caption box_width death_date death_place birth_place citizenship image_size nationality ethnicity fields birth_date article_title name
dr william chapman , first gp for waikouaiti . 300px 1867 waikouaiti , new zealand headlam , durham , england british 250px british english medicine 13 may 1797 william chapman -lrb- doctor -rrb-
 william chapman
william chapman -lrb- doctor -rrb-

doctor william chapman was born 13 may 1797 at headlam hall , durham , england .
he was the second son of john chapman esq. , and his wife mary chapman -lrb- née robinson -rrb- of alwent hall in the county of durham .
as a young man , he went to london to train as a medical practitioner .
at the age of 30 he married sarah lisgo of durham and they had three sons and four daughters .
at an early stage in his life he recognised the necessity for scenic reserves and recreational areas in london and he was appointed a director of the kew botanical gardens .
later he was instrumental in planting the willows along the avon river in christchurch , new zealand .
he was a member of the royal college of surgeons .
being resourceful , they decided to emigrate to new zealand as there was a need for medical people in the canterbury settlement .
so , at the age of 53 he and his family embarked on the sailing ship labuan -lsb- http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nzbound/labuan.htm] , on which he was surgeon .
this vessel carried 137 passengers bound for port cooper -lrb- now lyttelton , port of christchurch -rrb- .
dr. chapman was charged with appointing various staff -lrb- including a constable and a matron for single females -rrb- from the `` most intelligent of the steerage passengers '' .
he was also supplied with ` vaccine lymph ' against smallpox and a medecine against cholera ' -lrb- even though the cause of cholera was yet to be discovered in 1854 -rrb- .
as they were not sure of the building possibilities in the new colony , dr chapman brought the sections of a house to be erected when they arrived , as well as furniture to furnish it with .
he brought bundles of seeds , plants and shrubs as well as a hive of bees and other items he considered useful for the new settlement .
sadly , soon after they docked , his eldest teenage son died .
from port cooper , the family went to christchurch where dr chapman had purchased a 50 acre block of land on lincoln road , addington , from the canterbury association for 150 nz pounds .
when he sold it , -lrb- selling off various parcels in the next 10 years -rrb- he made a tidy profit of 1125nz pounds !
at the behest of johnny jones -lrb- nz pioneer/entrepreneur -rrb- in 1861 , the chapmans moved to waikouaiti , as gp for johnny jones ' settlement there .
dr chapman worked there until his death .
william and sarah are both buried in st john 's churchyard , waikouaiti .
two of their daughters married johnny jones ' sons and became very wealthy women .
william and sarah 's son , john alwent chapman , never married and became a businessman , moving to dunedin probably in the early 1870s .
he established himself as a mining agent and sharebroker having dealings with the jones family .
george carr chapman became the postmaster at waikouaiti upon lodging of a 200nzp bond made by william chapman and johnny jones .
