Arthur Chapman (agent)
Arthur Chapman (1838 – 8 May 1909) was a businessman in Adelaide, South Australia, closely associated with the Theatre Royal, Adelaide. History. James Chapman, a tailor and draper of Kent, England, emigrated to South Australia with his wife Mary and their seven children aboard "Rajah", arriving at Adelaide in April 1850. He founded a drapery on Hindley Street, at that time the premier business strip in the young city. Arthur Chapman was educated at J. L. Young's Adelaide Educational Institution and began working for his father, then after some experience at the gold diggings at Goulburn, Victoria , where he worked as assistant in a general store for three years, returned to Adelaide and took up some clerical work. He then went into business on his own account at the Register Chambers as liquidator, in 1869 taking on Michael Kingsborough as partner, in Kingsborough & Chapman, land agents and investment brokers, with an office in the Advertiser Building. Among their staff was Harry Dickson Gell, later chairman of trustees of the State Bank. They dissolved the partnership seven years later, and in 1886 Chapman went into business as hotel broker and licensed valuator, with an office in Pirie Street . On the death that year of his brother Edgar Chapman, of the brewing firm of Simms & Chapman, he took over management of his estate, which included the Theatre Royal in Hindley Street, though he was acting for the ailing brother as early as 1883, In January 1885 he had joined George Rignold and James Allison as lessee and in December they withdrew from the partnership, leaving Chapman as sole manager until Wybert Reeve became lessee in 1887. Chapman initiated extensive alterations in 1905 at a cost of over £4,000 and a rebuild of the theatre in 1913–1914 at a  cost of £21,000. He was a prominent Freemason. Family. James Chapman (1804 – 15 June 1879) married Mary Stanford (1804 – September 1895). Their children included: