. BURIAL: William2’s grave marker is an ordinary field stone inscribed with the initials “WC” and “1658” chiseled below it; nearby are wife Abigail’s headstone (“AC”) and footstone (“1686”) (Early Rehoboth 4:32, 34-35). An image of the former is available at findagrave.com (ignore birth data).
MARRIAGE: William and Abigail’s marriage record (only Bishops’ Transcripts of Shalbourne parish records survive for this period) has her surname as Briante (Shalbourne ParR; TAG 70:194). The five remaining Shalbourne church records mentioning Abigail’s family (including her baptismal record) spell the name Briant (Shalbourne ParR). Her father’s will, however (including his signature), has it as Bryan (PCC). St. Michael and All Angels, the church where the couple married and their first five children were baptized, is situated in what was then the Berkshire part of Shalbourne parish. The church was nevertheless under the jurisdiction of the dean and chapter of the cathedral church at New Sarum (Salisbury), Wiltshire (TAG 70:194, 194n5). Some sources give wife Abigail’s maiden name as Bennett or Searles. The first instance, however (prompted by the maiden name of her son William3 Carpenter’s first wife, Priscilla Bennett), represents unwarranted linkage to a Bennett family of Sway, Hampshire. The second reflects apparent confusion with the maiden name of William3’s second wife, Miriam Sale(s) (TAG 70:194n9, 204; see also Second Boat 1:15).
IMMIGRATION: William2, his wife, four children, and father embarked at Southampton, Hampshire, on the Bevis. The preamble to the ship’s passenger list, dated 2 May 1638, indicates that “they [had been] some Dayes gone to sea” (NEHGR 14:336). They landed probably at Boston (the point of all but a handful of Bay Colony arrivals) in June or July 1638 (the average ocean crossing took five to eight weeks).
RESIDENCES: William Carpenter “iunr” was about three years old when his father and he were first recorded as copyholders at Newtown, in the Wiltshire part of Shalbourne; their tenancy began on 1 June 1608. (The inclusion of William1’s presumably eldest [perhaps only] son and his sole heir [according to the law of primogeniture] gave the Carpenter copyhold potential continuity beyond the father’s lifetime.) He remained at Newtown until at least September 1637, if not January 1637/8 or later (Westcourt Recs 7; see also William1 of Shalbourne sketch, BIRTH, MARRIAGE, and RESIDENCES).
The Bevis passenger list describes William2 and his father as “of Horwell,” that is, Whorwell (now Wherwell), in Horwell Hundred, Hampshire, about 15 miles south-south-east of Shalbourne. Wherwell, which had a tradition of religious dissent-at least two of its vicars, Stephen Bachiler (1587-1605) and his probable brother-in-law John Bate (1605- 1633), were nonconformists-lies on a straight line from Shalbourne to the Bevis’s port of departure, at Southampton. (Another Bevis passenger in 1638 was Richard Dummer, who, with kinsman Bachiler, had been a partner in the Plough Company, which had recruited dissenters for migration to New England in 1631 and 1632.) It is clear from the chronology of Carpenter records at Shalbourne that the family was at Wherwell for a few months at most. It is indeed possible that they paused there only long enough to obtain from sympathetic authorities the certificates of conformity (one for each man) that customs officials would require for the Carpenters to leave England and from which the residence recorded for them on the passenger list was probably copied (TAG 70:193-94, 195n14; NEHGR 14:336; Old Hampshire Maps; see also “Focus on the Planter,” GMN 15, no. 4).
William2 was living at Weymouth by 1640, having probably settled there soon after arriving in Massachusetts, in 1638 (see FREEMAN and CHILDREN sections, below; Weymouth Hist 1:197-98). On 10 1st month [March] 1644, he was among fifty-eight original Rehoboth proprietors who drew lots for the “first Division in the Neck” (RTM 1:6; RPropR 4A:5). (There is no record of home-lot grants, which undoubtedly had already been made.) That the earliest Rehoboth proprietors’ meetings were held at Weymouth in late 1643 suggests that actual settlement of Rehoboth did not begin until 1644 (see RTM 1:27, [29?], 31; Rehoboth Hist 24-25, 55).
Amos B. Carpenter’s statement that William Carpenter was admitted an inhabitant of Rehoboth on 28 March 1645 has no documentary support (see Carpenter [1898] 38). There is no town record of that date, and no explicit admissions are recorded during this period (only the occasional grant of a home lot). It would have been superfluous, moreover, to admit as an inhabitant an original proprietor, to whom several lots had already been granted.
OCCUPATION: House-carpenter/joiner and planter. The Bevis passenger list describes him as a carpenter, and his estate inventory contains many house-carpenter’s tools (NEHGR 14:336; WILL/ESTATE, below). FREEMAN: Weymouth, 13 May 1640 (TAG 70:193); Rehoboth, 4 June 1645 (PCR 2:84).
EDUCATION: William’s will mentions many books, including “technical religious works of the time, Latin classics, Greek and Hebrew grammars, biblical concordances [and] some legal works” (MD 14:231-33; Colonial Families 2:553). He fails to appear in Oxford or Cambridge matriculation records, was perhaps tutored early by a local clergyman, and as he matured, presumably became an autodidact.
OFFICES: Weymouth: deputy to Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court, 1641, 1643; constable, 1641. Rehoboth: deputy to Plymouth Colony General Court, 1645, 1656; townsman (councilman/selectman), 1645, 1647, 1648, 1653, 1655[/6]; one of six to hear land-allotment grievances, 1645; grand juror, 1646; fence-viewer, 1646, 1647; surveying activity for the town, 1649 (perhaps other years); constable, 1654; surveyor (overseer) of highways (way warden) 1654, 1658 (MBCR 1:313, 318-19, 2:33; PCR 2:85, 102, 3:48-50, 99; Rehoboth Hist 32-33, 36, 38, 39, 40-41, 44-45, 46, 168, 171; RTM 1:41r/93, 58r/127).
Perhaps the most repeated assertion as to the offices occupied by William2 Carpenter is that he was Rehoboth’s first proprietors’ and town clerk. Amos Carpenter states that “[a]t a proprietors’ meeting held in Weymouth before the emigration to Rehoboth, the latter part of the year 1643, William Carpenter was chosen Proprietors’ clerk. . . . He served as Proprietors’ and Town Clerk from 1643 until 1649” (Carpenter [1898] 39). At the bottom of the same page, author Carpenter presents a mistake-ridden transcription of a 1644 Rehoboth town order establishing wage rates for common labor. Following this (on a new line and near the right margin) is the phrase “WILLIAM CARPENTER, clerk.” It thus appears that William2 identified himself as the one who, as town clerk, had entered the record in the town book. The original record, however, is followed by no such indication of the clerk’s identity (RTM 1:7). Nothing but a blank space separates it from the next, unrelated record. Neither does William2 Carpenter’s name appear in the records of the proprietors’ meetings held at Weymouth in late 1643, nor does it appear thereafter in connection with a clerkship of any kind (RTM 1:27, [29?], 31; Rehoboth Hist 24-25, 55).
The claim that William2 was Rehoboth town clerk was first made in 1836 by Leonard Bliss: “No Town Clerk is mentioned by name in the town records till the year 1651 [emphasis added], when Peter Hunt was chosen to the office. But previous to this date the records appear to have been written by the same hand; and it appears from various returns made by the town clerk and on record at Plymouth, that the first who filled that office in Rehoboth was William Carpenter, and that he retained it from the date of the commencement of the town records in October, 1643 till 1649, when Mr. Hunt was probably chosen” (Rehoboth Hist 171). This writer, though among the many who have repeated Bliss’s conclusion (see TAG 70:196), has recently discovered it to be erroneous.
Almost all Rehoboth records made from 1643 to mid-1649 are written in a single, distinctive hand. During this period, however, only one return from the Rehoboth town clerk is entered in Plymouth Colony records: “a Record of Land pchased from The towne of Rehoboth with an agreement of what other lands are to be aded [sic] for John Browne,” dated 20 10th month [December] 1645 and recorded at Plymouth in 1649 (day/month not given). At the end of the colony copy is the Rehoboth town clerk's certification: “p[er] me Edward Smith Towne Clarke” (PCR 12:177-78; PCLR 1:2:293). The original town record (dated 29 10th mo. 1645) is written in the same hand as virtually all other Rehoboth records of this period (RTM 1:71).
On 3 5th month [July] 1644, thirty Rehoboth inhabitants (out of fifty-eight original proprietors) entered into a covenant, agreeing to subject themselves to the authority of an elected town council (Rehoboth Hist 27-28). (That William Carpenter was not among the subscribers suggests that he may have been away, perhaps moving his family from Weymouth.) Fortunately, the compact is incorporated into Rehoboth town-meeting records with the original signatures, of which the second is that of the aforementioned Edward Smith (RTM 1:3). The rendering of Smith’s full name introducing a 1645 list of his land holdings matches his signature, as do other instances of the letters of his signature that occur in this record (RTM 1:22r/55). The land-possessions record, in turn, is in the same hand as practically all other Rehoboth records dated between 24 8th month [October] 1643 (at “Weimoth”) and 1 4th month [June] 1649 (RTM 1:3-41r/93 passim).
The Rehoboth town (and proprietors’) clerk from 1643 to 1649 was clearly Edward Smith and not William2 Carpenter. (Smith was of Weymouth by 1642, Rehoboth in 1644, and Newport, R.I., by 1653; the latest known Rehoboth record in which he appears is dated in December 1650. He was at least thrice a Rehoboth townsman [town councilman] and while at Newport served several terms each as deputy and general assistant to the Rhode Island General Assembly [Austin 380; Rehoboth Hist 29, 32, 39, 42].) Bliss’s aforementioned reference to the “various returns” of Rehoboth records copied into Plymouth Colony records that bear the name of William Carpenter undoubtedly reflects confusion with our subject’s son William3, who, as Rehoboth town clerk almost continuously from 1668 to 1702/3, certified many lists of Rehoboth vital records forwarded annually to Plymouth (see William3 sketch, OFFICES; PCR 8:52-88 passim).
Less often repeated but nevertheless persistent is the claim by Amos Carpenter (whose volume about the Rehoboth Carpenters contains many genealogical and biographical errors) that William2 was commissioned a captain by the authorities at Boston “about 1642” (Carpenter [1898] 42-43); another source has the commission coming from the Essex court (see Colonial Families 2:552). The date’s lack of precision is consistent with the fact that evidence of such an appointment is not found in the records of either Massachusetts Bay Colony or the Essex Quarterly Court (the latter lacked the authority for such an act). If a William Carpenter were to have been made a captain about this time, it would have been William1 of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island (d. 1685). (Pawtuxet-not to be confused with Pawtucket-was then part of Providence Plantation and is now in Cranston. Our subject, the eventual William2 of Rehoboth, was then of Weymouth.) In September 1642, Pawtuxet inhabitants-“Willi: Arnold, Rob: Coale, Willi: Carpenter, & Bened: Arnold, his company” (not a militia company but the remainder of Pawtuxet residents)- put themselves and their lands (on both Providence and Warwick sides of the Pawtuxet River) under Massachusetts Bay Colony authority to fend off the encroachments of Samuel Gorton and his followers (MBCR 2:26-27). Most of the alleged interlopers were arrested by Massachusetts troops under Captain George Cooke in early October 1643. On the twentieth of that month, the Bay Colony General Court commissioned Carpenter and five other Pawtuxet men to seize and return to Boston certain of Gorton’s people who had not already been gathered up; no military ranks were assigned or mentioned (Samuel Gorton 48-50, 68, 109; MacDonough-Hackstaff 299-300 [facsimile of original commission opposite 299]). No known record of William2 of Rehoboth (or William1 of Pawtuxet) includes a military title of any kind. It is therefore inappropriate to use the title Captain (as some do) to distinguish William2 of Rehoboth from his father, William1, or his son William3.
