machine for converting salt-water into fresh (described in the Philosophical Transactions for 1758?), and discovered a saurian, called after him Teleosaurus Chapmanni, William Chapman the younger, born in 1749, became an eminent engineer. He was a friend of Watt and Matthew Boulton [q. v.] He was engineer of the Kildare canal, and consulting engineer to the grand canal of Ireland. In conjunction with Kennie, he was engineer of the London Docks and of the south dock and basin at Hull. He was also engineer to Leith, Scarborough, and Seaham harbours, the last of which he constructed. In 1812 he patented a new locomotive to work on the Heaton railway, in which chains were so arranged that the wheels could never leave the rails, but it was found so clumsy in action that the plan was soon abandoned (Smiles, George Stephenson, p. 73). Chapman patented several other inventions and was the author of many essays and reports upon engineering subjects. He died on 19 May 1832.
His chief works are:
- 'Observations on the various Systems of Canal Navigation, with inferences practical and mathematical, in which Mr. Fulton's system of wheelboats and the utility of subterraneous and of small canals are particularly investigated,' 1797.
- 'Facts and Remarks relative to the Witham and the Welland,' &c., 1800.
- 'On the Improvement of Boston Haven,' 1800.
- 'Observations on the Prevention of a future Scarcity of Grain,' &c., 1803.
- 'Treatise on the progressive Endeavours to improve the Manufacturing of Cordage,' 1805, 1808.
- 'Observations on the proposed Corn Laws,' 1815.
- 'Treatise on the Preservation of Timber from premature Decay,' 1817.
Chapman contributed papers on the formation of mineral coal to Thomson's 'Annals of Philosophy' (1816), vii. 400, and on improvements in the old Rotterdam steam engine to the Rotterdam 'Niewe Verhandl.' (1800), i. 154-178.
[Information from Mr. J. H. Chapman, F.S.A.; Cat. Scientific Papers; Pantheon of the Age (1826), i. 329.]
CHAPONE, HESTER (1727–1801), essayist, was born on 27 Oct. 1727, at Twywell, Northamptonshire, her birthplace being a fine Elizabethan mansion, then standing on the north side of the church there (Cole, Memoirs of Mrs, Chapone, pp. 6, 8). Her father was Thomas Mulso; her mother, a remarkably beautiful woman, was a daughter of Colonel Thomas, himself known as 'Handsome Thomas' (Mrs. Chapon's Works and Life, 1807, i. 2). The two families of Mulso and Thomas were doubly connected by a marriage between Mr. Mulso s sister and Mrs. Mulso's brother, the Rev. Dr. Thomas, bishop successively of Peterborough, Salisbury, and Winchester. Hester had several brothers, but was the only daughter to survive childhood. She wrote a short romance, 'The Loves of Amoret and Melissa,' at nine years of age, and exhibited so much promise that her mother became jealous, and suppressed her child's literary efforts. When the mother died, Hester managed her father's house, and used the time she could spare from domestic duties to study French, Italian, Latin, music, drawing. She quickly attracted notice. Johnson admitted four billets of hers in the 'Rambler' on 21 April 1750 (Rambler, No. 10). Visiting an aunt, a widowed Mrs. Donne, at Canterbury, she came to know Duncombe and Elizabeth Carter [q. v.]; and through 'Clarissa worship ' she made acquaintance with Richardson and Thomas Edwards, to whom she wrote an ode (Nichols, Lit. Anecd, ii. 201, note). Miss Talbot wrote to Elizabeth Carter 17 Dec. 1750, 'Pray, who and what is Miss Mulso?' and declared that she honoured her, and wanted to know more of her (Mrs. Carter, Letters, i. 370–3). In her correspondence with Richardson she signed herself his 'ever obliged' and affectionate child;' and in Miss Highmore's drawing of Richardson reading 'Sir Charles Grandison' to his friends in his grotto at North End, Hammersmith, she occupies the central place. Richardson, who called her 'a little spitfire,' delighted in her sprightly conversation; she called 'Rasselas' on its first appearance 'an ill-contrived, unfinished, unnatural, and uninstructive tale.' After an illness caught during a visit to her uncle, Dr. Thomas, bishop of Peterborough, Hester Mulso sent an 'Ode to Health' to Miss Carter from London on 12 Nov. 1751. Another 'Ode' sent to Miss Carter was printed with that lady's 'Epictetus.' Miss Mulso paid a visit to Miss Carter at Deal in the August of 1752. In July and August of 1753 she contributed the 'Story of Fidelia' to Hawkesworth's 'Adventurer' (Nos. 77-9), and was frequently Richardson's guest at North End the same year. She was present at a large party there when Dr. Johnson brought Anna Williams with him, and she states that he looked after the poor afflicted lady 'with all the loving care of a fond father to his daughter' (Works and Life, i. 72-4).
Miss Mulso met an attorney named Chapone, to whom Richardson had shown many attentions, and she fell in love with him. Mr. Mulso would not at first hear of the marriage, but he yielded in 1760. Before obtaining her father's consent Miss Mulso wrote
