Deacon Samuel Chapin

Samuel Chapin (bp October 8, 1598 – November 11, 1675) was a prominent early settler of Springfield, Massachusetts. He served the town as selectman, magistrate and deacon (in the Massachusetts Bay Colony there was little separation between the church and government). Chapin is best known today as the subject of the Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculpture entitled Deacon Samuel Chapin (also known as The Puritan).

Chapin was born in Paignton (near Torquay), Devon, England, to John Chapin and Phillipe Easton. His baptism is recorded as October 8, 1598.

On February 9, 1623/4, Samuel married Cicely Penny. They had seven children: David, Catherine, Sarah, Josiah, Henry, Japhet and Hannah. The oldest five children were born in England and the last two in Massachusetts, Japhet in Roxbury and Hannah in Springfield.

He immigrated to America either with or shortly after William Pynchon, between 1630 and 1635, and became a full member of John Eliot's congregation at Roxbury (later incorporated into the city of Boston). The Chapins lived in Roxbury till the close of the year 1642, as on 15 of October of that year Japhet was baptized there. Soon after this, however, they must have moved to Springfield, for we find them there in January 1642/3.

On 26 September 1644, Samuel Chapin was chosen for a committee of five to order the prudential affairs of the town. This prudential committee was in reality the first board of Selectmen in Springfield. The Selectmen, or Townsmen as they were sometimes called, were generally five in number. They were elected by a vote of all the freemen of the town at the town meeting, and were to serve for one year. They settled disputes, heard complaints, admitted inhabitants, regulated highways, bridges, fences, finances, etc., and had a general supervision over all the affairs of the town.

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