. … Jonathan of David & Lydia Chapin born Feb. 12."

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} Jonathan Chapin, in Chapin, Gilbert Warren. The Chapin Book of Genealogical Data: With Brief Biographical Sketches Of the Descendants of Deacon Samuel Chapin. (Hartford, Conn.: Chapin Family Association (Hartford, Conneccticut), 1924)
   22.

   "Jonathan Chapin son. David & Lydia (Crump) Chapin. b. (Boston) Feb. 12, 1665, d. 1710, Monson, Mass."