He was born in
Newport in the
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the oldest child and only son of the merchant ship owner and Newport slave trader Christopher Champlin (1731–1805), who was also the first Grand Master of
Freemasons in Rhode Island from 1791 to 1794. His uncle George Champlin was a member of the Rhode Island Legislature and also funded slave voyages to Africa; his niece, Elizabeth Mason (daughter of his sister of the same name), married Commodore
Oliver Hazard Perry. His great nephew was architect
George Champlin Mason Sr. (1820–1894). After completing
preparatory studies, Champlin entered
Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1786, then going on to continue his studies at the
College of St. Omer in France. He returned to Newport, was an investor with his father and uncle in at least one slave voyage (the Brig Elizabeth), and married Martha Redwood Ellery (b. 1772), in 1793. They had one child, a son who died young. For several years after his marriage, Champlin worked as an assistant to his father in the shipping business. Champlin served as commanding officer (with rank of colonel) of the
Newport Artillery Company from 1815 to 1818. He commanded the company when it responded to the
1815 New England hurricane, also known as the Great Gale of 1815. As a measure of their gratitude, the Newport town council made the following resolution:
"Voted and resolved that the thanks of the town Council be presented to Colonel C. G. Champlin and the officers and privates of the Artillery Company of the town of Newport under his command for the prompt attention they paid to the request of said town council to turn out and guard the property of the unfortunate sufferers in the late destructive storm, and for their good conduct while on duty." He attended Newport's Congregationalist Church. Champlin was president of the Rhode Island Bank until a short time before his death in Newport in 1840; interment was in
Common Burial Ground. ==References==