CHAPMAN

7 definitions found across Law Mind sources

CHAPMANAuthored
The Law Mind • 694 words
Definition
An itinerant vendor of small wares; a trader who travels from place to place to buy and sell goods. The term describes a mobile merchant operating outside the fixed-shop economy, distinct from a settled tradesman or factor. Historically, chapmen occupied a recognized but loosely regulated position in English commercial life, and statutes governing licensing, taxation, and vagrancy frequently addressed them by name.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A dealer or merchant, especially an itinerant one; also, a purchaser. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who buys and sells; a merchant; a buyer or a seller (marked obsolete by 1913). Also, a peddler or hawker. The common meaning and the legal meaning are closely aligned, but the legal sources narrow the definition in one important direction: the law consistently emphasized the itinerant, place-to-place character of the chapman as the defining feature, not mere buying and selling. Statutes targeting chapmen were aimed precisely at this mobility — regulating traders who operated without fixed premises and therefore outside the ordinary reach of market and guild oversight. A researcher encountering "chapman" in a legal instrument should not read it as a general synonym for "merchant."
Why It Matters in Research
Chapman appears most frequently in early English statutory and common law contexts, particularly in licensing and vagrancy legislation. Burrill's attribution to Ryder C.J. construing the Statute of Anne (5 Ann. c. 14) is the key legal anchor: that statute addressed licensing of hawkers and pedlars, and chapman was the operative term of art for itinerant traders subject to its requirements. Researchers working in early American colonial and post-Revolutionary commercial law may encounter the term carried over from English sources, though it falls out of active American legal use by the mid-nineteenth century. Traps for historical researchers: By the time Webster's 1913 marked "chapman" as obsolete in ordinary English, it had already largely disappeared from American legal instruments as well. Finding the term in a document later than roughly 1850 in an American context suggests either deliberate archaism, a British source, or a direct statutory quotation from earlier law. Do not assume the term carries fresh drafting intent in a late document. The corpus connection to adjacent entries is significant: the historical dictionaries position CHAPMAN immediately before CHAPTER (ecclesiastical law), and the truncated source entries confirm that the dictionary compilers treated CHAPMAN as a minor, self-contained term requiring little elaboration. This placement and brevity signal that by the time Black's and Burrill's were compiled, the term was already receding — included for historical completeness rather than active practice relevance.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition: an itinerant vendor of small wares who trades from place to place. Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill's are nearly identical in substance, though Burrill adds the etymological note tracing the term to the German "copeman" and provides slightly more procedural context through the Ryder attribution. The Say. 191, 192 citation (Sayer's Reports) appears in all three, indicating a shared genealogy in the underlying authorities rather than independent verification. None of the source dictionaries address the regulatory machinery in any depth — they define the status without exploring the licensing requirements, penalties, or jurisdictional reach of the statutes that made the definition legally consequential. Researchers who need to understand what legal consequences attached to being classified as a chapman must look beyond the dictionary entries to the statutes themselves (particularly the English Hawkers and Pedlars Acts) and to treatises on trade regulation.
Jurisdictional Note
Chapman as a legal term of art is primarily English in origin and application. American jurisdictions absorbed the concept through early colonial statutes modeled on English law but rarely preserved the term "chapman" in later codifications, which tended to use "peddler," "hawker," or "itinerant vendor" instead. Researchers working in Scottish or Irish legal sources should note that the term and its regulatory framework had parallel but not identical development in those jurisdictions.
Related Terms
Hawker — Pedlar (Peddler) — Itinerant Vendor — Factor — Merchant — Trader — Huckster — Regrator — Vagrancy — Licensing (Trade)
CHAPMANmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
An itinerant vendor or small wares. A trader who trades from place to place. Say. 191, 192. CHAPTER. In ecclesiastical law. A congregation of ecclesiastical persons in a cathedral church, consisting of canons, or prebendaries, whereof the dean is the head, all subordinate to the bishop, to whom they act as assistants in matters relating to the church, for the better ordering and disposing the things thereof, and the confirmation of such leases of the temporalty and offices relating to the bishopric, as the bishop shall make from time to time. And they are termed "capitulum," as a kind of head, in- & R. 336; 3 Mass. 192. Character and reputation are not synonymous terms. Character is what a man or woman is mor- ally, while reputation is what he or she is reputed to be. Yet reputation is the estimate which the community has of a person's character; and it is the belief that moral character is wanting in an individual that renders him unworthy of belief; that is to say, that reputation is evidence of char- acter, and if the reputation is bad for truth, or rep- utation is bad in other respects affecting the moral character, then the jury may infer that the char- acter is bad and the witness not reliable. General character has always been proved by proving gen- eral reputation. 