CHAPPELL Bennet

Other Events and Attributes:

• Reference Number: 606

Notes:

Capt of the ship that came to Roanoke Island in June 1585 and dropped off the lost colonist. It is unknown if he returned to returned to England in 1586. His fate is unknown.


32. A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE CHAPPELL, DICKIE and other kindred families

CHAPTER II.
THE CHAPPELLS EMIGRATE TO AMERICA.-BENNET CHAPPELL (iS^S)--GEORGE CHAPPELL (1634).-ANDREW CHAPPELL (1634).-JOHN CHAPPELL OF WARWICK COUNTY (1635).- CAPTAIN JOHN CHAPPELL (1635).-THE "SPEEDWELL."- PERILS OF THE EARLY NAVIGATOR.-THE REDEMPTION.- THE LAND SYSTEM.-LATER CHAPPELL IMMIGRANTS.

The CHAPPELLS were among the first of the Anglo-Saxon race to come to the New World, and, having always been pioneers, their history is contemporaneous with the history of this country. In fact, the history of the family is so inter-woven with the early history of the country that the history of one cannot be written without embracing much that pertains to that of the other. The reader who follows the foot-steps of these early pioneers will therefore become familiar not only with the first settlement of the Colonies, but many of the States as well. Always on the frontier, driving back the Indian, blazing the way for civilization, and opening up new countries to settlement, they have contributed their full share in wresting from Nature the peace and comforts we now enjoy.

The colony that came to America in 1584, under the charter granted by Queen Elizabeth to Sir Walter Ealeigh, made no settlement. They coasted along up the Carolinas and named the country "Virginia," in honor of the "Virgin Queen." The settlement on Roanoke Island was reserved for the ensuing year, 1585, when, under the same charter, a colony of eight hundred landed and settled on the island, under the command of Sir Ralph Lane. Among the names of those who composed this colony - the very first English colony to settle in the Weste'rn Hemisphere - is that of Bennet Chappell. They arrived in June, and most of them returned in 1586, a single year having sufficed to disgust them with their lonely hamlet. The fate of those who remained was never known. Neither is the fate of Bennet Chappell known. He may have been one of the unfortunate ones who remained until 1587, and who, it has always been supposed, were massacred by the Indians: or he may have returned to England. All that we do know is that he was of the English family of CHAPPELLS from whom all in America are descended, and that he was of the first English colony in America.*

During the seventeenth and a part of the eighteenth centuries a record was kept, under the direction of the Government, at all ports of entry on the English seacoast, of emigrants to her colonies, and every subject, before embarking, was required to take the oath of allegiance to the King and the Established Church. These records have been preserved, and from them has been compiled, by John C. Hotten, a partial list of emigrants to the Colonies, including those in America.

In this list may be found the names of no less than" seven persons bearing the name "Chappell" who sailed from England between the years 1634 and 1685. Besides these, we find record of one Andrew Chappell, mariner, whose name does not appear on Hotten's list, from the fact, perhaps, that he was a member of a colony, and may not have been considered an emigrant.
The names found in the list are as follows:
1. George Chappell came "in y^e bark Christian, Joseph White, master." He sailed March 16, 1634, having first taken the oath of allegiance. His age was twenty. He came with a party called the "Stiles party," and landed at Massachusetts Bay, New England.
2. Captain John Chappell, of London, master of the ship Speedwell. Sailed Maif 28, 1635, from Southampton for the colony in Virginia.
3. Thomas Chappell, aged 23, sailed June 23, 1635, for Virginia, on the ship America, William Barker, master. He took the oath of allegiance. The America sailed from Gravesend, England.
4. John Chappell. aged 38. sailed on the ship Assurance July 24. 1635, from England to the colony in Virginia.
5. John Chappeil (rebel). This name appears in Sir William Booth's list of convicted rebel prisoners sent to the Island of Barbadoes,* August 9, 1685, by the ship John Friggart, of Bristol, England. The same John Chappeil was released in the following February, and embarked for America, but to what port is not stated. He was from Petherton, England.
Besides those mentioned above, we find one Jonah Chappell, in "y^e parish of Christ Church,⁷' Island of Barbadoes, December 22, 1679, who was the owner of neoro slaves; and one Joshua Chappeil, who seems to have sailed for America in 1678, and died on October 5th of that year. It is not probable that either Jonah or Joshua ever reached America.

*Hazard's "Historical Collections," p. 37. word is spelled "Maif," instead of May, in the original record.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Captain CHAPPELL John Thomas was born about 1590 in Southhampton London, England; died about 1635 in London, England.