Frederick William Chapman gave his name to the town of Frederickton N.S.W Extract from "Macleay Valley Heritage" Introduced and illustrated by Les Graham and Text by Marie H. Neil Tonatiuh Press 1978 Pages 85 to 88 . Frederickton was once part of the vast Yarrabandinni run which had Christmas Creek as its southern boundary, and which extended north into the swampy plains and west to the hilly country. Yarrabandinni was acquired by William Henry Chapman in 1837, when its riverside land was covered with thick brush forest. It was the cedar in this forest which was responsible for the establishment of Yarrabandinni, just as it had been for the establishment of Euroka further up the river. Before settling in the Macleay valley, William Henry Chapman had been a prosperous shipbuilder at Millers Point, Sydney. His ships were engaged in the whaling and cedar trade. Chapman had a manager in the Macleay district to supervise his cedar interests there.
In 1836 the manager's position was taken over by Henry St. John Cahuac, who was a chose friend of Chapman. Cahuac became interested in the establishment of cattle stations in the valley, and advised Chapman or their advantages. As a result, grazing licences were taken out for Euroka in 1836 and forYarrabandinni in 1837. James Cheers was given the position of superintendent at Yarrabandinni. Henry Cahuac lived at Euroka with his family, but proved to be a less successful manager for Chapman's interests than his predecessor. In 1839 William Chapman decided to take over his Macleay River interests himself. He wound up his Sydney affairs, selling his wharf, stores and shipbuilding site for over £6,000 ($12,000).
Mrs. Chapman and their six children went ahead to the Macleay River, travelling by steamer to Port Macquarie. A boating crew was hired to row them and their luggage up the Maria River to the head of navigation at Boat Harbour. It was sunset when they arrived at Boat Harbour, and there were still fourteen kilometres of rough country to he crossed before they could reach Euroka, where they were to stay with the Cahuacs. They set off in the dark in a bullock dray, but kept running into trees along the unmade road. The boys searched the forest for bark to make torches to light the way. It took them six hours to reach the Cahuac home in its forest setting beside the Macleay River. William Chapman arrived soon after, and went ahead to cedar-cutting for house building. A large barn stood on the station, so he filled in the gaps m the walls, had slab partitions erected inside, smoothed the slab floor with an adze and brought his family home.
When the furniture arrived, in one of the Chapman ships which had been retained for the Macleay trade, Mrs. Chapman took her carpets and oil-cloth floor coverings and fastened them over the rough walls. With a huge open fireplace at one end of the barn and a kitchen outside, the family settled happily into their new way of life Under the competent management of William Chapman Yarrabandinni prospered. The surplus cattle were slaughtered and the beef salted down in casks to be sold. A dairy was established from which cheese and butter were sent to the stores at Port Macquarie. Skilled ploughmen from England were engaged to plough the cultivation paddocks with horses, replacing the unskilled men who had used bullock teams .
Within two years a large weatherboarded and shingle-roofed home had been erected, and Yarrabandinni had become well-known for its efficiency and hospitality. When James Cheers married the eldest Chapman daughter in 1841, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman and the rest of the family returned to Sydney so that the boys could he educated. The young Cheers were left in charge at Yarrabandinni. In Sydney, Chapman became the City Auctioneer, living on the corner of George and Hunter Streets with an Auction Mart on the premises. All went well until the economic depression deepened, and the auction business and the Macleay River stations were threatened.
The Sydney business was sold for £15,000 ($30,000). William and Ann Chapman and their family returned again to the Macleay valley. By then the cedar business on the river had ended. Station cattle could not be sold. The wheat crops, which had given promise of success, had developed rust and blight and had to be abandoned. A boiling down works was established on the station. The hides of the cattle were sold and tallow shipped away in casks. The growing sons worked hard to run Yarrabandinni, the two adjacent Chapman stations, Bellimbopinni and Tanban, and the heifer outstation near the Bellinger River. William Chapman returned to shipbuilding once more. His ship launchings on the Macleay River were occasions of festivity, with friends coming from near and far to join in the gaiety.
The well-bred Chapman horses also sold well,~and once or twice a year the sons took mobs of them overland to Maitland to ship them to Sydney. From there they were sent to India Later, fine draught horses were bred on the station. Through all the troubled years William Chapman remained a resourceful, efficient manager of his affairs. Complete prosperity did not return until the Australian gold rushes began in the early 1850s. In 1853, when Frederick Chapman, the eldest son, married Jane Scott of Port Macquarie, Mr. and Mrs. Chapman once more returned to Sydney. Yarrabandinni was left in the capable hands of Frederick Chapman, who purchased some of the station land under pre-emptive right.
In 1857 this land was subdivided to form the private town which he named Frederickton.
Below Kempsey the Macleay turns in a north-easterly direction as it makes it way to the sea at Trial Bay. On both banks are fertile flood plains where dairy cattle graze peacefully. The Pacific Highway runs along the left bank through Glenrock, the site of another early cattle station, and crosses Christmas Creek before reaching the little town of Frederickton.
On the riverbank nearby a shipbuilder names Gillies had an extensive shipbuilding establishment in 1840 and 1841 when the cedar trade flourished along the river. In 1843 it was taken over by Christopher Lawson, who continued to build ships there for the busy coastal trade.
