 Cornelia Chapin was born in Connecticut and raised in New York City as part of a prominent socialite family.Daughter of Lindley Hoffman Chapin and Cornelia Garrison Van Auken Chapin, Cornelia Chapin was also a descendant of Supreme Court Justice George P. Andrews (who presided in the trials of former slave traders) and Cornelius K. Garrison (a merchant involved with the building of railroads).Chapin was also sister to poet Katherine Garrison Chapin Biddle, whose husband Francis Biddle was the 58th United States Attorney General.