A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Chapman (Livewell)
CHAPMAN (LIVEWELL), bookseller in London, (1) Crown in Pope's Head Alley, 1651-61; (2) In Exchange Alley in Cornhill, 1665. Son of Edward Chapman, of London, scrivener. Apprenticed to Benjamin Allen November 6th, 1643, for seven years. Married, between 1650 and 1653, the widow of Benjamen Allen. [Stat. Reg., Liber E, f. 249.] In 1655 Chapman was apprehended for printing seditious pamphlets, and amongst the Thurloe State Papers [vol. 4, p. 379] is an interesting letter from Col. Barkstead, in which he says that Chapman "is the owner or at least a sharer in the private press, that hath and doth soe much mischiefe …" He is said to have been the compiler of a notorious tract entitled The Phoenix of the Solemn League & Covenant in 1661, for the publication of which Thomas Brewster, Giles Calvert and others were punished. Amongst his other publications may be noticed an edition of Sir John Harrington's Oceana, published in 1655.