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CHAPMAN, HENRY SAMUEL (1803-81) was born at Kennington, London, on 21 Jul 1803, the son of Henry Chapman, for many years connected with the department which had the duty of constructing barracks and defensive works throughout the Kingdom. The elder Chapman was secretary and afterwards one of the higher officials under the American loyalist general, Oliver de Lancey.

Young Chapman was educated partly at the private school of Mr Peters at Bromley, in Kent, and partly on the continent. Owing to defective eyesight, he left school at an early age, but he cultivated a love of literature, and on the Continent and in Canada acquired a good facility in French and German. He also indulged in rowing and skating. Chapman first took a position with Esdaile's Bank in London, but soon transferred to the office of a Dutch financial agent in the city. In 1822 he was sent on a mission to Holland, where he profited by a winter spent in Amsterdam to acquire a knowledge of Dutch. In 1823, while still in his teens, he commenced his colonial career as a merchant in Quebec, with connections in England and New York. In Canada he spent 10 years, doing well enough without amassing a fortune. Each winter he visited England, keeping in touch with old friends, and in particular with John Stuart Mill. In summer he made extended business tours in North America, which had a profound influence upon his later life. On a steamboat excursion on the lakes in 1824, he made the acquaintance of John A. Roebuck, with whom he was afterwards closely associated.

In 1833 Chapman went again to Canada. Impressed with the justice of the Canadian demand for self-government, he took a printing press and settled down in Montreal, where, with Revans (q.v.), he established the Montreal Daily Advertiser. He did most of the literary work himself for the Advertiser and other papers issued from the same office. His friendship with Papineau, the Liberal leader, ripened; and through him Chapman made his first public speech in French. The paper was intensely disliked by the dominant party and did not achieve permanent success. In 1834 Chapman disposed of his interest and returned to England as the agent of the Liberal parliamentary party in Canada. This brought him into close touch with leading reformers of the time (including Buller, Ricardo, Mill, E. G. Wakefield, and Dr Evans). He assisted Roebuck in the compilation of his pamphlets (in every number of which he had an article) and in other ways promoted the demand of the Canadian Liberals for representative government. When Roebuck got into Parliament again in 1837 he became the parliamentary agent for the Canadian Liberals, as Burke had been of the American loyalists, and with the changes resulting from the Papineau rebellion, Chapman's arrangement came to an end. He then devoted himself more to journalism and the writing of pamphlets in the cause of colonial reform. It has been suggested that Chapman had an active part in the Papineau rising, but he had left Canada two years earlier, and was in no way involved. He always regarded the resort to arms as a mistake. Revans, however, was deeply involved and fled from Canada. In the late thirties Chapman read for the bar as the pupil of Dodgson, an eminent pleader, and he was called at the Middle Temple on 12 Jun 1840. A week earlier he was married to Catherine, daughter of T. G. Brewer, barrister, of Nottingham place. As a beginner, Chapman had a fair practice on the Northern Circuit, but he still relied for his main income upon journalism, writing to the reviews and many pamphlets on economics. This work, about 1832, brought him into close touch with Cobden. A lifelong free-trader, he took an active part in the anti-corn law agitation. He was also employed on various royal commissions, including that relating to the condition of the handloom weavers of Yorkshire. This experience resulted in his being asked to write the article on wool and woollen manufacturing in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the mechanical drawings for which he did himself. He then pointed out to the editor that New Zealand had been omitted from the work, and he was commissioned to write it. But, as the letter 'N' had been passed the article had to be placed under 'Z'. Chapman was deeply interested in the New Zealand project of Wakefield, and in Feb 1840 published the first issue of his New Zealand Journal, which he brought out continuously (as editor and owner-proprietor) until the middle of 1843. Owing to the indifferent health of his wife he contemplated living in New Zealand. The opportunity came in 1843, when Lord Derby appointed him a judge of the Supreme Court for the southern division (which included Wellington and Nelson). He sailed with his wife and son in the Bangalore in Jun 1843 (amongst the passengers being Governor FitzRoy). At Sydney Chapman renewed his acquaintance with Robert Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke). While there he reported favourably to the government on the system of having a resident judge at Port Phillip. At Auckland on 26 Dec the Governor and the judge took their oaths of office. Chapman lived at Wellington for the next nine years. During the native troubles of 1846 his home at Karori was one of the defensive posts against possible attacks. When the two judges (Martin, C.J., and Chapman) had to confer on the making of rules they met in Taranaki. The vessel in which Chapman took his passage landed him at Kawhia from which he had to walk back to New Plymouth and later to Wellington.

