Prior to the European arrival, Native Americans inhabited the area of Chapman Forest for several thousand years. In 1608, Captain John Smith passed here on his exploration of the Potomac River and identified tribal locations up and down the river. By the time that Augustine Herman mapped the area in 1670, plantations had spread up the river, but the park area remained in "Pamunky Indian Lands". Three years later, land called Grimes Ditch that would become the Chapman estate, was granted to Luke Gardiner by Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore. The presence of "Indian Fields" is noted in the early deed. Within several decades, however, the native inhabitants had dispersed.
