James Chapman, a tailor and draper of Kent, England, emigrated to South Australia with his wife Mary and their seven children aboard Rajah, arriving at Adelaide in April 1850. He founded a drapery on Hindley Street, at that time the premier business strip in the young city. His eldest son Edgar Chapman joined with W. K. Simms in 1865 as Simms & Chapman to operate West End Brewery, which Simms had purchased in 1861. The partnership was dissolved in 1879. Chapman and Caleb Peacock were passengers on the steamer Auckland when she struck a reef between Cape Conran and Cape Everard, on 27 May 1871. The ship was lost but all aboard were rescued by the Macedon. Chapman invested in commercial property on fashionable Hindley Street. In October 1876 he purchased the Theatre Royal, its hotel and the adjoining shops for £11,000, and lost no time in appointing George R. Johnson architect for a complete rebuild of the theatre. The rebuilt house, costing about £20,000, was opened on 25 March 1878. In 1878, on the eve of the departure of Mr. and Mrs Chapman and their daughters Clara, Emily Fannie and Lily for a European holiday, he was presented by a throng of prominent citizens with a pair of diamond studs valued at £250, the work of J. M. Wendt. While on holiday he booked various acts for Australia, but with James Alison also leased Drury Lane for an Australian production of Henry V starring George Rignold, perhaps doing something to refute criticisms by the Christian Colonist. He was for any years owner of Kallioota Station, of, some north of Port Augusta, carrying 10,000 sheep and 800 cattle. Beside the Theatre Royal and Theatre Royal Hotel, other properties owned by Chapman in Hindley street were the Eagle Tavern and shops owned by Burns the tailor, McKenzie, Bristow, and Lipman. His sons Charles E. Chapman and Harry A. Chapman ran Mundowdna Station. They voluntarily declared insolvency in order to be relieved of the debt they owed to their father. He died after three or four years of declining health, and his remains were interred at the West Terrace Cemetery. His estate was proved at £59,000. His brother Arthur took over management of his estate, which included the Theatre Royal in Hindley Street, though he was acting for Edgar as early as 1883, In January 1885 he had joined Rignold and Allison as lessee and in December they withdrew from the partnership, leaving Chapman as sole manager until Wybert Reeve became lessee in 1887. Arthur Chapman initiated extensive alterations in 1905 at a cost of over £4,000 and a rebuild of the theatre in 1913–1914 at a cost of £21,000.
Other interests
He was appointed Justice of the Peace 1877. He was interested in horse racing; served as a steward at the "Old Course". Chapman's affair with the theatre was not only financial. He had a passable singing voice, and "trod the boards" on occasion: In 1880 he played "King Artexomines" in Rhodes's Bombastes Furioso. In 1882 he had several landscapes painted to order by H. J. Johnstone.
Family
James Chapman married Mary Stanford. Their children included:
Stanford Chapman married Martha Moon in London on 9 December 1854. He was admitted to the firm of Virgoe, Son in 1865, became Virgoe, Son & Chapman, of Melbourne and Sydney, lived in Hawthorn then Kew, Victoria
Edgar Chapman married Frances Rachael Kelsh in 1853
