{{Infobox Christian leader | honorific_prefix = The Right Reverend | name = James Chapman | title = Bishop of Colombo | image = James Chapman D.D. 001.jpg | church = Anglican Church of Ceylon | appointed = 1845 | began = 7 November 1845 | ended = 1861 | birth_date = 1799 | death_date = {{Death year and age|1879|1799}} | alma_mater = Eton College; King's College, Cambridge | nationality = British | profession = clergyman | religion = Anglican | diocese = Diocese of Colombo }}
'''James Chapman''' (1799–1879) was the first Anglican Bishop of Colombo, in British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), serving from 1845 to 1861.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.stcmount.sch.lk/history/colhis1.html |title=S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia |access-date=2009-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311133255/http://www.stcmount.sch.lk/history/colhis1.html |archive-date=2009-03-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Life == He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1823, and Cambridge Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in 1826.<ref name="bells" /> He was made deacon in Ely in 1824 and ordained priest the next year in Chichester.<ref name="acad">{{Acad|id=CHPN819J|name=Chapman, James}}</ref> He became a Fellow of King's College, one of the Masters of Eton, and Evening Lecturer at Windsor.<ref name="bells" /> In 1834, he was appointed to the Rectory of Dunton Wayletts, in Essex, the patronage of which was with King's College.
On 7 November 1845, he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Colombo at St Peter's Church, Colombo,<ref name="Lewis">{{cite book|title=Tombs and Monuments in Ceylon|author=Lewis, John Penry|date=1913|place=Colombo|publisher=H. C. Cottle}}</ref> and received the degree of Doctor of Divinity (DD) from his University. In 1851, Chapman founded S. Thomas' College when it was in Mutwal before it relocated to its present site in Mount Lavinia<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/06/18/fea06.html |title=Reminiscences of a teacher |access-date=2013-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050828082207/http://www.dailynews.lk/2004/06/18/fea06.html |archive-date=2005-08-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/12/04/fea07.html |title=Hundred and twenty fifth anniversary : St. James Church, Mutwal |access-date=2013-05-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041027160231/http://www.dailynews.lk/2002/12/04/fea07.html |archive-date=2004-10-27 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Under medical advice because of his ill-health,<ref name="obit" /> he resigned the See of Colombo in 1861, and was elected a Fellow of Eton College, and was presented by the college in 1863 to the Rectory of Wootton Courtenay, Somerset.<ref>{{Church Times | title = Church News | archive = 1863_12_24_372 | issue = 47 | date = 24 December 1863 | page = 372 | accessed = 11 February 2025 }}</ref> In 1868, he was made Prebendary of Warminster in Wells Cathedral.<ref>{{Church Times | title = Church News | archive = 1868_08_15_305 | issue = 289 | date = 15 August 1868 | page = 305 | accessed = 11 February 2025 }}</ref> He was the author of occasional Charges, Sermons and Journals.<ref name="bells" /> During the mid-1860s, he undertook several bishop's duties (including ordinations of deacons/priests and consecrations of church buildings) in the Diocese of Exeter.<ref>{{Church Times | title = Church News | archive = 1864_12_31_419 | issue = 100 | date = 31 December 1864 | page = 419 | accessed = 26 December 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Church Times | title = Consecration of St Peter's Church, Newlyn, Penzance | archive = 1866_06_02_175 | issue = 174 | date = 2 June 1866 | page = 175 | accessed = 26 December 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Church Times | title = Church News | archive = 1867_09_28_337 | issue = 243 | date = 28 September 1867 | page = 337 | accessed = 26 December 2019 }}</ref> In the late 1860s, when Robert Eden, Bishop of Bath and Wells, was ill, Chapman also assisted him as Coadjutor Bishop of Bath and Wells.<ref name="obit">{{Church Times | title = The late Bishop Chapman | archive = 1879_11_21_731 | issue = 878 | date = 21 November 1879 | page = 731 | accessed = 26 December 2019 }}</ref>
He died in 1879.<ref name=bells>''Church Bells'' (July 17, 1875) W. Wells Gardner, Publisher, London</ref><ref>[http://anglicanhistory.org/india/chatterton1924/15.html A History of the Church of England in India], anglicanhistory.org</ref>
==See also== *Church of Ceylon *Anglican Bishop of Colombo
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.anglicancommunion.org/tour/province.cfm?ID=Y1 The Church of Ceylon (Anglican Communion)] * [http://www.anglicancommunion.org/provincialnews/ceylon/client/news/client_news_index.cfm Anglican Church of Ceylon News]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapman, James}} Category:1879 deaths Category:19th-century Anglican bishops in Asia Category:People educated at Eton College Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:Sri Lankan Anglican bishops Category:Place of birth missing Category:Place of death missing Category:1799 births Category:Anglican bishops of Colombo Category:Fellows of Eton College
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