The Chapman Legal Family

The Chapman family was the first of New Zealand's legal dynasties. Henry Samuel Chapman was the first puisne judge of the Supreme Court; his son Frederick Revans Chapman was the first New Zealand-born Supreme Court judge; and another son, Martin, founded one of the country's leading legal firms, which still bears his name.

This book provides a record of the lives and careers of three significant figures in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century colonial history. It casts light on important aspects of society and law at that time; notably, the characteristics and values of the educated, aspirant classes, and the development of essentially English institutions and laws in the colonial environment.