WILL/ESTATE: William2’s will is dated “the 10th month [December] the 10th day of the month” (year not given-perhaps as early as 1656, no later than 1658) and was proved on 21 April 1659 (TAG 70:196, 199n45). His extensive estate inventory, taken on 21 February 1658[/9], values his Rehoboth and Pawtuxet lands at £180 and £60, respectively. (The Pawtuxet property was in northern Warwick, R.I., across the Pawtuxet River from the Providence section of the same name. “[T]he Island” mentioned several times in the will was not a location in the Pawtuxet River [see Carpenter [1898] 41] but was simply short for Rhode Island.) His personal estate contained many carpenter’s implements, including a lathe and turning tools; various types and sizes of saws and planes; jointers, spokeshaves, drawing knives, chisels, adzes, gouges, a vise, and glue. The value of his entire estate is not given but amounts to £644 19s. 10d. when all items are totaled (see PCPR 2:1:80-90A). (About 1643, William’s estate was calculated at £254 10s. [RPropR 1:1-2]. Of that amount, £108 was not actual wealth but simply reflected his having a family of nine. Land was allotted “according to person and Estate,” and “one person [was] valued at Twelve pounds Sterling in Division of Lands” [RPropR 4A:3; RTM 1:31].) For the most accurate transcription of the will by far (only slightly abridged), see MD 14(1912):231-33; for analysis of important passages, see TAG 70 (1995):195- 200 and NEHGR 159(2005):64.
CHILDREN: Numbers i-v baptized at Shalbourne, vii-viii born at Weymouth (TAG 70: 194, 203-4). For details and source citations, see the respective sketches of those listed below (except no. v).
CHILDREN: Numbers i-v baptized at Shalbourne, vii-viii born at Weymouth (TAG 70: 194, 203-4). For details and source citations, see the respective sketches of those listed below (except no. v).
i. JOHN3 CARPENTER, bp. 8 Oct. 1626; m. HANNAH SMITH.
ii. ABIGAIL CARPENTER, bp. 31 May 1629; m. (1) JOHN TITUS, (2) JONAH PALMER SR.
iii. WILLIAM CARPENTER, bp. 25 Dec. (not 22 Nov.) 1631; m. (1) PRISCILLA BENNETT, (2) MIRIAM SALE (TAG 89:314-15 [date correction]).
iv. JOSEPH CARPENTER, bp. 6 April 1634; m. MARGARET SUTTON. v. SAMUEL CARPENTER, bp.“ffyft” [5] (not 1) March 1636[/7], bur. Shalbourne 20 April 1637 (TAG 70:194, 196, 204, 89:314-15 [date correction]).
v. SAMUEL CARPENTER (again), b. ca. 1638; m. SARAH REDWAY.
vi. HANNAH CARPENTER, b. 3 2nd mo. [April] 1640; m. JOSEPH2 CARPENTER (William1 of Providence).
viii. ABIAH CARPENTER, b. 9 2nd mo. [April] 1643; m. MARY REDWAY.
COMMENTS: The record of William2 Carpenter’s participation with fifty-seven others in a division of woodland is dated at the upper edge of a disintegrating page whose filmed image shows only the number of the day (RTM 1:25). A 1731 transcription has the date as 31 __ month 1643, whereas Bliss’s History of Rehoboth (1836) has it as 31 4th month [June] 1644, as does Arnold’s Vital Record of Rehoboth (1897) (RPropR 4A:3-4; Rehoboth Hist, 27; RVR [pub] 911). Thirty-one and June (a thirty-day month) are of course incompatible, and the year stated in the latter two sources conflicts with that in the first one. In the late 1940s, the original record still showed the month, but it was so faded as to appear to the naked eye as a blank space (as it apparently had even in 1731). Using magnification, Richard Bowen concluded that the month appeared to be written as the number 5, representing the Old Style month of July (see Early Rehoboth, 4:3-4). Apparently, however, no one paid much attention to the number of the day in the original record. After examining it carefully and comparing it with other, contemporaneous Rehoboth records in the same hand, this writer has concluded that the day is written as 3th, with the slightly elevated, uncrossed t giving the appearance of a 1. (Though written in a different hand, the first volume of Rehoboth vital records is full of dates in which ordinally numbered days that one expects to end in st, nd/d, or rd/d end instead in th: 1th, 3th, 22th, 23th, and 31th, for example.) While this restores June as a possibility, the month and year nevertheless remain uncertain: Is the former June or July? Is the latter 1643 or 1644? The best that can be said is that since the earliest Rehoboth proprietors’ meetings were held at Weymouth in late 1643 (see RESIDENCES, par. 3, above), it is likely that the record in question was made in mid-1644.
It is often said (though not by reliable sources) that William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth was a first cousin of William1 Carpenter of Providence (son of RichardA Carpenter of Amesbury, Wiltshire) and also of the daughters of AlexanderA Carpenter of Wrington, Somersetshire, and Leiden, Netherlands, four of whom came to Plymouth. This derives from Amos Carpenter’s unsupported claim that William1 (Bevis, 1638), RichardA, and AlexanderA Carpenter were brothers (see Carpenter [1898] 34; William1 of Shalbourne sketch, COMMENTS). No evidence has been found even hinting at a link between the Wrington Carpenters, on the one hand, and either of the other two aforementioned families, on the other; a connection is highly improbable. Traditional genealogical research methods provide good reasons to doubt also that Rehoboth William and Providence William were closely related (see NEHGR 159:64-66, 67n63). Results of recent genetic testing coordinated by the Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project support this conclusion: Based on a number of 67-marker tests, “we can state with 95% confidence that the most recent common ancestor of the two groups [descendants of the Providence and Rehoboth Carpenters, respectively] was more than 2 generations before the immigrants and less than about 20. Therefore, the DNA testing has very nearly ruled out the often-repeated claim that the Williams were first cousins. The most likely estimate is about 7 generations, but that is a very rough estimate, and the 95% confidence interval is a more reasonable description of what the DNA is telling us” (Carpenter Cousins).
Clerical errors in and misinterpretation of original Weymouth vital records cause that town’s published vital-records volume to attribute to William2 a son Abraham and to identify him as the twin of William2’s son Abiah. Amos Carpenter correctly concludes that Abraham did not exist but nevertheless retains the idea that Abiah had a twin-his sister Abigail (see Carpenter [1898] 46). It has since been established, however, that she was several years older than Abiah. There was neither an Abraham nor a multiple birth in this family (TAG 70:200-3).
Occasionally, a researcher includes in the list of William2’s children a son Ephraim. The earliest Ephraim among Rehoboth Carpenters, however, was the son (1681-1743) of William3 and Miriam (Sale) Carpenter (RVR 1:9, 2:250; William3 sketch, CHILDREN).
An 1847 genealogical-journal item states the following: “CARPENTER, WILLIAM, Hingham, 1641, witnessed, and seems to have drawn the deed of a tract of land there from the Indians, ‘to John Tower the elder.’ His autograph, and the instrument to which it is attached, are a most elegant specimen of the chirography of that age” (NEHGR 1:137; see also 139 [deed dated 17 June 1641 (sic), endorsed in 1662/3]). Amos Carpenter quotes this passage without elaboration but with the implication that the handwriting is William2 Carpenter’s (see Carpenter [1898] 39). His quotation is inaccurate in several respects, including his substituting Weymouth for Hingham. But more important, the original statement is itself flawed: while John Tower was of Hingham (hence the inference that Carpenter was also), the deed describes land in Rhode Island (probably in present-day Scituate, Providence County) and is dated not in 1641 but 1661; it is witnessed by Joseph Peck Sr. (Rehoboth), Nathaniel Baker (Hingham), and William Carpenter (Tower Gen 28-29). Based on the foregoing facts-and knowing that William2 had died in 1658/9, and that his namesake son, who had excellent handwriting, often signed his name with great flourishes-we conclude that the creator of this “elegant specimen of . . . chirography” was William3 Carpenter, who became Rehoboth town clerk in 1668 (see William3 sketch, OFFICES).
The only extant document known to contain William2 Carpenter’s handwriting (discovered by this writer in the mid to late 1990s) is his transcription of a “memorandom,” dated 14 10th month [December] 1653, between the Indians of Pawtuxet, on the one hand, and Robert Coles, William Carpenter, and Richard Chasmore, all of Pawtuxet, and William Carpenter of Rehoboth, on the other (see Indian Deed). (William Carpenter of Pawtuxet [Providence] was the immigrant from Amesbury, Wiltshire, whose son Joseph married, a few years later, Hannah Carpenter, daughter of William2 of Rehoboth [see CHILDREN, no. vii, above; also this section, par. 1]. Coles and Chasmore lived across the river, in the part of Pawtuxet in Warwick.) In return for twelve pounds and four shillings, the Indians are to build and maintain a fence to keep the Englishmen’s animals (grazing on adjacent land) out of their corn fields in Pawtuxet (Warwick); the planters will not bear the costs of damage from subsequent incursions. Appended to this agreement, in the same hand, is the following statement: “These presents is a true Coppie of the grant and deed that was made by the Indians above said to the parties above said the which grant and deed is in the hand and Custodie of mee William Carpenter of Rehoboth And this presents I make and assigne over unto William Carpenter of pautuxett for his ashourance and to satisfye all men whome it may Consearne and is made verbatom with the grante deed In witness where of I doe sett my hand heare unto [signed] William Carpenter.” Following this statement, in another hand, is a note: “This grant deed was Recorded in the towne Reccordes of warwicke in the 64th page of the booke of Land Evidences p[er] mee John Potter Clearke.” Presumably, it was William1 Carpenter of Providence or one of his sons who, belatedly, took this document to the Warwick town clerk for recording, which was done immediately below a deed dated in 1684 (see WarLE 1:64-65).
The will of John “Bryan” the elder of Newtown, parish of Shalbourne, grocer-dated 11 July 164[torn] and proved 20 June 1643-mentions (in order of appearance) son John’s daughters Mary (eldest), Lucie (youngest), and Dorothie (under 21; “if shee turne protestant”); son Joseph’s son Edmund (under 24); daughter Elizabeth Tubbe’s sons John and Nathaniel (both under 24); daughter Elizabeth Tubbe; William Carpenter (under 24), son of William Carpenter; sons John and Joseph (primary beneficiary and, if necessary, successor executor); godson Jonathan Pearse alias Moone; goddaughter Mary Webbe; the poor of Shalbourne and Chilton; wife Alice (executrix); overseers Mr. Beniamine Some (“my pastor”) and Mr. Edmund Halford; and witnesses Edmund Halford and Geffrey Platt (PCC).
