When William Burgess Chapman was born on 13 July 1805, in Pearisburg, Giles, Virginia, United States, his father, William Chapman, was 37 and his mother, Elizabeth Jane Burgess, was 39. He married Mary Hester Polly McClure on 16 December 1821, in Lawrence, Kentucky, United States. They were the parents of at least 7 sons and 5 daughters. He died on 15 February 1877, in Lawrence, Kentucky, United States, at the age of 71, and was buried in Chapman Cemetery, Bowling Green, Warren, Kentucky, United States.