1) A man whose business is buying and selling.
1444 lego Johanni Brompton chapman ... xls, Beverley
1542 I William Shepherd ... chapman, Kendal
1702 he has been known a great dealer for many years and always reputed a very fair honest chapman, Startforth. It has its origin in Old English and developed a range of related meanings, all of them linked to the idea of merchant or trader. In Hallamshire, for example, it was sometimes used as an equivalent of hardwareman, the middleman in the cutlery trade: 1552 two dossen sythes readye to the chapman, Sheffield. Examples of the occupation include: 1654 James Barber of Sheffeld, chapman. That close relationship is explicit in the Cutlers’ Ordinances of 1565 when cutlers and ‘hefters’ were told they should not heft the chapmans no blades that be unhefted. It gave rise to one of the most prolific English surnames and Reaney noted the by-name in Yorkshire from the early 1200s.