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Jean Baptiste Paul Chappé de Léonval
Part 2
Back in Manchester...
The family tree all gets a bit tricky, as Viscount Antoine appears to have given his children similar names, and I've not got access to the French records, so rely on the family research of others. This research indicates that Jean had named two of his children Marie, he named two more children Marjorie and then Antoine also named two of his sons Jean Baptiste Nicholas & Jean Baptiste Paul. The latter of which is buried in St Mary's, Prestwich. Just to add to the confusion, he recorded his name as Paul on his marriage banns in Hulme, 1809.
His previous child Margaret was baptised in Manchester in 1811, and the subsequent child, Paul, was baptised in Manchester in 1817. So the addition of the three years in London on his affidavit, turns out to be true and was around 1812-1815. But what of the years before his marriage in 1809?
Jean Baptiste Nicholas Chappé continued to serve as an officer in a division of the Austrian Army under Johann Marie Philip Frimont, taking part in the attack against Neapolitan Carbonari rebels at Naples, Italy, in 1821. After beating the rebels, Johann Frimont received the title of Prince of Antrodocco from King Ferdinand of Naples, and was also given the title of Count of Palota. Jean Baptiste Nicholas Chappé died of fever in a military hospital in Vienna in 1829.
Back in Britian...
In 1805, Scipion was part of Admiral Villeneuve's fleet that took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre, an indecisive naval battle off the coast of Spain on the 22nd July 1805. This was an attempt by the British to stop Napoleon from combining his fleets and carrying out his plans to invade Britain with an army of 150,000 soldiers.
The British pursued the runaway vanguard and in the subsequent Battle of Cape Ortegal, Northwest of Spain on the 4th November, Scipion took the rear of the line of the remaining French ships and as a result took a pounding from the chasing British cannon.
"At about 15 minutes past noon the Caesar opened her larboard (port/left) guns upon Le Formidable [..] a minute or two after the Caesar had begun firing, the Hero and Courageux, in quick succession, discharged their broadsides into the Mont-Blanc and Scipion. The three French ships instantly returned the fire, and a spirited action ensued."
The remaining French were pounded from both sides and surrendered, the action effectively wiped out Napoleon's last ambitions on the seas.
The prize record for Le Scipion shows that Jean Baptiste Chappe, born in Lorraine, was paid for 5 months service, indicating that he had joined the Navy in July 1805, possibly placing him at all three battles mentioned above. Or perhaps there was another Jean Baptiste Chappe, also from Lorriane, but not appearing in the family history records.
The upper burial ground was at the rear of the Chapel on Cheapside, reached via steps on the Chaple Walk side of the building. The lower burial ground at the side and front was behind a wall/railing to keep it separate from the pavement of Cross Street and Chapel Walk. The widening of Cross Street in the 20th century saw the burial ground lost under the pavement.
The Chapel was gutted in 1940 during the Manchester Blitz and afterwards had a prefab Chapel placed in the burnt out shell. It was then rebuilt in 1959, then later demolished & replaced in 1997. In 2012, 270 bodies from the two rows of burials under the pavement of Cross Street had to be exhumed and reburied for the construction of the 2nd cross city tram line. Only 58 of the remains were identified.
Mary Chappé was one of the bodies exhumed, and identified, presumably linked to one of the stones shown above, and she was re-interred at Southern Cemetery, Manchester.
When 2,000 clergymen refused and were ejected from their roles, one, Rev Henry Newcome, built a place of worship of his own, along with his followers. The Dissenters’ Meeting House, later known as Cross Street Chapel, was opened in 1664. Destroyed by Nazi bombs in 1940, the original chapel no longer stands but was replaced in 1959.
The congregation were forced to use a prefabricated building erected in the ruins until the new chapel could be built.
It was in 1997 that the chapel as we know it today was built to suit the needs of modern worshippers.
The Family History has it that in 1840, Jean Baptiste was ruined when the river Medlock flooded his cotton spinning mill for the second time. There was a court case that followed, whereby Jean claimed that recent building works down stream of his mill had raised the likelihood of his property being flooded, however the court case was unsuccessful, and the flood was deemed to be caused by the bad weather.
[Records show that there were notable floods following bad weather and they occurred within 12 months of each other, December 1837 and October 1838 - on the second occasion the under-construction Victoria bridge on the river Irwell was washed away.
