James Chappell

James Chappell (1648–1730) was an English servant of Sir Christopher Hatton. Chappell saved the life of Hatton and his three young daughters in a 1672 explosion at Castle Cornet in Guernsey. Hatton awarded Chappell a £20-a-year pension in his will which he used to set up a household and become landlord of a public house. Chappell is thought to have been the first black English landlord.

Biography James Chappell was born in 1648 and, at the age of 15, joined the household of Sir Christopher Hatton as a servant at Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire. Chappell accompanied Hatton and his family to Guernsey when Hatton was appointed governor in 1670. Hatton and his household, including Chappell, returned to England later that year and stayed briefly in London, Chappell and Elizabeth had a daughter, also named Elizabeth, who was baptised in Gretton, near Kirby Hall, on 10 September 1676. This child died young and was buried in 1679.

Chappell's wife died in 1704 and he remarried the following year to Mercy Peach; together they had one daughter, Amey. At this time a Thomas Peach, likely to have been Mercy's father or brother, was the licensee of the Hatton Arms. He died in 1730.

In 2021 Chappell was featured in an English Heritage exhibition on the African diaspora in English history. A fictionalized painting of Chappell in later life was commissioned from Glory Samjolly, who used a black male model's likeness as Chappell and exhibited at Kirby Hall in June 2021.