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His paternal ancestor came to Virginia with the very first colony, 

 under the auspices of Raleigh, to whom he was nearly related by 

 blood. He had been a captain of cavalry in the British army, and 

 received a considerable grant of land in the new territory, upon 

 which his distinguished kinsman had just bestowed the appellation 

 of the Virgin Queen. 



The old seat of the Chapman family in Virginia is still in their 

 possession, on the river Pomonkey, some twenty miles above Rich- 

 mond. A branch of the family, about the year 1700, migrated to 

 the adjoining State of Maryland, and fixed itself on the banks of 

 the Potomac, nearly opposite Mount Vernon. They retained the 

 designation of the ancient settlement, and called the new estate 

 Pomonkey. From this branch Dr. Chapman is descended. 



His father, however, returned to Virginia upon his marriage, and 

 passed his life there. His wife was of that Scotch stock, of which 

 so many were attracted to Virginia, in the early days of her tobacco 

 trade. She was the daughter of Allan Macrae, of Dumfries, in 

 Virginia, a merchant and tobacco factor, who accumulated a large 

 fortune, which he bequeathed to his children. 



Nathaniel Chapman, the second son of George Chapman and 

 Amelia Macrae, was born on the 28th May, 1780, at his father's 

 seat, Summer Hill, in Fairfax County, Virginia, on the banks of the 

 Potomac. The ancient town of Alexandria, then the capital of north- 

 eastern Virginia, was within a few miles of the seat of the Chap- 

 mans ; and about equidistant stood the future site of Washington. 

 At Alexandria, not many months before the birth of Chapman, in 

 the December of the preceding year, was born another distinguished 

 physician, who for nearly fifty years shared with him the best prac- 

 tice of Philadelphia, — Joseph Hartshorne. 



These young men, destined in after life, in a distant city, to a long 

 career of honorable rivalry, received the foundation of their scholastic 

 education together, at the classical academy of Alexandria, founded 

 by General Washington, and then under the direction of his able and 

 accomplished friend and chaplain, the Rev. Dr. McGrath. Chap- 

 man remained here six years. Subsequently, for brief periods, he 

 was an inmate of two other colleges, to neither of which, however, 

 did he consider himself under any obligation. 



The academical training of the Alexandria College must have been 

 superior. Hartshorne and Chapman were both distinguished for 

 thoroughness and accuracy of scholarship, and, through life, beyond 