Her brother Thomas died in 1895 and is recorded on Jean's gravestone at St Mary's. The letters inscribed after his name M.I.C.E., indicate that he was a Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers.
Read an article about the construction of the bridge revealed by work in 1957.
In 1857, Thomas entered a partnership with his brother in law, Thomas Cross, at Waterloo Cotton Spinning Mills, Nebraska St in Bolton. This partnership lasted until 1871, during which the mill grew from 24,000 spindles to 40,000.
Thomas Chappé retired about 1871 and moved to Stanley Gardens in London.
About 1891, Thomas advertised in the South African newspapers to make contact with his nephew Paul Laffitte Chappé (Jnr) and through this they re-established family contact.
Only 10% of the land was said to be fit for ‘profitable cultivation’ and settlers could not have obtained more than a bare subsistence. Vaalkop and Dadelfontein in particular suffered from poor rainfall. By 1860 roughly 41% of the settlers had either left the Colony, or had died, while almost 14% had ‘disappeared’ i.e. one has no idea as to what happened to them after they landed. [ Ref]
After Thomas and Paul had re-established contact, Paul mortgaged his 5 wagons and 90 oxen as security for a loan to finance a trip to visit his uncle Tom in London. Uncle Tom paid for everything once he arrived there as he was then doing very well as a civil engineer and Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway.
Uncle Tom suggested that Paul bring his batman with him. So he brought his African servant with him to England. On the ship, the batman travelled in the front section and was really "educated" by others there. As a result he was a "dammed nuisance" in London. Especially as this was in a house with seven white servants, who had no time for him.
Donate to the upkeep of the St Mary's Churchyard Your kind donation will go towards tools, or employing professional stone masons to reinstate stonework damaged by time, trees, animals or humans.
[with ref to Chappé family History - geneanet]
Read the first part of this family story here
Jean Baptiste had escaped the French Revolution in the middle of the night in 1789, and when applying for naturalisation in 1829, stated that he had arrived in Manchester in the May of 1803. He worked as a merchant, spinner and manufacturer of cotton and cotton thread. He had also served with the Manchester & Salford Volunteer Rifle Corps - which must have been a challenge given that Britain had been at War with France several times throughout his time in England.
Jean records that he had also served as a special constable, keeper of the watch and a tax collector in Pendleton, Salford, as well as an overseer of the poor, Police commissioner and committee member for watching, paving and lighting in the township of Hulme, Manchester.
the "three years" insertion into the affidavit
But what of those three years Jean spent in London? Why did he go by the name of Paul on his marriage certificate? Could this exemplary member of Manchester and Salford society have something to hide?
Well, the baptisms of his daughters Anne in 1814, and Mary in 1815, confirm that Jean Baptiste was living on Laurence Poutney Lane, Aldchurch in London at that time, but again going by the name of Paul, so that's really no mystery.
Laurence Poutney Lane (1860s-1870s)
As mentioned above, war had broken out between the UK and France in 1803, after Britain had failed to hand over Malta, and Napoleon decided to formally annex the Italian state of Piedmont, the "Peace of Amiens" treaty of 1802 was broken. Our Jean Baptiste had stated on his affidavit of 1829, that he had arrived in Britain that same year, he would have been aged 21. The family history shows the family had fled the Revolution in 1789. So Jean Baptiste's childhood (1789-1809) is unknown, except that we know he did not travel with his father and eldest siblings to the Caribbean, and he claimed to have arrived in England in 1803.
Over in Austria...his brother was fighting against the French !
In 1815, Jean Baptiste Paul's younger brother, Jean Baptiste Nicholas was serving along with his cousin Johann Frimont (through his grandmother Francoise Horiot de Collancy (nee Frimont), had been serving as part of the Austrian Army's campaign in Italy, under commander-in-chief (and Johann's father) Johann Marie Philip Frimont.
The Austrians beat back the French forces, chasing them as far as Lyon in France (captured 1815), but Sadly Johann Frimont junior lost his life in battle.
A coin was released to celebrate the capture of Lyon by Frimont's force.
A search for Jean Baptiste Chappé shows a man by that name, also born in Lorraine, in the records of the Prize Court, The High Court of Admiralty, London in 1805.