6 Or. 213. The word "character" no doubt has an objective and subjective import, which are quite distinct. As to the object, character is its quality. As to man, it is the quality of his mind, and his affec- tions, his capacity and temperament. But as a subjective term, certainly in the minds of others, one's character is the aggregate, or the abstract, of other men's opinions of one. And in this sense, when a witness speaks of the character of another witness for truth, he draws not upon his memory alone, but his judgment also. It is the conclusion of the mind of the witness, in summing up the amount of all the reports he has heard of the man, and declaring his character for truth, as held in the minds of his neighbors and acquaintances, and in this sense character, general character, and general report or reputation are the same, as held in the books. 26 Vt. 278. CHARGE, v. To impose a burden, ob- ligation, or lien; to create a claim against property; to claim, to demand; to accuse; to instruct a jury on matters of law. CHARGE, n. In general. An incum- brance, lien, or burden; an obligation or duty; a liability; an accusation. In contracts. An obligation, binding upon him who enters into it, which may be removed or taken away by a discharge. Termes de la Ley. An undertaking to keep the custody of an other person's goods. An obligation entered into by the owner of an estate, which binds the estate for its per-
CHAPMANmain
Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867
[said to be from Germ. copeman.] A trader who trades from place to place. Ryder, C. J. construing the stat. 5 Ann. c. 14. Say. 191, 192. CHAPTER. [L. Lat. capitulum, q. v.] In English ecclesiastical law. An assembly of the prebendaries and canons in a cathedral, conventual or collegiate church; called in the old books congregatio clericorum, an assembly of clerks or congregation of clergymen. Termes de la Ley. Cowell. Co. Litt. 103, 300. The chapter is presided over by the dean, and acts as the council of the bishop, taking the place of the prior and convent, who acted in that capacity before the Reformation. 1 Bl. Com. 382. 3 Co. 75. Steph. Com. 67. See Dean. Bract. fol. 12. 3 This word is also applied to the meetings of other religious communities when assembled for business, and sometimes to the places where such meetings are held. Termes de la Ley. Cowell. But these are more properly termed chapter-houses. P. Cyclopædia.
CHAPMANmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
An itinerant vendor of small wares. <A trader who trades from place to place. Say. 191, 192. CHAPTER. In ecclesiastical law. <A congregation of ecclesiastical persons in a cathedral church, consisting of canons, or prebendaries, whereof the dean is the head, all subordinate to the bishop, to whom they act as assistants in matters relating to the church, for the better ordering and disposing the things thereof, and the confirmation of such leases of the temporalty and offices relating to the bishopric, as the bishop shall mnake from time to time. And they are termed “capttulum,” as a kind of head, instituted not only to assist the bishop in manner aforesaid, but also anciently to rule and govern the diocese in the time of vacation. Burn, Dict.
CHAPMANn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
One who buys and sells; a merchant; a buyer or a seller. [Obs.] The word of life is a quick commodity, and ought not, as a drug to be obtruded on those chapmen who are unwilling to buy it. T. Fuller. A peddler; a hawker.
chapmannoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
A dealer or merchant, especially an itinerant one. | A purchaser.
Chapmanname
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
An English surname originating as an occupation for a merchant. | A number of places in the United States. | An unincorporated community in Butler County, Alabama. | A number of places in the United States. | A neighbourhood of Pasadena, California. | A number of places in the United States. | An unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Illinois. | A number of places in the United States. | A township in Clay County, Kansas. | A number of places in the United States. | A city in Dickinson County, Kansas. | A number of places in the United States. | A town in Aroostook County, Maine. | A number of places in the United States. | An unincorporated community in Phillips County, Montana. | A number of places in the United States. | A township and village therein, in Merrick County, Nebraska. | A number of places in the United States. | A township in Saunders County, Nebraska. | A number of places in the United States. | An unincorporated community in Jackson County, Ohio. | A number of places in the United States. | A township in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. | A number of places in the United States. | A borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. | A number of places in the United States. | A township in Snyder County, Pennsylvania. | A number of places in the United States. | An unincorporated community in Webster County, West Virginia. | A suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

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