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: See, for example, Leonard Bliss Jr., The History of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts (Boston, 1836); Richard LeBaron Bowen, Early Rehoboth: Documented Historical Studies of Families and Events in This Plymouth Colony Township, 4 vols. (Rehoboth, 1945-1950); John Demos, A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony, 2nd ed. (New York, 1999 [paperback]); Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People, 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City, 1986 [paperback]); Hugh Trevor-Roper, Archbishop Laud: 1573-1645 (London, 1940; repr. 2000 [paperback]); Keith Wrightson and David Levine, Poverty and Piety in an English Village: Terling, 1525-1700, 2nd ed. (Oxford, England, 1995 [paperback]).
KEY TO SOURCES:
Austin John Osborne Austin, The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, rev. ed. (Baltimore, 1969)
Carpenter [1898] Amos B. Carpenter, A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America [informal title: Carpenter Memorial] (Amherst, Mass., 1898) Carpenter Cousins Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project website, maintained by John F. Chandler (13 March 2008 update); see discussion of Carpenter descendant groups 2 (Providence) and 3 (Rehoboth)
Colonial Families Herbert F. Seversmith, Colonial Families of Long Island, New York and Connecticut, 5 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1939-1958) Crookston E-mails, dated in Aug. and Sept. 2007, to Gene Zubrinsky from Andrew Crookston (andrewcrookston@ wiltshire.gov.uk), Archivist, Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham (formerly Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office, Trowbridge), England
Early Rehoboth Richard LeBaron Bowen, Early Rehoboth: Documented Historical Studies of Families and Events in This Plymouth Colony Township, 4 vols. (Rehoboth, Mass., 1945- 1950)
GMN Great Migration Newsletter, online at www.great migration.org (subscription website; printed issues available)
Indian Deed Pawtuxet Indians’ memorandum/deed to local yeomen (transcribed by William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth), Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Collection, MSS 9003, vol. 5, p. 5, Rhode Island Historical Society; digital image online at http://carpentercousins.com/ Deed%20in%20Hand%20of%20Wm2%20Carpenter% 20of%20Rehoboth.pdf MacDonough-Hackstaff Rodney MacDonough, The
MacDonough-Hackstaff Ancestry (Boston, 1901)
MBCR Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1886, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, 5 vols. in 6 (Boston, 1853-1854)
MD The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 1 through present (1899- 1937, 1985-)
NEHGR The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 1 (1847) through present
Old Hampshire Maps “Old Hampshire Mapped,” online at www.geog.port.ac.uk/ webmap/hantsmap/hantsmap/hantsmap.htm (select “John Speed’s map of Hampshire . . . , 1611” or “John Blaeu’s map of Hampshire, 1645” → Index sheet to part of the map → SU44; also either map → Gazetteer, in Hundreds → Horwell Hundred)
PCC Records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, The National Archives, PROB 10/639/11:19-20 (John Bryan will [digital image])
PCLR Plymouth Colony Deeds, vol. 1 [Family History Library (FHL), Salt Lake City, film #567,788]
PCPR Plymouth Colony Probate Records [Wills and Inventories, 1633-1686], vols. 1-4 [FHL film #567,794]
PCR Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff and David Pulsifer, 12 vols. in 10 (Boston, 1855-1861)
Rehoboth Hist Leonard Bliss Jr., The History of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts (Boston, 1836)
RI Cems The Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project Master Index, online at www.rootsweb.com/~rigen web/cemetery
RPropR Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Proprietors’ Records, vols. 1-4 [FHL film #550,004], 4A-5 [FHL film #550,005]
RTM Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Town Meetings (and Vital Records), 1644-1673 [FHL film #562,558 (uncataloged), item 4]
RVR Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Vital Records vol. 1 [FHL film #562,559 (personal copy; no longer cataloged), item 3], vols. 2-3 [FHL #562,558 (old loan copy; no longer cataloged), items 5-6]
RVR [pub] James N. Arnold, Vital R
Samuel Gorton Adelos Gorton, The Life and Times of Samuel Gorton (Philadelphia, 1907)
Second Boat The Second Boat, vols. 1-7 (Machias, Maine, 1980-1986)
Shalbourne ParR Shalbourne Parish Records (Bishops’ Transcripts), bundle 1 and unsorted box, Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham, England
TAG The American Genealogist, vol. 9 (1932) through present
Tower Gen Charlemagne Tower, Tower Genealogy: An Account of the Descendants of John Tower, of Hingham, Mass. (Cambridge, Mass., 1891)
WarLE Warwick, Rhode Island, Land Evidences, 1669-1711 [FHL film #22,500]
Westcourt Recs Survey of Shalbourne Westcourt (c1610-1639/40), Savernake Estate Collection, ref. 9/24/460, Wiltshire and Swindon Archives, Chippenham, England
Weymouth Hist George Walter Chamberlain, History of Weymouth, Massachusetts, 4 vols. (Boston, 1923)
Thanks to Jim Bullock (Littleton, Colo.), John R. Carpenter (La Mesa, Calif.), Terry L. Carpenter (Germantown, Md.), and John F. Chandler (Harvard, Mass.) for reviewing the original sketch. Thanks also to Peter Blanthorn, Chairman, Shalbourne Parish Council, for the photographs with which it continues to begin.
Gene Zubrinsky (GeneZub@aol.com) has contributed many articles, including four Carpenter pieces, to the leading genealogical journals and local-history magazines.
[Gene Zubrinsky's notes end here.]
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
OLD NOTES: The following notes consist of previously compiled data, some of which is incorrect. They are retained so that the reader may identify specific items contained in them that he or she might have thought worthy of inclusion in Gene Zubrinsky's notes (above) and will know that they were deliberately omitted for being erroneous or extraneous. For PAF and GEDCOM data files containing only his notes, see the "Gene Zubrinsky" folder of the CE 2009.
NOTE: A farmer by trade. A Freeman of Weymouth 13 May 1640 and of Rehoboth 28 Mar 1645. Much information in the following books.
MARRIAGE CORRECTION BELOW!!! MARRIAGE RECORD FOUND IN ENGLAND!
Number 16 in the Carpenter Memorial by Amos B. Carpenter (1898).
AFN V6TJ-CO & LSD9-5L on this William has major errors. Data below used for corrections. Captain of the Colony.
FOUNDER: William Carpenter is concidered the founder of the Rehoboth MA Carpenters.
BIRTH: Probably in Wiltshire. He spent time in Wherwell (Whirlwell or Horwell). Born 23 or 25 (in some genealogical records) May 1605. However these do not cite the orginal source in the microfilms. Examples:
Film or fiche number 456396
Film/fiche search results Sealings for the dead, couples and children (includes some living spouses and children), 1942-1970; heir index, 1944-1972, 1942-1972 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arizona Temple
Film or fiche number 1621468
Title Names submission on computer diskette, 1988-
Notes Computer output microfilm of names submitted for temple work on computer diskette.
Thus 23 or 25 May 1605 is highly suspect.
So is the date of 15 AUG 1605 ,, England. Father listed as William Carpenter.
Source Information:
Batch Number: 5026978
Sheet: 28
Source Call No.: 1553838 ---> Film/fiche search results Patron sheets, 1969-1991
CHR: 1611 in Somerset per one record. This is about 150 miles away, however and may have belonged to another William.
MISC:
BOOK:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England - Edited by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, MD. - Boston, Mass 1857
Volume 8 - Records of Plymouth Colony - Miscellaneous Records - 1633-1689
The names of such as have taken the Oath of Fidelitie in the Towne of Rehoboth in the Yeare 1657.
Page 178
William Carpenter, Junir
FREEMAN:
BOOK:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England - Edited by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, MD. - Boston, Mass 1857
Volume 8 - Records of Plymouth Colony - Miscellaneous Records - 1633-1689
Lists of Names - 9th, Rehoboth
(The following appears to be a list of Freemen, and to have taken about the year 1658.)
Page 201
William Carpenter <--- with mark indicating deceased.
DEATH:
7 Feb 1658/59 in Rehoboth per some genealogical records. 7 Feb 1659 was the date that William's will was PROVEN per some other records.
Part of the confusion is in the double-date notation now widely used for pre-1752 dates from Jan 1 through March 24. Under the old calendar, what we call March 25, (April 1 - the end of the Spring Solstice celebrations in some places), was the start of the new year. It is confusing to those who are unaware of the calendar changes England officially adopted in 1752 and the adjustments used by today's scholars to designate which year was which.
Please note: Different countries started using the Gregorian calendar in different years.
Only the dates from January to the end of March should be double dated as noted below by Gene.
Another part of the confusion is the misuse of dates attributing death or burial based on incomplete data.
In some records there is a W.P. placed in the death or burial location. In this case, this is wrong. Some claim W.P. in Savages dictionary of RI stands for West Providence, RI, but this is not found and there was no West Providence in that time period. In the death place it was for Will Proven in some genealogical reports like the Ancestral File. (See John Chandler's comment below Gene's.)
Gene Zubrinsky of Ojai, CA explains the death dates in this manner:
"Carpenter's will was written on 10 December (no year given, but almost certainly 1658 [absolutely no later]); he died on 7 February 1658 (if Old Style date, as is highly likely, this would properly be 1658/9; if not, 1657/8); his estate inventory was taken on 21 February 1658 (if Old Style, 1658/9; if not, 1657/8); and his will was proved on 21 April 1659. (As you know, I've cited primary sources for all these dates. [Rehoboth VR, 1:50;
Plymouth Colony Wills, 2:1:80, 84 (transcr. in THE MAYFLOWER DESCENDANT 14[1912]:231-33)].)" )
This almost certainly occurred over the course of a four-and-a-half-month period, in perfect chronological order, from 10 Dec. 1658 to 21 April 1659. It's quite straightforward. If the death and inventory dates (giving the year as 1658) represent New Style dating, it would put an improbable 14 months between those events, on the one hand, and the will's probate, on the other. (Once the inventory was taken, it would have been highly unusual for probate to be delayed over a year.) That's the ONLY other possible alternative."
John Chandler explains the W.P. as "specifically that W.P. often stands for "will proved" in the Ancestral File and in databases derived from it. This is useful knowledge for anyone who browses genealogical data on the Internet or on CD collections. By the way, the W.P. notation in the AF usually does reflect the facts -- since the AF does not have a PROBATE field or even NOTEs, the only way to enter the limited knowledge of death based on probate is in the DEATH field with a notation of exactly this sort."
Gene has more commentary below.
BURIAL: His grave is in the Newman Cemetery in Rumford, RI which used to be part of Rehoboth, MA. His maker is an ordinary field stone with the initials "W.C." carved with "1658" chiseled below it. John L. Carpenter of Walpole, NH has an excellent picture which he has digitized for Email use.
NOTE: Some genealogical records given Abigail Sales (Searles) as wife and others Abigail Bennett, Ralph his step-brother is also listed as a spouse to Abigail Bennett. It is likely that this Williiam was married at least twice. Abigail Bennett died in 1687 in Rehoboth. If this is true the first three kids are AS and others to AB. In at least one record, Abigail Briant (Bryant) is listed as spouse. If she was a spouse, she would have been number one or one of the Abigails above under a married name? FOUND!!!
MARRIAGE:
Marriage record in the Bishops' Transcripts at Shalbourne (administered by Wiltshire then but actually in Berkshire today) indicates he and Abigail "Briante" were married there on 28 April 1625. Per American Genealogist, whole number 280, Vol. 70, No. 4 October 1995.
SEE ALSO:
Microfilm number (MFN) 1526634, item 17 which are from the Shalbourne Parish Register Transcripts 1581-1837. The date of the transcribing into typed print is not given. The microfilm was created in 1988. See image 27 for marriage info.
