Born on 18 May 1849 in Manchester, he trained for the WM ministry at Disdbury College. Following a period of ill health he studied from 1882 to 1884 at Zurich and Heidelberg. He was elected to the Legal Hundred in 1894 and was Principal of Southlands College 1895-1913. A man of great vision, during his Principalship the premises at Battersea were extended, changes were introduced into the teaching methods and the Southlands Students Society was formed. He died at Southlands College on 18 December 1913.
His son J. Arundel Chapman (1885-1934; e.m. 1909) was born at Nottingham on 3 December 1885. After training for the ministry at Headingley College, he served as Assistant Tutor at Handsworth (1909-1910) and *Headingley (1910-1912) Colleges and in circuit from 1912 to 1925. He was then appointed tutor in theology at Didsbury College (1925-1930) and at Headingley (1930-1934). A founder member of the Fellowship of the Kingdom, he served as its Propaganda Secretary and as literary editor was responsible for it publications. He was a close friend of Leslie D. Weatherhead, whom he probably first met at the Fellowship's Swanwick Conference in 1922. They collaborated on The Old Testament and Today (1923). With a reputation for being a modern Methodist evangelical, he was influenced by Barth and Brunner and wrote The Theology of Karl Barth in 1931. He suffered from severe bouts of depression and during one such bout in June 1934 he walked over a cliff - probably suicide.