Born on May 25, 1773, in Northampton, Province of Massachusetts Bay, British America,[1] Tappan attended the public schools and was apprenticed as a printer and engraver.

[2] He traveled to the West Indies and studied painting with Gilbert Stuart.

[1] He was a Judge of the Ohio Court of Common Pleas for the Fifth Judicial District from 1816 to 1823.

[3] Tappan received a recess appointment from President Andrew Jackson on October 12, 1833, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Ohio vacated by Judge John Wilson Campbell.

[4][2] He was censured by the Senate in 1844 for breach of confidence for passing copies of a proposed treaty with Texas to the press.

[citation needed] They had one son, Eli Todd Tappan, later president of Kenyon College.