SEE ALSO:
Wiltshire Marriages Index 1538-1933
First name(s) William
Last name Carpenter
Role Groom
Marriage year 1625
Marriage date 28 Apr 1625
Place Shalbourne
Spouse's first name(s) Abigall
Spouse's last name Briante
County Wiltshire
Country England
Record set Wiltshire Marriages Index 1538-1933
Category Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records
Subcategory Parish Marriages
Collections from England, Great Britain
Transcriptions © Nimrod Research
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=PRS%2FWILTS%2FMAR%2FNIRO%2F0196435%2FG
COMPARE:
Name: William Carpenter
Sex: Male
Spouse's Name: Abigall Briante
Spouse's Sex: Female
Marriage Date: 28 Apr 1625
Marriage Place: Shalbourne, Wiltshire, England
Event Type: Marriage
Document Type: Bishop's Transcripts
Household Role Sex Age Birthplace
Abigall Briante Wife F
Digital Folder Number: 007908977
Image Number: 00913
Citing this Record
"England, Wiltshire, Church Records, 1518-1990", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6D3K-NNF4 : 4 August 2022), William Carpenter, 1625.
SEE image at a FHC
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSH8-PSGL-B?cc=4380174&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3A6D3K-NNF4
CHILDREN: Many researchers try to put a Ephraim (b. 25 April 1651) in this family but this is in error. See the grandchild of this William, through his son named William, for the Ephraim(s) born 25 April 16XX.
Many researchers say that Abraham (b. 9 Feb 1643) is in this family in error also. Yet no other individual comes close to birth or baptism date. In the children sequence he fits and most likely died young.
BOOK: Per "GENEALOGICAL & FAMILY HISTORY OF WESTERN NEW YORK," LEWIS 1912, Page 1253 Much detail given: Will dated 21 Apr 1659, Proved 7 Feb 1659, and yes they appear backwards. Will done in 1658? He married in England, Abigail ? who died 22 Feb, 1687. *On page 1318: His birth is listed as 25 May 1605. Records show he was a fine writer, a man of affairs, possessed of much ability.
SEE: WILL below and DEATH notes for clairification by Gene Zubrinsky.
HISTORY: OTHER INFORMATION INCLUDES BUT NOT LIMITED TO: DEPUTY TO THE GENERAL COURT FROM WEYMOUTH IN 1641-43 AND FROM REHOBOTH IN IN 1645, CONSTABLE IN 1641. HE WAS A CLOSE FRIEND TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM BRADFORD, WHO MARRIED HIS COUSIN ALICE CARPENTER. HE BOUGHT THE AREA NOW CALLED REHOBOTH (8 MILES SQUARE) FROM THE INDIANS. PROPRIETORS' CLERK FROM 1643-1649. CONTRIBUTED TOWARD THE EXPENSES OF KING PHILLIPS WAR. IN 1647, A SELECTMAN FROM REHOBOTH. HE WAS A CAPTAIN OF MILITA. William was a Deputy to the General Court of Plymouth (1641) and used his influence to make a purchase of this land. He was later a member of the General Court from Rehoboth in 1645. The Court conceded to all that he asked as appears from an extract from the Proprietor's Record (See Vol. I., page 1). The Court appointed Mr. John Brown and Mr. Edward Winslow to purchase the aforesaid tract of land of Asamacum, the chief sachem and owner thereof ... See page 38 in the Carpenter Memorial.
NOTE: See also San Diego Family History Center book 929.273 C226c. This orignal typed copy contains descendants not in the the 1898 book. AFN LSD9-5L is apparently the same person with Baptisim date as birth date.
BOOK: GENEALOGY: Amos B. Carpenter, A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE REHOBOTH BRANCH OF THE CARPENTER FAMILY IN AMERICA. Also known as the CARPENTER MEMORIAL. Published 1898 By: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, Amherst, MA.
WILLIAM is listed as # 16. Pages 38 to 50.
BOOK:- GENEALOGY: Carpenter and Allied Families by Miss Annie L. Carpenter, The American Historical Society, Inc., NY, published in 1936. Page 11-13.
MORE:
See LDS film #1449498; c225a; 0928227; 1404120.
See Carpenter Family publication, LDS film #1685645.
See Rehoboth MA Vital Records Arnold pp. 571, 578.
See Rehoboth MA Vital Records Carpenter pp. 808.
See Weymouth Historical Society publication N2, pp 254-287.
See New England Historical & Genealogical Register Vol LXV p.65 !See Plymouth Colony Records, 12 Vols. (Boston, MA, 1861), Wills, Vol. 2, pp. 80-83.
BOOKLET: See REF: B.B. TOPP, Carpenter Chronicles #24, Nov 1995 Contents of pages 298-300 of Emigration List, BEVIS 1638 "Portus Southon: Southon, (May 1638) The list of the names of passengers intended to shipe themselves, in the Bevis of Hampton of CL tommes, Robert Batten, Master, for New England; thus by vertue of the Lord Tresurers Warrant of the second of May, which was after the restrayne(t) & they some dayes gone to sea before the King's Mates.
Proclamacon come unto Southton." (lists of names)
age name
62 William Carpenter
33 William Carpenter Jun (of Horwell)
32 Abigail Carpenter
10 & under four children.
servant.
(NOTE: Southon = Southampton).
(NOTE: Horwell = Wherwell???).
MORE ON ABOVE:
From:
To:
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2007 3:27 PM
Subject: [CARPENTER] _Bevis_ Passenger List
>
> The best and most easily available transcription of the _Bevis_ passenger
> list is the oldest (see Samuel G. Drake, "The Founders of New England," _The New
> England Historical and Genealogical Register_ 14[1860]:336-37):
> "SOUTHAMPTON.--The list of the names of Passeng[er]s Intended to shipe themselues, In
> the Beuis of Hampton of CL.Tounes, Robert Batten M[aste]r for Newengland, And
> thus by vertue of the Lord Treasurers warrant of the second of May w[hi]ch was
> after the restraynt and they some Dayes gone to sea Before the Kinges
> Ma[gis]t[rat]es Proclamacon Came vnto South'ton." [Because the abbreviated words
> end with one or two letters in superscript (which cannot be duplicated on the
> mailing list)--and, in at least one case, for clarity--I have inserted the
> missing letters in brackets. Drake puts the appropriate letters in superscript
> but does not supply the missing letters.] I'll send the images (two pages)
> to John R. for posting online.
...
< JRC just added ...
See:
See Also: >
...
>
> As is clear from the partial image of the original record posted by John R.,
> the Carpenter section of the passenger list reads as follows:
>
> 62 - - - - William Carpenter
> 33 - - - - William Carpent Jn [following a bracket of the two
> Williams is "of Horwell Carpent[e]rs"]
> 32 - - - - Abigael Carpenter
> 10 & vnder & fower children
> 14 - - - - Tho: Banshott Servt.
>
> As the list's preamble indicates, by 2 May 1638, "they had some Dayes gone
> to sea." The actual departure date is not known, nor is the date of arrival.
> Since the average voyage from England to Massachusetts took five to eight
> weeks, they would have landed, probably at Boston (the point of all but a
> handful of Bay Colony arrivals), in June or July 1638.
>
> It is reasonably certain that "Horwell" refers to the parish of Whorwell
> (now Wherwell), located in Horwell Hundred, Hampshire (see
> and
> ). Whorwell/Wherwell
> (about 15 map miles south-southeast of Shalbourne) had a tradition of religious
> dissent: at least two of its vicars, Stephen Bachiler (1587–1605) and
> probable brother-in-law John Bate (1605–1633), were nonconformists. It lies,
> moreover, on a straight line from Shalbourne to the _Bevis_’s port of departure,
> at Southampton.
>
> The Carpenters remained at Wherwell no more than a few months and perhaps
> only a day or two. Their tenancy at Shalbourne had ended by September 1637,
> but the burial there the following January of an Alice Carpenter raises the
> possibility that the surviving Carpenters were then still living in or very near
> Shalbourne. It is possible that they paused at Wherwell only long enough
> to obtain from sympathetic authorities the _certificates of conformity_ (one
> for each man) that customs officials would require for the Carpenters to leave
> England and from which the residence recorded for them on the passenger list
> was probably copied (see "Focus on the _Planter_," _Great Migration
> Newsletter_ 15, no. 4, online at [subscription website;
> printed issues available]).
>
> Gene Z.
NOTE: Through his five sons, Capt. William Carpenter became the father of "The Family of Heroes." Over 300 of his male lineal descendants (230 proven as of 8/96) served America in the Revolutionary War. No other American colonial man had as many. Source: Raymond George Carpenter, American Genealogist for the Carpenter Family, author of "The Family of Heroes." (serial) published by James Ausie Carpenter, in the Carpenter and Related Family Historical Journal."
BOOK: "The Carpenter Family in America from the Settlement at Providence, R.I. 1637-1901." By Daniel Hoogland Carpenter of Maplewood, Essex, NJ. Published by the Marion Press of Jamaica, Queensborough, NY in 1901. 370 Pages. See page 354, Describing the "Visitation" or census of the College of Arms in 1623 and 1634 where it is shown that there was a number of Carpenter families in Gloucester, Hereford, Somerset, and Surrey, who made proof of their pedigrees by presenting arms which were emblazoned in the windows of the Church at Westbury upon Trin (often called the Worcester Arms).
MISC: Descendants of William Carpenter are eligible for membership in the "Order of First Families of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." For information contact the "Order" above at 45 East 200 North Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84103.
WILL: Will of William Carpenter, Proven 7 Feb 1659, Written 21 Apr 1658.
Posted by Donna Tivener on Thu, 27 May 1999.
WILLIAM OF REHOBOTH'S 1659 WILL
The William Carpenter will reads, in part:
"In the name of God, Amen, I, William Carpenter, Sr. of Rehoboth, being in perfect memory at present, blessed be God, do make my last Will and Testament.
--I give to my son, John Carpenter, one mare, being the old white mare, and my best doublet and my handsomest coat, and new cloth to make him a pair of breeches.
---I give unto his son beside twenty shillings to buy him a calf.
---I give to him Mr. Ainsworth's upon the five books of Moses, Canticles and Psalms, and Mr. Brightman on Revelations, and my concordance.
---I give to my son William, the young grey mare of two yearling colts, and five pounds in sugar or wampum, and my (passett) coate, and one suit of apparel, and Mr. Mahew on the four Evangelists upon the 14 chapters of Saule
(or Paul).
---I give him my Latin books, my greek grammar and Hebrew grammar and my Greek Lexicon, and I give him ten (or 5) pounds of cotton wool; and his son, John twenty shillings to be paid to him a year after my decease.
---I give to my son, Jospeh two of the youngest steers of the four that were brought to work this year; and to his son, Joseph twenty shillings, and to Joseph I give one of Perkins' works and of Barrows upon private contentions called harts (cq) divisions.
---__I give to Jospeh a suit of better cloths to be given at his mother's discretion, and I give him a green serge coat and ten pounds of cotton wool, and a match lock gun.
---I give to my daughter, Hannah half of my Common at Pawtuxet, and one third of my impropriate, only my meadow excepted, and my home lot, and that land I had laid out to cousin that I had for the low lands cousin Carpenter that I had by. (NOTE: dmt. No doubt refers to exchange of lands or land purchased of Joseph Carpenter, son of William Carpenter of Providence, Rhode Island.)
