John Chapman

John Chapman (25 April 1865 – 7 November 1933) was an English Roman Catholic priest, the 4th Abbot of Downside Abbey of the English Benedictine Congregation from 1929 until his death, and a New Testament and patristics scholar. He is best known for having founded one of the private schools in Britain: Worth, in West Sussex. Anglican background Henry Palmer Chapman was born in Ashfield, Suffolk, the son of an Anglican canon of Ely Cathedral. Because of delicate health, Henry was, at first, educated privately at home, and then later at Christ Church, Oxford (1883–1886), where he received a first-class degree in Classical Greats. He stayed for a subsequent year at Oxford studying theology, in which he took a third (cf. the "gentleman's C" in the U.S.). It was an important year for him, however, because in this time he decided to be ordained in the Church of England. Having trained at Cuddesdon near Oxford, Chapman was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England in 1889 and began a curacy in the parish of St Pancras, London. He found himself increasingly troubled during this time about the position of the Church of England and left the parish soon after Trinity Sunday.