Andrew Grant Chapman

Andrew Grant Chapman (January 17, 1839 – September 25, 1892) was an American lawyer and Democratic politician from Maryland who served in the Maryland House of Delegates and in the United States House of Representatives. He was born near La Plata, Charles County, Maryland, into a prominent political family; his father, John Grant Chapman, was a lawyer, a member and Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, president of the Maryland State Senate, and a Whig Congressman from Maryland. Growing up in this environment, Andrew Chapman was educated initially at home under private tutors, reflecting both the family’s means and its emphasis on classical learning and public service.

After his early tutoring, Chapman attended Charlotte Hall Academy in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, one of the state’s oldest preparatory schools, which was known for training many future public officials. He then enrolled at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he received a classical education and graduated in 1858. Seeking professional training in the law, he entered the law department of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, one of the leading legal institutions of the South, and completed his legal studies there in 1860.

In 1860, Chapman moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was admitted to the bar the same year and commenced the practice of law. His early legal career unfolded against the backdrop of rising sectional tensions and the onset of the Civil War. In 1864, he returned to Southern Maryland, moving to Port Tobacco in Charles County. There he continued the practice of law and also engaged in agricultural pursuits, managing and working lands in a region whose economy was still heavily agrarian. His dual involvement in law and agriculture helped root him in the local community and provided a base for his subsequent political career.

Chapman entered public life as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served multiple, nonconsecutive terms. He represented Charles County in the House of Delegates in 1867, 1868, 1870, 1872, 1879, and 1885, participating in state legislative affairs during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction periods. His repeated elections reflected sustained local support and positioned him as a significant Democratic figure in Southern Maryland. In 1874, he was appointed aide and inspector on the staff of Governor James Black Groome, with the rank of brigadier general, a largely honorary but prestigious position in the state militia structure. He was reappointed to this post by Governor John Lee Carroll, underscoring the confidence successive Democratic administrations placed in him.

Building on his state-level prominence, Chapman was elected as a Democrat from Maryland’s fifth congressional district to the Forty-seventh Congress. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1881, to March 3, 1883, representing a district that included portions of Southern Maryland and the region surrounding the nation’s capital. During his term in Congress, he aligned with the Democratic Party’s positions of the era, though the surviving record emphasizes his service rather than specific legislative initiatives. In 1882, he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Forty-eighth Congress, after which he returned to Maryland and resumed the practice of law.

Following his congressional service, Chapman continued to hold federal and party responsibilities. In 1885, he was appointed deputy collector of internal revenue, a position that involved oversight of federal tax collection in his region. In 1888, he was promoted to collector of internal revenue, reflecting continued trust in his administrative abilities. That same year, he served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1888, participating in the national deliberations of his party during a closely contested presidential election cycle. These roles extended his influence beyond his home county and state legislature into the broader national party structure.

Andrew Grant Chapman spent his later years at his home, known as “Normandy,” near La Plata in Charles County. He remained associated with the legal profession and with the civic life of Southern Maryland until his death there on September 25, 1892. He was interred at Mount Rest Cemetery in La Plata, Maryland. His papers and those of his family, preserved in collections such as the Chapman Family papers at the University of Maryland libraries, document the activities of a family deeply involved in Maryland and national politics across much of the nineteenth century.