---I give to my daughter Hannah one yearling heifer, also I give to Hannah her Bible, the practice of piety and the volume of prayer, and one ewe at the island, and twenty pounds of cotton, and six pounds of wool.
---I give to my son Abiah (Abijah) the rest of my lands at Pawtuxet, and the meadow, after my decease; and his mother and Samuel to help him to build a house because Samuelhas a house built already. Only if my wife marry again, she shall have nothing to do with that land.
---I give to my daughter, Abigail, one young mare, a three-year old bay mare, and if the mare should be dead at Spring, she shall have fifteen pounds in her stead, within one year after my decease.
---I give twenty shillings to John Titus, his for to be paid a year after my decease; but if John Titus coems to dwell and take the house and land, which I sent him word he sall have if he come. then he shall have the land and not the money.
---I give to my son Samuel one-half my land which I now live upon (and two pens of the young sheep, two cows, one bull) and he now lives on, with his furniture and half of my working tools; and Abish, the other half; and Samuel to have on book of Psalms, a Dictionary, and a Gun and my best coat, and one ewe at the island.
---I give to my wife the other half of the land I now live upon, for her life time, and the use of my household stuff, carts and plows, if she marry not. But if she marry, she shall have a third part in my land and Samuel, the
rest; and she shall have four oxen, one mare, which is called the black mare, four cows, one bed and its furniture, one pot, one good kettle and one little, and one skillet, and half of the pewter her lifetime, and then to give it up to
the chidlren; and if she does not marry, to have the rest of my land at Pawtuxet, which remaineth, that which is left which is not given to my daughter, Hannah, and that which is left Abiah to have after my wife's decease; if she marry, to have it the next year after.
---I give to my wife those books of Perkins, called Christ's Sermon on the Mount, the good Bible, Burroughs Jewell of Contntment, the oil of Gladness. I give her two hundred of sugar.
---__My wife is to have the room I now lodge in, and the chamber over, and to have liverty to come tothe fire and do her occasions, and she shall have the meadow that was made in John Titus lot because it is near, and she is to have a way to the swamp through the lot. And if John Titus come, Samuel is to have two acares out of hislot that is not broken up, and my wife is to have the rest; and Samuel to break it up for her. Also, I give to my wife (corn) towards housekeeping and the cloth in the house toward the clothing herself, and children with her, and twine that she hath to serve towards housekeeping, and three acres at the Island.
---I give to Abiah a yearling mare colt, being the white mare's colt, and one yearling heifer, and Dr. Jarvi's Catechism, and Helens History of the World, and one ewe...about my wife's occasion when she was at the Island.
(Abiah was to care for her when at the Island.)
---When the legacies are paid out, the remainder is to be disposed among the children at the discretion of my wife and the overseers.
Memorandum:---If my son Titus come and do possess the land, I said he should have, as namely the house land and orchard, and corn. Joseph had the land in two divisions, the fresh meadow, salt one last laid out, and not the
fresh I fenced in, and to pay the reates for, for that he do agree, and if he go from it, he shall not sell it to any but his brother Samuel or his mother.
---This is my Will and Testament, to which I set my hand. William Carpenter of Rehoboth, the day and year before written.
---I make my wife the Executrix, and my Overseer to be Richard Bowen, and John Allen is to be helpful to my wife, and I appoint my brother Carpenter to help, and to have ten shillings for their pains.."
=The above Will of William Carpenter of Rehoboth, Mass. was attested on April 21, 1659. The original copy at the Plymouth, Mass. courthouse can still be read, but with difficulty.
The Transcript of the 1659 Will of William Carpenter of Rehoboth, Mass. is from a clipping funished by Capt. W.N. Mansfield of Livermore, Ca. of a 1963 story in the Taunton Mass. Gazette. "Carpenter Family New-Journal."
E-MAIL: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 From: GeneZub@aol.com
Gene Zubrinsky of Ojai, Calif. provided the following insights:
(RE: 23 May 1605)
So far as I know, there is no documentary basis for the day and month you present for William Carpenter's birth. The only record permitting even an approximation of the year (ca. 1605) is the Bevis passenger list, dated 2 May 1638 and giving his age as 33.
William's death is recorded as 7 February 1658 (Rehoboth VR [orig.], 1:50). Although the surrounding entries do not permit a definite conclusion that this represents Old Style (Julian calendar) dating, the like-lihood of it makes it proper for the year to be presented as 1658[/9?]. His will was probated on 21 April 1659 (Plymouth Colony Wills, 2:1:80, 83).
What does "W.P." stand for?
Notes for 1024. William Carpenter Capt.
<< NOTE: A farmer by trade. A Freeman of Weymouth 13 May 1640 and of Rehoboth 28 Mar 1645. >>
Amos B. Carpenter (p. 38) gives 28 March 1645 as the date on which William Carpenter was admitted an inhabitant of Rehoboth and the following June as when he became a Plymouth Colony freeman. Rehoboth townsmen did meet on "The 28th of the 3 month [May, not March] 1645," but William Carpenter's name does not appear in the record of that meeting nor does the matter of admitting inhabitants (Rehoboth Town Meetings, 1:40). (This is not surprising: William was among the 58 original Rehoboth proprietors desig-nated in 1643; there is no reason for him to have been admitted an inhabitant in 1645.) But concerning the second, more important event, author Carpenter is correct: William (previously a Massachusetts Bay Colony freeman from Weymouth) was indeed admitted a Plymouth Colony freeman from Rehoboth on 4 June 1645 (Shurtleff and Pulsifer, eds., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, 2:84).
<< BIRTH: Probably in Wiltshire. He spent time in Wherwell (Whirlwell or Horwell). Born 23 or 25 (in some records) May 1605. CHR: 1611 in Somerset per one record. This is about 150 miles away, however and may have belonged to another. >>
He was only briefly at Wherwell (probably less than three months) prior to emigrating, in 1638 (TAG 70:195). Again, I know of no record (an unreferenced secondary-source item is insufficient) to support the day(s) and month you present. What, please, is (are) your source(s)?
The Somersetshire data (from Nettlecombe and Ilchester) circulating primarily in connection with so-called Richard of Amesbury (father of William Carpenter of Providence/Pawtuxet and perhaps uncle of William of Rehoboth) almost certainly do not apply to him. Until I see supporting evidence, I regard all the Somer-set data as irrelevant to the Marden/Amesbury/Shalbourne/Wherwell Carpenters.
I find no numbered items pertaining to Richard of Amesbury or his son, William of Providence/Pawtuxet, in your online material. May I assume they appear on the CD? If so, I'd like to know what you attribute to them as to dates, places, ancestry of the latter's wife, etc.
<< DEATH: 7 Feb 1658/59 in Rehoboth per some records. However this was the date his will was proven. See book note below. >>
It is William's Rehoboth death record, not his Plymouth Colony probate record, which says 7 Feb. 1658 (i.e., 1658[/9?]) (Rehoboth VR, 1:50).
<< Some records given Abigail Sales (Searles) as wife and others Abigail Bennett, Ralph his step-brother is also listed as a spouse to Abigail Bennett. It is likely that this Williiam was married at least twice. Abigail Bennett died in 1687 in Rehoboth. If this is true the first three kids are AS and others to AB. In at least one record, Abigail Briant (Bryant) is listed as spouse. If she was a spouse, she would have been number one or one of the Abigails above under a married name? FOUND!!! >>
Since most of this has been thoroughly refuted and the remainder clarified, why not delete this entire paragraph?
<< MARRIAGE: Marriage record in the Bishops' Transcripts at Shalbourne (administered by Wiltshire then but actually in Berkshire today) indicates he and Abigail "Briante" were married there on 28 April 1625. Per American Genealogist, whole number 280, Vol. 70, No. 4 October 1995. >>
The Bishop's Transcripts were/are not at Shalbourne but of Shalbourne parish records and were sent from the Shalbourne Parish Church to the Bishop of the Sarum diocese, at Sarum (Salisbury), Wiltshire. (They are presently held at the Wiltshire Record Office, Trowbridge.) The church, however, was in the Berkshire part of Shalbourne Parish, which straddled the Wiltshire-Berkshire line even then (see TAG 70:194, note 5).
<< CHILDREN: Many researchers try to put a Ephraim (b. 25 April 1651) in this family but this is in error. See the grandchild of this William, through his son named William, for the Ephraim(s) born 25 April 16XX. Many researchers say that Abraham (b. 9 Feb 1643) is in this family in error also. Yet no other individual comes close to birth or baptism date. In the children sequence he fits and most likely died young. >>
There was no Abraham. William and Abigail's son Abiah was the only Carpenter child born on 9 April (not Feb.) 1643 (see TAG 70:200-203). The original Weymouth record of his birth says "2m"—i.e., second month of the Julian calendar, which was April, not February (see ibid., 204).
<< Per "GENEALOGICAL & FAMILY HISTORY OF WESTERN NEW YORK," LEWIS 1912, Page 1253 Much detail given: Will dated 21 Apr 1659, Proved 7 Feb 1659, and yes they appear backwards. Will done in 1658? He married in England, Abigail ? who died 22 Feb, 1687. *On page 1318: His birth is listed as 25 May 1605. Records show he was a fine writer, a man of affairs, possessed of much ability. >>
The death and probate records, as you present them, do not simply appear backwards; they are backwards (see above). Why retain information so clearly mistaken? It can only serve to confuse.
Abigail's burial (not death) date is recorded as 22 Feb. 1686/7 (Rehoboth VR [orig.], 1:57).
Again, I know of no documentary basis for the day and month given above for William's birth.
<< OTHER INFORMATION INCLUDES BUT NOT LIMITED TO: DEPUTY TO THE GENERAL COURT FROM WEYMOUTH IN 1641-43 AND FROM REHOBOTH IN IN 1645, CONSTABLE IN 1641. HE WAS A CLOSE FRIEND TO GOVERNOR WILLIAM BRADFORD, WHO MARRIED HIS COUSIN ALICE CARPENTER. HE BOUGHT THE AREA NOW CALLED REHOBOTH (8 MILES SQUARE) FROM THE INDIANS. PROPRIETORS' CLERK FROM 1643-1649. CONTRIBUTED TOWARD THE EXPENSES OF KING PHILLIPS WAR. IN 1647, A SELECTMAN FROM REHOBOTH. HE WAS A CAPTAIN OF MILITA. >>
That William Bradford's second wife, Alice (Carpenter) Southworth, was the cousin of William2 of Reho-both is far from established and is probably wrong.
William was by no means the sole purchaser of the area now called Rehoboth. In fact, that area (originally called by its Indian name, Seekonk) was not where Carpenter and the other 57 original proprietors settled. The original settlement (the "Ring of the Town") was located in what is now Rumford (East Providence), Rhode Island. The eight-square-mile tract was first sold about 1638 by Sachem Metacomet (King Philip) to a group from Charlestown, whose Seekonk settlement had failed by 1640. The original 58 Rehoboth proprietors (of 1643) acquired title from them and/or Metacomet (Richard LeBaron Bowen, Early Reho-both, 4 vols. [Rehoboth, 1945-50], 4:3). The land was held in common by the proprietors, who initially distributed home lots, woodland, upland, and meadows to themselves and held the remaining common lands for grazing cattle and future divisions.
