Robert was devoted to his mother and later said that when he was very young he cared little for anyone else as long as she was near him. Perhaps his mother favored him. She confided to a friend, "Robert always has a passion, whether literature or the flute, and whatever he takes up, he pursues diligently."

His diligence, earnestness, and passion to enter thoroughly into topics that interested him did not leave as he grew up. The maturing youth demonstrated remarkable ability in languages; he studied a language until he mastered it. English, Danish, and French came to him naturally because they were spoken in the Thomas Chapman household. Robert also became proficient in German and Italian, probably with his tutor's help. After his conversion to Christ he studied Hebrew and Greek so he could read the Bible in those languages. When he became interested in doing missionary work in Spain, he studied Spanish and Portuguese until he could speak them fluently.

Robert left home at age fifteen and traveled to London in 1818 to begin a five-year apprenticeship with an attorney. He was intellectually mature beyond his years and probably quite read to leave home. If he was disappointed with this career choice, it is not apparent. He plunged into his apprenticeship with characteristic enthusiasm and determined to become an independent attorney.

Perhaps it is not surprising that spiritual concerns also began to occupy Robert's mind. He needed to know where he stood before God and he began to read and study the Bible. During the next few years he read it through three or four times even though he questioned its authenticity.

In spite of required legal study and growing religious concerns, Robert has a reasonably active social life. On weekends and holidays he often attended parties in London's fashionable West End. Witty and articulate he had become popular. But his confident manner and engaging smile hid an uneasiness, an unrest of spirit. His pleasant social activities seemed empty. Years later he wrote, "Sick was I of the world, hating it as vexation of spirit, while yet I was unable and unwilling to cast it out."

The Bible was speaking to his heart, but he found many of its truths confusing and difficult to understand: God's love and wrath, His rejection of sin and His invitation to man to enter into communion with Himself. Chapman did not want to give up his pleasant life for an uncertain call. He was acutely aware of his great problems in attempting to establish his righteousness in God's eyes. Outwardly happy and at ease, the sensitive young man was in turmoil.