In 1852, unsought by himself, Chapman was appointed Colonial Secretary in Van Diemen's Land (under the governorship of Denison). There he found public opinion highly incensed against the Colonial Office and the Governor on the question of transportation. When a division was forced in the Council lifelong convictions compelled Chapman to side with the colonists, and he declined to vote. Denison was furious at the recalcitrance of his new official, and Chapman had to sacrifice his post to his convictions and proceed on leave to London to place his case before the Colonial Office. Transportation was soon abolished and responsible government granted later to both Tasmania and Victoria. Having declined a governorship in the West Indies, Chapman in 1854 took passage in the Lightning to Victoria, and engaged in a lucrative practice in Melbourne. In 1855 he was elected to the Legislative Council (still partly nominated) for the district of South Bourke. The Ballarat riots brought him into prominence as counsel for some of the accused, who were acquitted. In the last session of the Council in 1855 Chapman and others tried to have inserted in the reform bill provision for the ballot system of voting. It was carried against the government with the assistance of the votes of eight members sent from the goldfields (including Vincent Pyke, q.v.). Chapman's part in this episode proved to be of considerable future importance. When the vote was carried against the government the Attorney-general (Stawell) refused to draft the ballot clauses. Nicholson, the merchant who had carried the resolution, was unable to do so, and a meeting of his supporters appointed Chapman to draw the clauses. The result was the scheme now known as 'the Australian ballot.' It discarded the method of the voter putting a mark against the name of the favoured candidate, in favour of striking out the names of those not favoured. This idea was Chapman's.

At the first elections under the new constitution (1856) Chapman was defeated, but in Mar 1857 O'Shanassy persuaded him to accept office as Attorney-general, and a seat was soon found for him (for Rodney) by the resignation of Mr Baragwanath. The ministry lasted only four or five weeks. Within a year the succeeding government was defeated and Chapman was entrusted with the formation of a ministry. O'Shanassy again became Premier, and remained there for 18 months. He was on bad terms with the Governor (Sir Henry Barkly), and the ministry was kept together mainly by the tact of the Attorney-general. The government's defeat in Oct 1859 practically marked the end of Chapman's political career. He was returned late in 1861 as member for Mornington, but a few months later was appointed a temporary puisne judge. After serving on the bench for a considerable time he returned to his practice and resumed an appointment he had previously held as lecturer in law at Melbourne University (where he was vice-president of the forensic society). In journalism he was Melbourne correspondent of the London Times.

Early in 1864 Chapman accepted a new appointment to the New Zealand bench and in Apr took up his duties at Dunedin, where he was to live for the remainder of his life. Besides earning credit for sound law and patient and painstaking administration of his office, he took a keen interest in the Otago community. He was a member of the council of Otago University (1870-81) and chancellor (1876-79). He was a strong supporter of the Otago Institute, before which he read an important paper on the political economy of railways. He was a lover and patron of music in all its forms. In business life he was a director of the Victoria Insurance Co. after his retirement from the bench, and for a while he had an interest in a run in the Maniatoto district.

Early in 1866 Mrs Chapman and two of her sons and a daughter were drowned when the ship London foundered in the Bay of Biscay. In 1868 Chapman married (in Victoria) Selina Frances, daughter of the Rev T. C. Carr, rector of Aghavoe, Queen's county, Ireland, and a sister of the police magistrate at Avoca. He visited England and returned to New Zealand in 1870. Five years later he retired from the bench. He was granted the title of 'honourable' in 1877. He died on 27 Dec 1881 and his widow on 27 Dec 1902. (See SIR FREDERICK CHAPMAN.)

Family information from Sir F. R. Chapman; Cycl. N.Z., iv (p); Scott; Chapman papers in Canadian Archives; J. A. Roebuck, Pamphlets for the People (Van Diemen's Land); Cox; Wakelin; Godley, Letters; Melbourne Herald, 20 Dec 1855; Otago Daily Times, 28 Dec 1881, 7, 24 Jan 1893, 12 Sep 1930 (P). Portrait: Supreme Court, Dunedin.