In Amos B. Carpenter's words, "[i]n 1647 he was chosen as one of the directors of the Town" (p. 39). This was a town office; if equivalent to selectman, it would be appropriate to say he was a selectman at or of (not from) Rehoboth. He was in 1645 a Deputy to the General Court at Plymouth (the Colony's legislature) from Rehoboth.
<< NOTE: See also San Diego Family History Center book 929.273 C226c. This orignal typed copy contains descendants not in the the 1898 book. AFN LSD9-5L is apparently the same person with Baptisim date as birth date. >>
Parish records, the only source of English vital statistics during this period, include baptismal records—never birth records. But since no specific parish name is associated with your 23/25 May 1605 birth/bap-tismal dates, how can either be trusted?
<< BOOK:- GENEALOGY: Amos B. Carpenter, A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE REHOBOTH BRANCH OF THE CARPENTER FAMILY IN AMERICA. Also known as the CARPENTER MEMORIAL. Published 1898 By: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, Amherst, MA WILLIAM is listed as # 16. Pages 38 to 50. >>
Perhaps a reiteration of the book's unreliability would be appropriate here.
"This line is mostly speculation, except where historical documents indicate otherwise. From Maurice Carpentier b. abt 1280 up to the 1400s is probable then the records become more tangible. The best documentation starts on the "Bevis" in 1638 and continues onward to our time. Due to the lack of records, and name changes when titles were given, it is difficult to piece a record together of the CARPENTER Family in this part of history. Often the "Best Guess" is all what we can do until another record is found."
E-MAIL: From: GeneZub@aol.com
To: jrcrin001@cox.net
Sent: Friday, August 16, 2002 2:04 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Questions & answers about Capt. William Carpenter of Rehoboth (b. 16...
Dear John,
Edward Winslow and John Brown's 1641 purchase from Osamequin (Massasoit) of the eight-mile-square area that became Rehoboth is mentioned in Rehoboth town records. But in 1639 (William Carpenter was still at Weymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony) the Plymouth Colony General Court reserved three large areas--one of which included Seacunck--for the "Purchasers" (i.e., heads of families living in Plymouth by 1626 or 1627); I'm reasonably certain this act is entered in Plymouth Colony records.
I'm not aware that Plymouth Colony records have been put online (as Connecticut Colony records recently have), but they are indeed in print and have been since the mid-1800s: Nathaniel B. Shurtleff and David Pulsifer, eds., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, 12 vols. (Boston, 1855-61).
The Family History Library (Salt Lake City) has put them on microfilm and also on a set of microfiches; either can be ordered--they may already be "in house"--at one's local LDS Family History Center. (The microfiches [.15 each] remain at the FHC permanently, but that filming doesn't include vols. 9 and 11.) The majority of records pertaining to early Rehoboth are found in vol. 2, but vols. 11 and 12 should also be consulted. All 12 volumes can be found in book form at many urban public libraries, university libraries, and at certain genealogical libraries. Interlibrary loan is another option.
Best regards,
Gene
E-MAIL: From: "Bruce E. Carpenter"
To:
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 12:56 AM
Subject: Chruchwarden data
> Wiltshire Glebe Terriers 1588-1827
> Steven Hobbs ed.
> Wiltshire Record Society
> vol. 56
> Trowbridge, 2003
> p. 367
> "SHALBOURNE vicarage
> 655 6 Jun 1628 (D5/102/8)
> 3 a. in the E. end field upon Cutton Hill. 2a. in the field E. End
> Townsend. 4a. 1yd. In Shalbourne N. field. 1a. upon the barrows in E,
> field. a. at the vicarage gate. Vicars croft by Newtown common, 6a. Church
> lands: 2 a. of arable lying in Rowlands within the gate, the hedge on the
> one side and Edward Ranger's land on the other. Parsonage land: 1a. of
> arable in the E. end field at Townsend. 1a. of arable in the W. field at W. end.
> Roland Hyll, vicar, John Tallmage, (X), William Crpener1 (X), churchwardens.
>
> 1. Probably Carpenter. The marriage of a William Carpenter was recorded in
> the parish register in 1625.
>
> (my note) The no 1 after "Crpener" should be in subscript. A subsequent, 6
> Aug 1639 entry, has no Carpenter. More on Hyll or Hill and Talmage can be
> found in the online Wantage Abstracts by Nick Hidden.
REPLY:
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 3:32 PM
Subject: Re: Churchwarden data
<< The marriage of a William Carpenter was recorded in the parish register
> in 1625. >>
> While this is undoubtedly true, one should not expect to find the record
> there. The earliest extant parish register for Shalbourne begins in 1672. The
> evidence implying that the marriage of William Carpenter and Abigail Briant
> was recorded in an earlier register is an entry in the 1625 Bishop's
> Transcripts of Shalbourne parish records (FHL microfilm 1,279,426, item 11).
> Gene Z.
From:
To:
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2004 12:47 AM
Subject: William of Rehoboth Not a Churchwarden
> On 10 September 2004, Bruce wrote:
>
> Just finished a two week driving tour of England and managed a trip to
> Shalbourne, a thoroughly charming place. Made the discovery that William of
> Rehoboth was a "churchwarden" of the parish.
> Bruce Carpenter
> Clinton, WA
>
> On 16 September 2004, he contributed the following:
>
> Wiltshire Glebe Terriers 1588-1827
> Steven Hobbs ed.
> Wiltshire Record Society
> vol. 56
> Trowbridge, 2003
> p. 367
>
> "SHALBOURNE vicarage
> 655 6 Jun 1628 (D5/102/8)
> 3 a. in the E. end field upon Cutton Hill. 2a. in the field E. End
> Townsend. 4a. 1yd. In Shalbourne N. field. 1a. upon the barrows in E, field. a. at
> the vicarage gate. Vicars croft by Newtown common, 6a. Church lands: 2 a. of
> arable lying in Rowlands within the gate, the hedge on the one side and
> Edward Ranger's land on the other. Parsonage land: 1a. of arable in the E. end
> field at Townsend. 1a. of arable in the W. field at W. end.
> Roland Hyll, vicar, John Tallmage, (X), William Crpener1 (X), churchwardens.
>
> 1. Probably Carpenter. The marriage of a William Carpenter was recorded in
> the parish register in 1625.
> _______________________
>
> Having reviewed the relevant pages of _Wiltshire Glebe Terriers 1588-1827_
> (the quoted material is on p. 364), I think it's safe to say that churchwarden
> William "Crpener" certainly was not William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth (and
> perhaps is not a Carpenter).
>
> The volume's introduction (p. xix) states that "[s]ignatories making their
> marks are indicated by [X]." If the bracketed X following "William Crpener"
> is appropriate, it virtually assures that he was not William Carpenter of
> Rehoboth. That the latter man was highly literate is well known; he (b. ca.
> 1605) would certainly have been able to sign his name at the age of about 23.
> Churchwardens, moreover, were typically 25 and more years older than that.
>
> While one might wonder if "William Crpener" was William1 Carpenter, father of
> William of Rehoboth and about 52 in 1628, there are two reasons to doubt it:
> First, the same problem as above exists to a lesser degree here: while it is
> quite plausible that William1 was not as literate as his namesake son, it
> is unlikely that the father of such an educated son could not write his own
> name. Second, the suffix "Sr.," "the elder," or the like does not appear.
> This is consistent with the following: "Only the last of the six Shalbourne
> records [Bishop's Transcripts] naming William2, that of son Samuel's baptism [1
> March 1636/7], distinguishes him as 'Junior.' From this and the absence of a
> Shalbourne baptismal record for William2, it is likely that William1 joined
> his son at Shalbourne sometime between 1634 [son Joseph bp. 6 April 1634]
> and 1636/7 and that neither was native to the parish" (TAG 70[1995]:194).
>
> Has anyone undertaken to obtain from the Wiltshire and Swindon Record
> Office, Trowbridge, a copy of the original record (D5/10/2/8)? The published
> version should be checked against it.
>
> Gene Z.
From:
To:
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: William of Rehoboth Not a Churchwarden
> Amazingly, only two days after the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Office
> mailed a photocopy of the original, 1628 glebe terrier of the Shalbourne vicarage,
> it appeared in my mailbox.
>
> As indicated in the published version (_Wiltshire Glebe Terriers 1588-1827_,
> p. 364), Shalbourne churchwarden William "Crpener" did indeed sign with his
> mark. This removes the provisional character of my 20 October posting and
> confirms that "Crpener" was absolutely not the eventual William Carpenter of
> Rehoboth (b. ca. 1605)--a highly literate man (and much younger in 1628 than
> the typical churchwarden)--and was probably not his father (for reasons stated
> in the aforementioned posting).
>
> Gene Z.
SOURCES:
Tombstone picture, provided by John L. Carpenter of Walpole, NH.
American Genealogist, whole number 280, Vol. 70, No. 4 October 1995. by Gene Zubrinsky. He cites:
"TAG 70[1995]: 194, citing Shalbourne Parish Records (Bishop's Transcripts), Bundle 1 (FHL film #1279426, item 11)."
GENEALOGICAL & FAMILY HISTORY OF WESTERN NEW YORK, LEWIS 1912, Page 1253.
NOTE: On page 1318: His birth is listed as 25 May 1605.
WILLIAM CARPENTER OF REHOBOTH (TYPED DRAFT), San Diego Family History Center book 929.273 C226c.
A GENEALOGICAL HISTORY OF THE REHOBOTH BRANCH OF THE CARPENTER FAMILY IN AMERICA. Also known as the CARPENTER MEMORIAL. By Amos B. Carpenter Published 1898.
WILLIAM is listed as # 16. Pages 38 to 50.
Carpenter and Allied Families by Miss Annie L. Carpenter, The American Historical Society, Inc., NY, published in 1936. Page 11-13.
Carpenter Chronicles #24, Nov 1995 Contents of pages 298-300 of Emigration List, BEVIS 1638 "Portus Southon: Southon, (May 1638).
The Carpenter Family in America from the Settlement at Providence, R.I. 1637-1901. By Daniel Hoogland
Carpenter of Mapelwood, Essex, NJ. Published by the Marion Press of Jamacia, Queensborough, NY in 1901.
"Order of First Families of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations." Contact the "Order" at 45 East 200 North Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84103.
Additional Sources:
See LDS film #1449498; c225a; 0928227; 1404120.
See Carpenter Family publication, LDS film #1685645.
See Rehoboth MA Vital Records Arnold pp. 571, 578.
See Rehoboth MA Vital Records Carpenter pp. 808.
See Weymouth Historical Society publication N2, pp 254-287.
See New England Historical & Genealogical Register Vol LXV p.65
See Plymouth Colony Records, 12 Vols. (Boston, MA, 1861), Wills, Vol. 2, pp. 80-83.
From:
To:
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2005 5:02 PM
Subject: So-Called Captain William Carpenter
> It is the habit of some people (perhaps originating with John R. Carpenter)
> to refer to William2 Carpenter of Weymouth and Rehoboth (b. ca. 1605) as
> "Captain." Presumably this is based on Amos B. Carpenter's assertion that
> "[a]bout 1642, William Carpenter (No. 16), (b. in 1605 [sic]) was appointed Captain
> for one or more years by the General Court of Massachusetts at Boston. This
> appointment was made necessary by the attempt of Samuel Gorton and his
> followers to seize portions of the lands included in the Providence Plantations" .
