Robert Hett Chapman

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1812 to 1816 Robert H. Chapman leads the organizing of a Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill Kemp Battle credited Robert H. Chapman, president of the university from 1812 to 1816, as the chief factor in organizing a Presbyterian church at Chapel Hill; Chapman required students to study the Bible as a textbook, and the tutor James E. Morrison credited him with a moral change in the university. Cornelia Phillips Spencer wrote that the village's first church organization was Presbyterian, under either Chapman or Caldwell, and that Orange Presbytery's records for 1812-1827 had burned, so the church's first record is from 1827. Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: James E. MorrisonSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 240 · Also: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Presbyterian Church in Chapel Hill
2. December 12, 1812 Robert H. Chapman is elected president as Caldwell returns to teaching mathematics Caldwell asked to give up the presidency to finish his geometry and study astronomy. The board accepted his resignation, elected the Presbyterian minister Chapman president at $1,200 a year and kept Caldwell as professor of mathematics at $1,000. People: Joseph Caldwell, William Hawkins, Robert Hett Chapman Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 231
3. January 1814 Caldwell takes students before a justice of the peace over attacks on President Chapman's property After night raids on Chapman's stable, cart and gate, and tar and feathers on his gatepost, Caldwell asked justice Pleasant Henderson for a general warrant. Refused, he named five students, and a hearing questioned the student body under oath. People: Joseph Caldwell, Pleasant Henderson, Robert Hett Chapman Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 233
4. about 1815 Robert H. Chapman serves New Hope as stated supply After James H. Bowman left, Chapman supplied the New Hope pulpit about 1815. People: Robert Hett Chapman Place: New Hope · Also named: James H. BowmanSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: D. I. Craig, Historical Sketch of New Hope Church in Orange County, N.C. (1891), p. 27
5. 1816 University enrollment rises from eighty to ninety-one during 1816 The university had eighty students at the beginning of 1816, rising to ninety-one by the end of the year. In 1815 its faculty numbered five: President Robert Chapman, Professor Joseph Caldwell, senior tutor William Hooper and two other tutors. People: Robert Hett Chapman, Joseph Caldwell Place: Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina · Also named: William HooperSearch the index · Internet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 29 (1952), p. 192
6. September 18, 1816 Senior William B. Shepard speaks forbidden political passages and sets off a student revolt Chapman had struck Republican passages from Shepard's oration and ordered him to sit when he spoke them anyway, but students cheered him on and the next day met in the chapel to back him. The trustees expelled Shepard and George C. Dromgoole, others were suspended, and most of the rest signed apologies. People: Robert Hett Chapman Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: William Biddle Shepard, George C. DromgooleSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 235
7. November 23, 1816 Robert H. Chapman resigns the university presidency At the first board meeting after the Shepard affair Chapman resigned, saying he wished to give himself to the ministry. The trustees made it effective at once, paid him half a year's salary and let him keep the president's house to the end of the session. People: Duncan Cameron, Robert Hett Chapman Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 239