We find Jean Baptiste Chappe, serving on a French ship of the line called Scipion, as a "Quartiers Maitres" or Quarter Master.
Le Scipion had been seized by the British Navy after the Battle of Trafalgar. Could this man, also born in Lorraine, be our Jean Baptiste? It certainly wasn't J-B Nicholas as he was fighting for the Austrians against Napoleon ! Personally I doubt it's our Jean Baptiste as he had fled France due to the Revolution,so it's unlikely that he'd turn back and join the Republic. However I'll keep this next bit in as Trafalgar is an interesting event :-)
A ship of the line was so named because the naval tactics of the time, which involved lining up your fleet against the enemy so all your side guns could fire at once (a broadside). Generally the side with the biggest, heaviest ships with the most guns, won.
A Broadside at work
Le Scipion, 74-gun French Téméraire-class - National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London.
Villeneuve spurned a chance to resume the battle on the 24th July and instead he headed off to Vigo, Coruna & then dropped anchors at Cadiz (21st August) where he stayed until 21st October. Napoleon declared that Villeneuve had ruined all chance of his invasion of England.
Le Scipion formed up as part of Rear Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley's vanguard of six ships at the Battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805) but Nelson's attack split the Spanish/French line and left the vanguard down wind of the French Fleet, only a few shots were fired by the vanguards, as Nelson's cannons ripped into Napoleon's Fleet.
Battle of Trafalgar (Scipion in the North)
Battle of Cape Ortegal
HMS Phoenix and HMS Révolutionnaire dealt the final blows to Scipion, which was forced to strike her colours.
Striking the colours
International law requires that a ship fly its national flag or ensign before commencing battle, when a ship lowers or "strikes" its flag, they indicate that they surrender.
After being captured, Le Scipion was renamed HMS Scipion and taken to Plymouth as a prize. She later saw service as HMS Lockwood.
The Law of Prize
Once an enemy ship was secured on friendly territory, she would be made the subject of a libel or prize case. The court (in private) determined the status of the condemned(captured) property and the manner in which the property was to be disposed of. The capturing force (sometimes a privateer rather than a nation) would be awarded a share of the value of the vessel and it's cargo. In one case this took 30 years to settle, when Gideon Olmsted led a mutiny on the Sloop that he was working on, thus capturing the ship, but before he got it to port in America to claim the prize, a privateer attacked and took the ship from him.
Back in Manchester...
As mentioned above Jean Baptiste had operated as a Cotton Merchant in Manchester partnered with his wife's brother Charles. When Charles died, Jean Baptiste successfully applied for naturalisation in 1829.
Jean Baptiste Chappé de Léonval is buried in St Mary's churchyard in Prestwich(1895), but his wife Mary, who died in 1839, was interred at Cross Street Chapel in Manchester, in their "lower" burial ground
Cross Street Chapel - showing the lower and upper churchyards (1761-1959)
Graveyard (1836)
Grave stones uncovered in 2012
Mary Chappé re-interment, 2012
Cross Street Chapel
From the MEN Article (2012):
Once known as The Dissenters’ Meeting House, Cross Street Chapel has been the meeting place of Unitarians in central Manchester since the 1660s, when the Act of Uniformity was passed.
The act required all clergymen to abide by the Book of Common Prayer, and those who refused were not allowed to hold certain positions despite the fact most people in England had never seen the book as it was so new.
Cross Street Chapel (1835)
Cross Street Chapel (1956)
Cross Street Prefab Chapel
People who attended the original chapel have even included Manchester novelist Elizabeth Gaskell whose husband William was a minister, and it is the current meeting place of the Gaskell Society.
Gaythorn Cotton Mill (1843)
The 1851 census shows that Jean was employed as a Treasurer and Clerk at Prestwich Lunatic Asylum, which had only just opened in January that year. He was also recorded as a British Subject, born in Lorraine, France in 1782 (This links him to the Scipion based on name and place of birth). His daughter Anne lived with him along with a cook and a housemaid.
In the census of 1861, two years after Jean's death, his daughter Margaret, was living in Prestwich next door to Springfield House & Chester Bank (Prestwich's first Town Hall) which stood on Bury New Road, opposite where Marks & Spencer's is today.