> . . (_Carpenter Memorial_, 42). ABC spends most of page 42 and half of the
> following page elaborating on the machinations of Gorton and steps to fend
> them off taken by Providence colonists and the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
>
> That ABC provides only an approximate year, rather than a precise date, made
> me doubt that his assertion is based on documentary evidence. I was
> therefore not surprised when, in checking _Records of the Governor and Company of
> the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1686_, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed.,
> 5 vols. in 6 (Boston, 1853-1854), I found no record whatsoever of a William
> Carpenter's having being made a captain. And if a William Carpenter had been
> made a temporary captain in 1642, to assist in putting down Gorton's
> encroachments on Providence Plantations, it would not have been William Carpenter of
> Rehoboth but William Carpenter of Providence. ABC's own description of the
> matter (and those of others) makes that clear.
>
> It is therefore inappropriate not only to refer to William2 of Rehoboth as
> "Captain" but also to apply that title to William1 of Providence in the
> absence of supporting evidence. And even if such evidence were found, the rank
> would have been held so briefly and incidentally as to be but a blip on the
> screen of Providence William's biography.
>
> Gene Z.
addenda ...
But having recently noticed Herbert F. Seversmith's statement that William2
of Rehoboth "was commissioned by the Essex court as Captain in 1642," I was
prepared to eat my words as to which of the two William Carpenters was more
likely to have been made a captain (see Seversmith, _Colonial Families of Long
Island, New York and Connecticut_, volume 2 [1939], 552). A search of
_Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, Volume 1
(1636-1656)_ (Salem, 1911), however, turned up nothing. While Seversmith's
original work is far more reliable than Amos Carpenter's (the former was one
of the best genealogists of his time), the idea that a Weymouth man would
receive a commission in Essex County is puzzling. (In 1643, when the first
Massachusetts counties were formed, Weymouth became a part of Suffolk County.
The early county (quarterly) court records, however, predate the formation of
the counties.)
In any case, even if a record were to be found of William2's having been
commissioned a captain in 1642 (perhaps in Suffolk Co. court records?), I would
still argue that it is inappropriate to refer to him as Captain William
Carpenter. So far as I'm aware, not a single Weymouth, Rehoboth, or Plymouth
Colony record refers to William2 by that title. Any such appointment (heretofore
unsubstantiated) would therefore have been too brief to constitute a
significant aspect of his identity. If his contemporaries never referred to him as
"Captain," what good reason is there for our doing so?
Gene Z.
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?file=Data&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0014389
Carpenter, William
Released 19 July 2003
Genealogy and Biography of Ontario County, New York
(X) William (4), son of William (3) Carpenter, was born 1605, in England, and came to America in 1638, in the ship "Bevis" with his family. He settled first at Weymouth, Massachusetts, where he was admitted a freeman, May 13, 1640. He was representative of the town in 1641-43; constable in 1641. March 28, 1645, he was admitted as an inhabitant of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and June of the same year, he was made freeman. From 1643 to 1649 he served as proprietors' and town clerk. The original division of lands in Rehoboth took place, June 30, 1644, and in that division the name of William Carpenter stands as No. 10. He occupied many positions of trust in the town; 1645, representative at the court at Plymouth; 1647, one of the directors, and again in 1655. He was a close friend of Governor Bradford and was much favored by the latter in all his measures at the Plymouth court. He owned real estate at Pawtuxet, Rhode Island, called "The Island," and in 1642 was appointed captain by the governor of Massachusetts and called upon to act for tice protection and ownership of the Pawtuxet lands. He married Abigail - . in England; she died February 22, 1687. He died February 7, 1659, in Rehoboth. Children, first three born in England, next three in Weymouth, last in Rehoboth; John, about 1628, mentioned elsewhere; William, 1631; Joseph, 1633; Hannah, April 3, 1640; Abiah, (twin) April 9, 1643; Abigail, (twin) ; Samuel, 1644.
Source: Genealogy and Biography of Ontario County, New York
E-MAIL:
From:
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] eldest/youngest
> Bruce wrote:
>
> << << "and we may assume that William2 (b. ca. 1605), by virtue of being
> named with William1 in Shalbourne Westcourt tenant records, was his father's
> eldest son and heir." >> >>
>
> << I think this is mistaken. The youngest was usually named in manor
> records, with the intention to maintain family claims to the land for the longest
> period of time. Clearly William (2) was the youngest. >>
>
> Not according to archivist Andrew Crookston at the Wiltshire and Swindon
> Record Office, Trowbridge, England (soon to be the Wiltshire and Swindon
> Archives, Chippenham). I explicitly raised this issue with him a few months ago,
> and he confirmed that extending the copyhold beyond the father's lifetime--a
> matter of inheritance under the old English law of primogeniture--was typically
> done by naming the eldest son as co-tenant.
>
> In light of the legal (and cultural) significance of the eldest son--only to
> whom, incidentally, did a family crest devolve--the youngest son had little
> standing among a family's male children. In seventeenth-century England,
> family claims to land--whether by copyhold or freehold--were almost always
> perpetuated through the eldest son, who was the "heir at law" of his father's
> real estate. A father could circumvent the law of primogeniture by making a
> will whose provisions diverged from it (though most men of modest means left no
> wills, and those who did typically had other purposes). Similarly, a
> copyholding father could name someone other than his eldest son as co-tenant, but
> it would violate a principle deeply rooted in English common law and was
> rarely done.
>
> A copyhold was, by custom, a semipermanent lease from a manorial lord.
> Having in practical terms many of the features of a freehold, a copyhold was not
> so tenuous as to require such strategies as making the youngest son co-tenant
> so as "to maintain family claims to the land for the longest period of
> time." A copyhold's continuity through many generations of the same family was
> virtually guaranteed by custom and the manorial court (on which tenants sat as
> judges). The perpetuation of a family's copyhold was easily accomplished by
> adding the next-generation eldest son's name when tenancy was renewed
> (technically, surrendered and regranted). When a man died intestate and a
> co-tenant was not named in manorial records, either the law of primogeniture applied
> (the copyhold was regranted to the eldest son), or, as was the custom on some
> manors, the copyhold was regranted to all the sons (and the representatives
> of deceased ones). Under such circumstances, I can't imagine a copyhold's
> being regranted to the youngest son alone, without the formal consent of each
> and all older brothers.
>
> William2 is named along with his father in the record of their Westcourt
> copyhold's inception, on 1 June 1608, when William1 was about 33 years old (and
> his namesake son was about 3). Why, at that age, would the father have
> thought that William2 would be his last son? (The law of primogeniture almost
> certainly arose, in part, out of the inherent uncertainty as to [1] the sex of
> future children and who among them would survive ["a bird in the hand . . ."]
> and [2] the longevity of the father. Of course it also prevented the
> dilution of family wealth from one generation to the next.) Finally, given the
> naming traditions of the time, the son receiving his father's forename was far
> more likely to be the eldest than the youngest.
>
> In that the Carpenters' copyhold was granted to an entirely different family
> a few months before William1, William2, and the latter's family emigrated,
> it's quite possible that William2 was his father's _only_ son (by that time,
> at least).
>
> Gene Z.
GRAVE: images
William Carpenter
Birth: 1605 England
Death: 7 Feb 1658 (aged 52–53) Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, USA
Burial: Newman Cemetery, East Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA
Memorial #: 13522767
Bio:
He was born about 1605, probably near the confluence of Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire Counties. No exact date of his birth in primary sources has been found, though some sources indicate May 16,1605, which may (IS) a fabrication.
He was the son of William Carpenter of the Wiltshire Co. portion of Shalbourne parish. His mother may have been the Alice Carpenter buried at Shalbourne on Jan 25,1637/8. William Carpenter Sr, aged 62, was listed as a passenger on the "Bevis" in 1638, but he may have died on the voyage or shortly afterward, or returned to England shortly afterward.
He married Abigail Briant at St.Michael's and All Angels Church, then in the Berkshire Co. section of Shalbourne, England on Apr 28,1625.
Both William and Abigail, along with four minor children and his father William, arrived in 1638 on the "Bevis". They were at Weymouth by 1640, and Rehoboth by 1645.
This William Carpenter should not be confused with contemporary William Carpenter of Providence,RI, nor are they related in any known way.
Children: John Carpenter, Abigail Carpenter Titus Palmer, William Carpenter, Joseph Carpenter, Samuel Carpenter, Samuel Carpenter, Hannah Carpenter Carpenter, and Abiah Carpenter.
Family Members
Parents
William Carpenter 1575-1638
Alice Batt Carpenter 1580-1638
Spouse
Abigail Briant Carpenter 1604-1686
Children
William Carpenter 1631-1703
Joseph Carpenter 1634-1675
Samuel Carpenter 1638-1682
Hannah Carpenter Carpenter 1640-1673
Abiah Carpenter 1643-1688
Maintained by: SRBentz (47051679)
Originally Created by: The Late Great Gramma T (46775301)
Added: 4 Mar 2006
URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13522767
Citation: Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 06 February 2020), memorial page for William Carpenter (1605–7 Feb 1658), Find A Grave Memorial no. 13522767, citing Newman Cemetery, East Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, USA ; Maintained by SRBentz (contributor 47051679) .
COMMENT: While the Find a Grave (FaG) entries are interesting and help supply images and info, the best information on this Carpenter Family is at: http://carpentercousins.com/carplink.htm
LAND: 1643 and confirmed in 1644, 1645 then 1658
1643
'During the year 1643, and probably before any other division of land had been made other than for house-lots, the proprietors were required individually to give in the value of their estates, in order that the allotments of land might be made accordingly, as appears from the Proprietors' Records: “About the year 1643,a joynt agreement was made by the inhabitants of Sea-conk alias Rehoboth, for the bringing in of their estates; that soe men's lotments might be taken up according to person and estate, as alsoe for the carrieing on of all publick chardges both for present and future; furtheremore the means and interest of what is heare expressed is that by which lands, now granted by the Court of Plymouth to the towne, is to be divided according to person and estate, as is expressed in this following list.”' (Bliss pp 25-26} - Will. Carpenter mentioned - He gets a 12 acre lot for 254 pounds.
1644
By June 1644, 58 lots were drawn for a division of the woodland, the plain, and the town.
1644, although the residents of Seekunk consider themselves independent of any jurisdiction, both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies claimed them. William Carpenter cited as an inhabitant.
1645
1645, they submitted themselves to the jurisdiction of the Plymouth Court, or were assigned to Plymouth by the Commissioners of the United Colonies. The town was incorporated as Rehoboth.
“The town of Old Rehoboth comprised, in its greatest extent, the present town, together with Seekonk, Pawtucket, Attleborough, Cumberland, R.I., and that part of Swanwey and Barrington, which was called by the Indians Wanamoiset.” William Carpenter cited as an inhabitant.
1658
22 Jun 1658, Meadow on the North Side of town lots were allotted. (This is the first mention of Richard Bowen, Jr. and Obadiah Bowen) (Bliss, pp 48-49) “At a town-meeting lawfully warned, lots were drawn for the meadows that lie on the north side of the town, in order as followeth, according to person and estate:”
Both Will. Carpenter, sen. and Will. Carpenter, jun. mentioned.
