CHAPELL, John (by 1533-58 or later), of Bridgwater, Som.

Very little trace of John Chapell of Bridgwater has been found. In 1556 he received £3 3s. ‘for his half fees when he was burgess of the Parliament’, and in 1558 as a member of the town’s council he contributed 5s. and arms towards a force to recapture Calais and paid 32s. rent for two houses in the town. There are references to several namesakes who apparently came from a north Devon family (one of these, a Taunton merchant who died in 1561, had business connexions with Bridgwater), and presumably Chapell was related to them. Alternatively he may have been a distant kinsman of two local magnates, Sir Henry Capell and William Paulet, Marquess of Winchester, since a client of the Capel family, Edmund Lyte, found a seat for Bridgwater in the following Parliament and Winchester often accepted gifts from the corporation.4Ibid. 124, 1533, 1535; LP Hen. VIII, v-xxi; PCC 18 Loftes.