In a letter from Castletown, Delvin, Co Westmeath, dated October 5th, 1837, antiquary and scholar John O'Donovan reported that Sir Thomas Chapman, the then "Lord of the soil", had written that Killua Castle was once called St Lucy's Castle. O'Donovan remarked that he had no historical proof that it ever bore that name ". . . and I therefore incline to believe that the true name is St Lua's Castle . . ."
The still extant Killua Castle lies north west of Athboy, where "St Lucy" was located on Taylor & Skinner's 1778 Maps of the Roads of Ireland. O'Donovan gives Cill Dha Lua, "the Church of DoLua" as the original Irish for this place. On top of 2,024 acres in Co Mayo acres, and 241 in Co Meath, Sir Benjamin Chapman, Bart., Killua Castle, owned 9,516 acres in the Co Westmeath parish of Killua, according to Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876).
William Chapman, South Hill, Delvin, had 2,664 acres in Co Mayo; 1,386 in Co Meath, and 4,707 in Co Westmeath. Other Chapmans had lesser holdings in Cos Carlow, Kildare, Offaly, Wexford, Waterford, Antrim, Armagh and Down. Jeremiah Sheehan in his Westmeath: as others saw it (1982) says his uncle once attended Bible classes at South Hill held by Sir Thomas Chapman on Sunday afternoons, and recalled a dark young woman who helped with serving tea and buns. "Later Sir Thomas was to elope with her; and in Oxford they had children of whom the most famous was T.E. Lawrence".
Chapman Bart was at St Lucy in the 1814 Directory, with other Chapman residences in Cos Wicklow, Kildare, Wexford, Laois and Cork. A Census of Ireland 1659 shows Killuah in the Co Westmeath barony of Delvin, as the location of titulado Benjamin Chapman (he was also a Commissioner for the 1660 and 1661 Poll-Money Ordinance for that county). Other tituladoes were Captain Faithfull Chapman, BallyMcGuard, and William Chapman, gent., Killenure & Gortinskeagh, both in Co Limerick, and Thomas Chapman, High Town Ward, Kilkenny city. Chapman was then among the principal Irish names in the Co Wexford barony of Shelbourne.
Chapman is an English occupational name, meaning "merchant, trader". Persons bearing this surname, variously spelt Chapman, le Chapman, Chepman, and le Chepman were among the jurors in Carlow in 1308, in Meath in 1310 and 1311, in Louth, Kildare and Carlow in 1311, in Co Limerick in 1313. The 1311 Co Carlow case was a murder trial. Two men were "playing in a meadow near Leghlyn, and throwing their lances there, and afterwards towards evening they came to Leghlyn and drank wine there in an inn, and shortly afterwards quarrelled as to who should pay for the drink". In the ensuing fight one was stabbed to death. (Leighlin is in the Co Carlow parish of Agha).
That same year Robert Chapman was among Co Kildare jurors, while among the jurors at a Co Meath hearing was Adam Chepman of Kenlis (from the ancient pagan name for Kells, Co Meath). Maurice Chapman was among the jurors in Limerick concerning a breaking-in to a house at Cappagh in 1313.
In 1576 Thomas Chapman was granted the lease of the rectory of Siddane, and the tithes of 13 named places in Co Meath. One of the two wardens of the Barber-Surgeons, or Guild of St Mary Magdalen, Dublin, in 1767 was Edmund Chapman.
Two Chapman boys were sent to the Quaker School at Ballytore, Co Kildare: a William in 1756 and another William in 1815. Of Robert Chapman, who went into the printing business in the 1830s with Richard Davis Webb in Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street), it was said that he was a Friend of the strictest type, ". . . although very humorous and kind. In his affairs he was scrupulous. He was a small man whose health was not very good . . . Chapman's wife . . . was a very big woman and it often caused some amusement when, on a rainy day, she would come into the print-shop and bring him home under her cloak." Richard Davis Webb: Dublin Quaker Printer (1805-72), Richard S. Harrison, 1993.
In 1826 John Chapman, late of Castlemitchell, but later of Woodstock Lodge, Co Kildare, made his will. The witnesses were B. Walker, Frean (Freak) Mack, Robt. Rawson. A memorial to it was witnessed by William Chapman, attorney, and Patt Joyce, waiter at the Hibernian Hotel, Dawson Street, Dublin. To his second son he left "the freehold and personal property of which I die possessed, to pay my servants' wages and just debts". His eldest son was to receive £50, and "My daughter Katherine has been provided for with her marriage portion but I desire she have £5".