Visiting her on the census day in 1851 was her brother Thomas, a Civil Engineer and Cotton Spinner employing 160 hands. Margaret went on to marry John Hall, a Physician from Nottingham at St Peter's in Bolton in 1871.
Thomas Fletcher Chappé M.I.C.E.
Thomas was born in 1824, and had a terrible accident at the age of 4, when he fell into a cauldron of boiling water. It took him six years to fully recover, then he was sent off to be educated at private schools at Southport,Tutbury, Worksop and Paris - this must have been before his father had been ruined. In 1840 Thomas was articled to Sir William Fairbairn who is buried just a few feet away from the Chappé grave at St Mary's.
Whilst at Fairbairn's, Thomas assisted Eaton Hodgkinson with experiments at both Ancoats and Millwall, and also worked to ascertain the desired shape for the tube of the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits. Watch a video about the experiments and the construction of the Britannia Bridge...
Thomas was also super intendant over the erection of a corn mill at Oddshod in Cheshire. In 1846, he left Fairbairns for a position as assistant engineer with The Midland Railway, where he worked for 11 years, working on the branch to Gloucester Docks, an extension to Birmingham, and the Stonehouse & Gloucester line. The last one involved rebuilding several bridges to have elliptical cast iron arches, again something he had experimented with, while maintaining the services of the Great Western and Midland Railways throughout.
The Stonehouse High Street railway bridge.
Waterloo Mill 1928 (with Chimney)
29 Stanley Gardens, Kensington.
After the failure of the family mill at Gaythorn, Paul had gained employment at sea, engaged in tea trade between China and England. He was trained as a mid-shipman and made First Officer of the Mary Queen, a fast-sailing schooner in 1845. Paul met George Cato in Cape Town, while calling in there on a trip sailing back from the East, and agreed to work as the ferryman in charge of the Port boat to collect people and goods from the ships that anchored in the bay. George Cato later became the first mayor of Durban in 1854.
Paul Chappé and his wife Gerogina emigrated to Natal (Port Durban), South Africa, on the vessel Dreadnought in 1850, arriving at Durban on the 17th Feb. 1851.
Natal Settlers
Dreadnought was one of the first five, of twenty vessels, to land settlers in South Africa in 1850, operated by Byrne & Co. After Britain had forced back the Dutch Boer farmers from Natal, who in turn had a constant battle with the native tribes of Africa, it was important to settle their gains and start to return a profit. These conflicts were all far from over.
The settlers on these five ships were allocated plots of land in New England, Slang Spruit, and Vaalkop and Dadelfontein (inland from present day Durban). In all, the twenty ships, operated by Byrne & Co. transported 2,469 settlers during 1850, but by 1857 it was recorded that 239 settlers had not taken up their allotments.
British Settlement of Natal in the 1800s
It looks like the job offer at Port Durban didn't work out, as Paul wrote to his brother Thomas in 1852 stating that they had fallen upon hard times, were very poor, with little food or any shoes to wear. In 1855 Paul Laffitte Chappé had a son, also called Paul Laffitte, and managed to secure a hunting licence in partnership with Robert Taylor McDonnell to hunt big game in Zululand. Sadly Paul Snr. died that same year.
By 1883, Paul Jnr was a store keeper at Barberton, home of the South African Gold Rush. Shortly afterwards he was asked by Cecil Rhodes, who he apparently knew well, to give up his store keeping and transport maize to the starving miners at the De Beers diamond mines near Kimberley. Both Paul and his brother-in-law, Percy Saville did this, working out of Lower Umkomanzi, for a number of years and earned good money.
Miners at Kimberley (British Library)
The Railway Visual Telegraph...
As an aside, as train speeds increased it was found that a man with a flag or lantern standing at track level could not be seen in time by the driver of an approaching train. Brunel’s Great Western disc-and-cross-bar signals, first used in 1838, were sixty feet above the ground with the crossbar eight feet or more long. The “discs” on rotatable posts were gradually superseded by the semaphore signals which were to become a distinctive feature of British railways. These were more than likely based upon the Telegraph system created by Claude Chappé (see above)
Thomas died in 1895 and left a large share of his fortune to his nephew, Paul Laffitte Chappé de Léonval along with two stained glass windows that come from Uncle Tom's house. Thomas was buried with his father in the churchyard of ST Mary's in Prestwich.
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