John (Jack) Chapman 1885 – 1971 – Genealogical Records

Sources

Genealogy Event 1
Event Type: Birth
Event Date: 9 DEC 1885
Event Place: Westerton, Co. Durham
Record Source: As a child he was said to have been weak and unlikely to live to be 21, but he actually lived to the age of 85

Genealogy Event 2
Event Type: Baptism
Event Date: 19 SEP 1886
Event Place: Coundon, Co. Durham
Record Source: at the same time as his sister Sarah Jane.

Genealogy Event 3
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 5 APR 1891
Event Place: Quarry Houses, Westerton, Co. Durham
Record Source: living with his parents
Age:
5y

Genealogy Event 4
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 31 MAR 1901
Event Place: Quarry Houses, Westerton, Co. Durham
Record Source: living with his parents - he was a Coal Miner (Screener Labourer)
Age:
15y

Genealogy Event 5
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: FEB 1905
Record Source: he joined the Methodist Church at Westerton

Genealogy Event 6
Event Type: Occupation
Event Date: 12 APR 1912

Genealogy Event 7
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: ABT 1919
Record Source: John fell out with his sisters because none of them would look after their father following the death of their mother, so he was sent to the Workhouse

Genealogy Event 8
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: ABT 1925
Record Source: representing the Labour Party, he stood for election on Auckland Rural District Council as a Councillor for Old Park and Binchester. He defeated the Tory candidate, a Colliery Manager who had been his employer. When the result was announced the Tory refused to shake John's hand, and would not employ him again. John was a Councillor until at least 1933 and sat on several committees.

Genealogy Event 9
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: 1926
Record Source: during the General Strike he ran a soup kitchen at Binchester, which every day fed on average 90 people at breakfast and 100 at dinner-time on a daily outlay of about £3 ! He also kept the "laying-out board" at Binchester, which people borrowed to lay-out a deceased relative. He was also a Governor of the Alderman Wraith Secondary School in Spennymoor at some time.

Genealogy Event 10
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: 1929
Record Source: according to his daughter he was at some time the Agent for Hugh DALTON, who was the Labour M.P. for Bishop Auckland from 1929 to 1931 and again from 1935 to 1959, and in 1945 was Chancellor of the Exchequer following the defeat of Winston CHURCHILL's Government.

Genealogy Event 11
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: 31 JUL 1930
Record Source: John was sent a standard (printed) letter by King Edward V thanking everyone who had helped with "the Lord Mayor's Fund for the relief of the distressed mining areas".

Genealogy Event 12
Event Type: Occupation
Event Date: 21 JUN 1941
Record Source: responsible for sweeping and maintaining a length of the highway - on his son's Marriage Certificate he was described as a Durham County Highways Foreman.

Genealogy Event 13
Event Type: Occupation
Event Date: ABT 1942

Genealogy Event 14
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: ABT 1 FEB 1946
Record Source: daughter Mildred and her family came to live with them. "Pretoria House" was stone-built and comprised the original four rooms - a living room, sitting room, and two bedrooms. A small kitchenette had been added, and the toilet, which was originally outside the house had subsequently been connected to it by a passageway (as recently as the late-1940s squares of torn-up newspaper threaded on a piece of string were used as toilet paper !). An attached wooden greenhouse housed a poss-tub and mangle to do the washing. There was also a small detached timber garage, used as a shed. The house had not had a bathroom until son-in-law John sub-divided the kitchenette to make space for a bath. He also sub-divided one of the bedrooms. From the house several steps led down to a small garden, which appears to have originally formed part of one of several stone-quarries which surrounded Westerton - on one side of it was a rock-face which dropped several metres almost vertically from the adjacent road and had been turned into a rockery, on the other two sides the garden was perched on the edge of one of the several disused stone quarries in the village. Jack enjoyed gardening and had an allotment further down the village in which he grew vegetables. Amongst these were an unknown variety of everlasting onions, similar to clumps of spring onions, which are easily propagated by splitting them into individual onions and re-planting them as separate plants which quickly form new clumps. Descendants of these plants have survived several moves around the country where they are now grown by Jack's great-grandchildren. Nellie played the organ at Westerton Methodist Chapel, and had two pedal-operated organs at home. Mildred and her family lived at "Pretoria House" with her parents until about 1950.

Genealogy Event 15
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: ABT OCT 1951
Record Source: at the time of the General Election, Michael GOUNDRY remembers learning this little ditty from his mother:-
"Vote, vote, vote for Doctor DALTON,
Who's that a-knocking at the door ?
If it's BUTCHER* and his wife, we'll stab them with a knife,
And they won't come a-knocking any more !"
(* the Conservative candidate)

Genealogy Event 16
Event Type: Custom Event
Event Date: 1962
Record Source: after Nellie's death, he lived for several years with his daughter and son-in-law at 2 Earl's House Cottages, Hartside, near Durham City. He became unable to walk, possibly due to rheumatism, and eventually moved to a Care Home at Blackie Boy, on the outskirts of Durham City, where he died.

Genealogy Event 17
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 15 NOV 1971
Event Place: Durham City

Genealogy Event 18
Event Type: Burial
Event Date: NOV 1971
Event Place: South Road Cemetery, Durham City