George Chapman

George Chapman (c. 1559 – 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets of the 17th century. Chapman is best remembered for his translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and the Homeric Batrachomyomachia.

Life and work

Chapman was born at Hitchin in Hertfordshire. There is conjecture that he studied at Oxford but did not take a degree, though no reliable evidence affirms this. Very little is known about Chapman's early life, but Mark Eccles uncovered records that reveal much about Chapman's difficulties and expectations. In 1585 Chapman was approached in a friendly fashion by John Wolfall, Sr., who offered to supply a bond of surety for a loan to furnish Chapman money "for his proper use in Attendance upon the then Right Honorable Sir Rafe Sadler Knight." Chapman's courtly ambitions led him into a trap. He apparently never received any money, but he would be plagued for many years by the papers he had signed. Wolfall had the poet arrested for debt in 1600, and when in 1608 Wolfall's son, having inherited his father's papers, sued yet again, Chapman's only resort was to petition the Court of Chancery for equity. As Sadler died in 1587, this gives Chapman little time to have trained under him. It seems more likely that he was in Sadler's household from 1577–83, as he dedicates all his Homerical translations to him.

George Chapman (healer)

George Chapman (4 February 1921 – 9 August 2006) was an English trance spiritual healer and medium. Active for 60 years, he was a medium for the spirit of "Dr. Lang", who conducted "spirit operations" on patients.

Life and work

George William Chapman was born in Bootle, near Liverpool on 4 February 1921, and was brought up by his maternal grandparents after the early death of his mother. After leaving school he took up various manual occupations, became a professional boxer, and, during World War II, served in the Irish Guards and the RAF. He joined the Aylesbury Fire Brigade after being demobbed, a post he held until 1956.

Chapman married Margaret May Dickinson and they had a daughter, Vivian, in 1945, who survived only 4 weeks. The couple were devastated by her premature death, but started to receive "spirit messages" from her through the use of a ouija board. This was the beginning of Chapman's development as a medium, and in those early years, he channeled spirit guides with names such Ram-a-din-i and Chang Woo; however, his main spirit guide soon made itself known - a doctor called William Lang (1852-1937), who, it was later discovered, had been an ophthalmic surgeon at London's Middlesex Hospital up until 1914.

George Chapman (murderer)

George Chapman (14 December 1865 – 7 April 1903) was a Polish serial killer known as the Borough Poisoner. Born Seweryn Antonowicz Kłosowski in Congress Poland, he moved as an adult to England, where he committed his crimes. He was convicted and executed after poisoning three women, but is remembered today mostly because some authorities suspected him of being the notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper.

Early life

Chapman was born in the village of Nagórna, (now part of Koło), in the Warsaw Governorate of Congress Poland. According to a certificate found in his personal effects after his arrest, he was apprenticed at age 14 to a senior surgeon, Moshko (Mosze) Rappaport, in Zwoleń, whom he assisted in procedures such as the application of leeches for blood-letting. He then enrolled on a course in practical surgery at the Warsaw Praga Hospital. This course was very brief, lasting from October 1885 to January 1886 (attested to by another certificate in his possession) but he continued to serve as a male nurse, or doctor's assistant in Warsaw until December 1886. He later left Poland for London, though the time he arrived at London has never been reliably ascertained. Witness testimony at his trial seems to indicate that he emigrated to London in 1888. During his stay in the East End he had married a young Polish girl, Lucie Badewski in 1889 and had two children with her and soon afterwards was confronted because of this by his original Polish wife.