William Chapman (doctor)

William Chapman was a nineteenth-century English medical practitioner who spent the last part of his career as a family doctor in New Zealand. Born on 13 May 1797 at Headlam Hall in County Durham, he trained in London, became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and was appointed a director of the Kew Botanical Gardens. In his early fifties he emigrated with his family to the Canterbury settlement, serving as surgeon on the sailing ship Labuan, which carried 137 passengers to Port Cooper, and he was supplied with smallpox vaccine lymph and a cholera medicine for the voyage. After settling near Christchurch he moved in 1861 to Waikouaiti, where he worked as the general practitioner for the settlement of Johnny Jones until his death in 1867.