34

Jonathan Trumbull.

Commission for John Chapman as "captain of the guard on board the prison ship."

Hartford, CT, 25 May 1782
Partly printed Document Signed as governor of Connecticut with his paper seal, and by George Wyllys as secretary. One page, 7½ x 11¾ inches, plus docketing on verso; two short repairs on verso, folds, minor foxing.

"To John Chapman, you being by the Governor & Council of Safety of this state appointed to be Captain of the Guard on board the prison ship taken up by a number of merchants in this state for the purpose of confining naval prisoners." 

This commission was issued to John Chapman (1738-1788) of New London, CT, a veteran sea captain who had served as an officer on the Connecticut Navy ship Oliver Cromwell earlier in the war. He was captured in 1779 and imprisoned on the infamous HMS Jersey prison ship, and was fortunate to be exchanged a month later.

Records show that the prison ship Retaliation was placed in the Thames River harbor at New London in May 1782, with 116 prisoners. Chapman's service as its captain was brief and disastrous. Eight days after this commission was signed, the bulk of the prisoners rose up against the guards, took muskets, and fled by the boats (New London Gazette, 7 June 1782). About 80 prisoners escaped and 26 of them remained at large in the Connecticut countryside. Chapman was relieved of his duties on 10 June, and the remaining prisoners were transferred to nearby Fort Trumbull. 

Chapman drowned six years later, while attempting to land a boatload of Irish immigrants on nearby Fishers Island for quarantine.

Provenance: autograph collection of Edward A. Crowninshield (1817-1859); his Leonard & Co. auction in Boston, 1 November 1859, lot 92. 

With--an 1863 engraving of Governor Trumbull.

 

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