Deacon Samuel Chapin (October 8, 1598 – November 1, 1675) was one of the founders of Springfield, Massachusetts.
He was born in Paignton, (near Torquay,) Devon, England, to John Chapin and Phillippe Easton on October 8, 1598.
On February 9, 1623, Samuel married Cicily Penny. They had seven children: Sarah, Henry, Hannah, David, Catherine, Josiah, and Japhet. After Cicily died he was remarried on the 29th of August 1654 to Lydia Crump. He had many famous direct descendants, including Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Grover Cleveland and William Taft, actor Spencer Tracy, abolitionist John Brown, financier J.P. Morgan, and singers Harry Chapin and Jen Chapin.
He immigrated to America with William Pynchon in 1630, became a full member of John Eliot's congregation at Roxbury, and was later established as deacon in Springfield.
In 1881, Chester W. Chapin, a railroad tycoon, congressman and Chapin descendant, commissioned master sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens to produce a work memorializing his ancestor. The sculpture, most commonly known as The Puritan, is currently sited in Springfield's Merrick Park. Created to emphasize the piety, and perhaps moral rigidity, of the country's religious founders—evident in the sculpted Chapin's proud pose, certain stride, flowing cape and hefty Bible, as well as his assertive use of a walking cane. Smaller variants of the same work can be found in several museums.