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Rehoboth_Time_Line
WEBPAGE: Image of the lots given old Rehoboth now Rumford, RI.
https://sportsage.net/familyhistory/the-ring-of-the-green-our-ancestors-in-rehoboth/
The Ring of the Green - Our Ancestors in Rehoboth
Our Carpenter family connections.
Many of the family ancestors settled in Massachusetts, many in a place called Rehoboth. Most notably the Carpenter and Sabin families called Rehoboth home.
According to the History of Weymouth, in 1643, 40 families departed Weymouth - perhaps due to religious dissent. William Carpenter’s family and William Sabin’s family were two of the 40, along with the Rev. Samuel Newman where he became the minister there. William Carpenter was one of the original petitioners to the General Court that received permission to buy a tract of land eight miles square from Massasoit. That track, although known as the Seekonk Plain, was renamed Rehoboth by the settlers. William Carpenter, as a proprietor, received one of the lots on the original “Ring of Green”, as did William Sabin.
The East Providence Historical Society explains the settlement:
In 1641 The Plymouth Bay Colony gave John Brown and Edward Winslow permission to purchase 64 square miles of land from the Indian chief Massassoit. The piece of property extended eight miles from the Seekonk River East to the Taunton border and eight miles from what is now the Attleboros south to what is now Silver Spring Golf Course. There is a granite marker set into the wall there marking the southern boundary of the purchase. The Reverend Samuel Newman of Weymouth was told to round up potential settlers for this new area and two surveyors, William Sabin and Richard Wright, were sent into the area to lay out the settlement of the new Seekonk Plantation.
The settlement featured “long, narrow home lots which were set within the bend of the Ten Mile River in a fashion that gave most of the lots frontage on both the river and the Ring,” according to a National Register of Historic Places report on Rumford’s historic district. “A gristmill was built above the river bend at what is now called Hunts Mills, and a meeting house was constructed near the center of the Ring.”
The new settlement was a circular layout with five gates for entrance. The center area was to enclose the animals which the settlers would bring with them. There would be a continuous fence around this area and the house and farm lots would encircle the outside extending outward in six, eight and twelve acre lots. The Newman Meeting House for church services and settlement business and the cemetery would also be in the center of the circle. There would be five garrison buildings scattered throughout for security reasons to protect settlers from possible attack by the Indians. King Philip and his Indians did attack and burned the Ring settlement to the ground in 1676. The entire settlement had to be rebuilt. Only one man died during the raid although others died in later skirmishes with the Indians.
King Philip’s War
Walter Giersbach explained King Philip’s war:
King Philip’s War (1675-76) is an event that has been largely ignored by the American public and popular historians. However, the almost two-year conflict between the colonists and the Native Americans in New England stands as perhaps the most devastating war in this country’s history. One in ten soldiers on both sides were wounded or killed. At its height, hostilities threatened to push the recently arrived English colonists back to the coast. And, it took years for towns and urban centers to recover from the carnage and property damage.
The war is named for King Philip, the son of Massasoit and chief of the Wampanoag nation. In his language, his name was Metacom, Metacomet, or Pometacom. In 1662, the court at Plymouth Colony arrogantly summoned the Wampanoag leader Wamsutta to Plymouth. Major Josiah Winslow (later Colonel) and a small force took Wamsutta, Philip’s brother, at gunpoint. Soon after questioning, Wamsutta sickened and died and his death infuriated the Wampanoag nation.
Upon the death of his brother, whom the Indians suspected the English of murdering, Philip became sachem and maintained a shaky peace with the colonists for a number of years. Friendship continued to erode over the steady succession of land sales forced on the Indians by their growing dependence on English goods, and Plymouth’s continued unyielding policy toward Native leaders, it is reported by the Connecticut Society of Colonial Wars (www.colonialwarsct.org) and other sources.
Suspicions of the Indians remained, and in 1671, the colonists questioned Philip, fined him and demanded that the Wampanoag surrender their arms, which they did.
In January 1675, the Indian John Sassamon died at Assawampsett Pond, about 15 miles north of present-day New Bedford. Sassamon was literate and a Christian convert. He may have been acting as an informer to the English and was murdered, probably at Philip’s instigation. Increase Mather, writing after the war, suggested he was killed “out of hatred for him for his Religion, for he was Christianized, and baptiz’d, and was a Preacher amongst the Indians…and was wont to curb those Indians that knew not God on the account of their debauchereyes”. [1]
Events moved quickly, and on June 8 Sassamon’s alleged murderers were tried and executed at Plymouth. Three days later, Wampanoags were reported to have taken up arms near Swansea, about 15 miles from Providence.
By the mid-17th century, settlements had been established throughout southeast Massachusetts. “Though there were many events that led to the war, the attack on the settlement on the banks of the Kickemuit River may be attributed to the growing perception that Indian land had been increasingly encroached upon by settlers, leaving cornfields overrun by settlers’ livestock and traditional hunting grounds inaccessible. In fact, since the arrival of the English at Plymouth Rock in 1620, land under Native control had been reduced from all of Southeastern Massachusetts to merely the area of the Mount Hope peninsula.” (A map and local points related to the war can be found at http:members.cox.net/drweed/kingphilip.htm.)
Less than a week later, authorities in Rhode Island, Plymouth, and Massachusetts attempted negotiation with Philip, and sought guarantees of fidelity from the Nipmucks and Narragansetts. However, before the end of the month, Wampanoags made a sudden raid on the settlement of Swansea on the Taunton River. On June 26, Massachusetts troops marched to Swansea to join Plymouth troops.
When news of the attack on Swansea reached Boston, the Massachusetts Bay Colony quickly came to the aid of The Plymouth Colony. An example of the orders of the General Court is the following: “To the Militia of the Town of Boston, Cha. Camb. Watertown, Roxbury, Dorchester, Dedham, Brantrey, Weymouth, Hingham, Maulden-You are hereby required in his Majesty’s name to take notice that Govr & Council have ordered 100 able shouldjers forthwith impressed out of the severall Towns according to the proportions hereunder written for the aid and assistance of our confederate Plymouth in the designe afoote agst the Indians, and accordingly you are to warne and proportions to be ready at an hours warning from Capt Daniel Henchman who is appointed Captain and Commander of the Foote Company that each souldjer shal have his armes compleat and Snalsack ready to march and not faile to be at the randevous.”
In the coming days, Wampanoags attacked Rehoboth and Taunton, eluded colonial troops, and left Mount Hope for Pocasset. Meanwhile, the Mohegans of Connecticut traveled to Boston and offered to fight on the English side.
The war would continue until mid 1676. Giersbach concluded:
In all, more than half of New England’s 90 towns were assaulted by native warriors. For a time in the spring of 1676, it appeared to the colonists that the entire English population of Massachusetts and Rhode Island might be driven back into a handful of fortified seacoast cities. Between 600 and 800 English died in battle during King Philip’s War. Measured against a European population in New England of perhaps 52,000, this death rate was nearly twice that of the Civil War and more than seven times that of World War II. The English Crown sent Edmund Randolph to assess damages shortly after the war and he reported that 1,200 homes were burned, 8,000 head of cattle lost, and vast stores of foodstuffs destroyed. One in ten soldiers on both sides was injured or killed.
Nathaniel Saltonstall noted in 1676, the Indian attacks left “in Narraganset not one House left standing. At Warwick, but one. At Providence, not above three. At Potuxit, none left…. Besides particular Farms and Plantations, a great Number not be reckoned up, wholly laid waste or very much damnified. And as to Persons, it is generally thought that of the English there hath been lost, in all…above Eight Hundred.”
The outcome of King Philip’s War was equally devastating to the traditional way of life for Native people in New England. Hundreds of Natives who fought with Philip were sold into slavery abroad. Others who might be rehabilitated, especially women and children, were forced to become servants locally. As the traditional base of existence changed due to the Colonists’ victory, the Wampanoag and other local Native communities had to adapt certain aspects of their culture in order to survive.
It is curious that such a conflict is little remembered today, not because of its bloody devastation but for the extent that such a great proportion of the population-English and Native American alike-was affected. Jacques Arsenault, writing for the University of Georgetown (http://www.georgetown.edu/users/arsenauj/kpw.html), indicates this is because many of the realities of King Philip’s War do not fit the classical myth of America as the Land of the Free. He states, “The final reason for the poor understanding of King Philip’s War is that the events of the war really don’t fit into American Mythology. The evidence of King Philip’s resistance to an encroaching colonial population would not sit well with peaceful images of the first Thanksgiving, or with the vision of the founders of our nation gathering together to create a nation of freedom, equality and liberty.”
Founding of the Ring
In 1643 fifty-eight men including Newman formed the Seekonk Proprietors or Planters and drew lots for the order in which to select their property. A low number had a better choice than the latter and the size of their lot depended on their wealth or lack thereof. Wright and Sabin had already built a gristmill and a sawmill to process lumber for the new houses at a natural dam on the Ten Mile River as it enters Seekonk Cove (now Omega Pond). “Seekonk” is Indian for “black geese” of which there were many in the area. In 1643 Stephen Payne I built another sawmill, grist mill and tannery up the Ten Mile River in front of where the John Hunt House is today. The foundation of the grist mill is still visible. Wright’s dam is no longer visible under water.
The Reverend Newman shortly after arrival named the area Rehoboth which in the Bible means a good place to pass through. It became known throughout the Bay Colony as the Ring of the Green of Rehoboth. As John Brown bought more land the settlers drew for their purchase too and gradually more settlers arrived moving out into the surrounding lands. The whole area became known as the Town of Rehoboth in the Plymouth Bay Colony. In 1812 the Town had become too large to govern and split in two. The western area including the Ring of the Green became known as the Town of Seekonk in the Bay Colony and in the State of Massachusetts after the American Revolution.
In 1862 a western portion of Seekonk was annexed to the State of Rhode Island and the residents voted to name their new town East Providence. Several houses built before the Revolution are still standing in East Providence, built when we were Rehoboth. The Ring of the Green of Rehoboth is now the site of the village of Rumford in the city of East Providence. (from East Providence Historical Society.
MISC:
BOOK:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England - Edited by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, MD. - Boston, Mass 1857
Volume 8 - Records of Plymouth Colony - Miscellaneous Records - 1633-1689
Index to Births, Marriages, Deaths, and Burials.
Page 219
BIRTHS.
CARPENTER, MIRIAM, daughter of William, Rehoboth, 16 October, 1674, . 53
Obadiah, son of William, Rehoboth, 12 March, 1678, 70
Ephraim, son of William, Rehoboth, 25 April, 1681, 76
William, children of, 53, 70, 76
David, son of Samuel, Rehoboth, 17 1675, 62
Solomon, son of Samuel, Rehoboth, 23 December, 1677, 66
Zechariah, son of Samuel, Rehoboth, 1 July, 1680, 73
Abraham, son of Samuel, Rehoboth, 20 September, 1682, 79
Samuel, children of, 62, 66, 73, 78
Amos, son of John, Rehoboth, 19 November, 1677, 67
Eliphalet, son of John, Rehoboth, 17 April, 1679, 86
Priscilla, daughter of John, Rehoboth, 20 January, 1680, 73
Dorothy, daughter of John, Rehoboth, 9 February, 88
John, children of, 67, 73, 86, 88
Margaret, daughter of Joseph, Swansey, 4 May, 1675, 61
Joseph, child of, 61
Carpenter, Jotham, son of Benjamin, Swansey, 1 June, 1682, 80
Benjamin, child of, 80