Henry Samuel Chapman

Henry Samuel Chapman was born on July 21, 1803, in Kennington, London, to Henry Chapman and Ann Davies. He was educated privately in Bromley, Kent, and began his career in a bank in 1818. In 1823, he moved to Quebec, Canada, where he worked as a commission merchant and later co-founded the Montreal Daily Advertiser in 1833 with Samuel Revans. Returning to England in 1835, Chapman studied law and was admitted to the bar of the Middle Temple in 1840. He also engaged in journalism and Liberal reform movements, contributing to Royal Commissions and the Encyclopædia Britannica.

Chapman became a prominent figure in New Zealand affairs, publishing journals and advocating for colonial self-government. In 1843, he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, where he delivered an influential judgment on native title in R v Symonds (1847). In 1852, he moved to Van Diemen's Land as Colonial Secretary but faced dismissal due to disagreements over transportation policies. He then practiced law in Melbourne and introduced the secret ballot system in Victoria, drafting the bill that became law in 1856.

Chapman later served as a judge in Victoria and New Zealand, retiring in 1875 to pursue commerce and sheep farming. He married twice: first to Catherine DeLancy Brewer, who drowned with their children in 1866, and then to Selina Frances Carr. His sons went on to distinguished legal careers in New Zealand. Chapman died of cancer in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1881.