On a hill to the north of Frederickton the old public school complex, designed by the architect J. Horbury Hunt, attracts many visitors. Two of Christopher Lawson's sons had the contract for its construction. Its foundation stone, laid in 1879, was placed by Mrs. Ann Chapman, the mother of Frederick Chapman after whom Frederickton was named.
The eighteen windows in the main school room, when it was completed, created considerable interest. They were described as 'lead lights', and had glass cut in squares of four inches and fastened together with narrow strips of lead. Each square of glass had a flower burnt into it. Each of the windows had a large pane of glass with a bird or a beast on it, the end windows having the bird or beast within a circle with birds and beasts radiating all round.
A newspaper description of the school room suggested that the windows 'may be said to be both ornamental and useful, for they can be utilised for the purpose of giving the children object lessons as well as instruction in natural history.' The 1879 school residence, also, had unusual features for the time. On the back verandah two ship's tanks were fixed for holding water, while in the kitchen a neat galvanised iron sink was fixed with a pipe to carry off waste water, 'a convenience seldom met with, but very necessary.' The usual knocker on the door was replaced with a doorbell whereby the visitor pressed on the handle, a spring was shifted and the striker hit the bell. J. Horbury Hunt's signature may be said to have been added to this old school building by his addition of a bell tower above the roof, with a weather pen and lightning conductor on its top.
The school was built to serve the rapidly growing community in the district which developed when maize farming became a way of life for the settlers who followed the squatters. Dairy cattle now graze where the maize fields flourished. A large factory at Frederickton produces high quality butter and cheese. His father also made several large purchases of portions of Yarrabandinni and Euroka stations before he died in Sydney in 1857, aged fifty-six.
He was buried in the cemetery attached to St. Stephen's Church at Camperdown. Mrs. Ann Chapman lived in the Macleay valley until her death in 1889, but, without the guiding hand of her astute and capable husband, her land, and that of her family, soon passed to other hands. William, Henry Chapman of Yarrabandinni was not only a businessman of exceptional ability, but was public-spirited and possessed of truly humane qualities. His convict servants and the local Aborigines held him in high regard. Among his descendants were many who became highly successful in civic and cultural spheres, not only in Australia, but overseas.
Ann Chapman's grave in West Kempsey
The details on her headstone is as follows: "Sacred to the memory of ANN CHAPMAN who died 31st August 1889 Aged 85 years relict of the late W.H. Chapman formerly of Yarrabandini, Macleay River"
Near Ann Chapman's grave there are seven other Chapman graves. The details on their headstones are as follows" "Frederick J Chapman Died 29-7-1959 Aged 81" Beside this grave: "Emma J. Chapman Died 31 Aug 1956 Aged 86" "Ada Margaret Chapman Died 1-8-1960 Aged 89" "W.H. Chapman Died 11-2-1972 Aged 84" "A.E. (Bert) Chapman Died 1-7-72 Aged 69" "George J. Chapman Died 28-7-1882 Aged 51
Some memoirs written by Frederick W. Chapman in October 1908. It is titled "Early days on the Macleay River" It was lent by a K. Kennedy to the Public Library New South Wales in 1968. . From the local history books in the Kempsey Shire Library . The six children of William and Ann Chapman (nee Chevans) were Frederick, (married ? Dornan), William Edward, (married Ann Wilson), George (Married Clara Brown), Elizabeth, (married James Cheers) and two other daughters. W.H.Chapman took up a squatting station at Yarrabandinni in 1841. He lost two of his ships in 1852, the schooners "Glenduart" and "Pompoy". W.H.C. died in 1857 the same year Frederick set up the village of Frederickton. In 1861 the first school was opened in Frederickton. In 1862 Frederick donated the land for the Wesleyan Chapel in Frederickton.
Frederick William Chapman February 6, 1920"
. The death occurred at the age of 94 of Mr Frederick William Chapman, a former well-known resident of the Macleay River after whom the township of Frederickton was named. Deceased, who married Miss Agnes Scott, a member of another well-known Macleay family, was a prominent church man and at one time read the services at Frederickton. He was also a keen yachtsman and took an active part in the Frederickton Regatta.
The late Mr. Chapman was born in Princes Street, Sydney in 1826 and educated at Sydney College (Now Sydney Grammar School). After a few years mercantile experience in the shipping business of his father (then owner of "Towns" wharf) he went with his parents to the Macleay River about 1849 where Yarrabandini, Yarrahappini, Tennessee and other pastoral properties were acquired. Sheep-raising was attempted on a moderate scale without success. The runs were then stocked with horses and cattle - a central cooperage and meatworks being established for the use of the several stations. Most of the meat production was packed in casks and shipped. Prime bullocks in those days were worth about £3 a head.
The deceased left the Macleay about 1873 and
removed to the Clarence where he embarked in business as a timber
merchant, having his own steam sawmill and principally exporting
hardwoods. A1though from one 640-acre block on the Clarence River
end of the Dorrigo Plateau he took over 750,000 super feet of
cedar, there was quite as much pine as cedar on the block which
it did not pay to remove. The late Mr. Chapman was appointed a
Magistrate in 1869 and for some years acted as Commissioner for
Crown Lands. For six successive years he was Mayor of Grafton.
The late Mr. Chapman retired to Sydney some years ago, making his home at
Randwick."