William Carpenter (abt. 1605 - 1658)

Born about 1605 in Shalbourne, Berkshire, England

Husband of Abigail (Briant) Carpenter — married 28 Apr 1625 in All Angels Church, Shalbourne, Berkshire, England

Descendants

Died 7 Feb 1658 at about age 53 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony

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Disambiguation

Rehoboth vs. Providence Carpenters

During the same time period there are three different families in which the name William Carpenter is prominent. Awareness of them is important for avoiding confusion between them!

• Rehoboth Family. William Carpenter-19 of Rehoboth, born 1605, was born in Shalbourne, England, migrated to New England and ended in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
• Providence Family. William Carpenter-1122 of Providence, born 1610, was born in England, migrated to New England, and ended in Providence, now Rhode Island.
  • To further confuse matters, both Williams had sons named Joseph, and the Joseph of one William married the Hannah of the other.

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 15964–66, 67n63). ^{[1] [2]}

Abigail Briant

William's wife was Abigail Briant. Some sources give wife Abigail’s maiden name as Bennett or Searles. This is wrong.

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.^[1]

The second reflects apparent confusion with the maiden name of William's second wife, Miriam Sale(s) (TAG 70:194n9, 204; see also Second Boat 1:15).^[1]

Biography

William Carpenter of Rehoboth: The Shalbourne Years

The following is from Carpenter Sketches at: http://www.carpentercousins.com/Wm2_Rehoboth.pdf ^[1]

"[William] married in Shalbourne Parish, Berkshire, England, on 28 April 1625, ABIGAIL BRIANT, baptized there on 27 May 1604 and buried at Rehoboth on 22 February 1686/7, daughter of John and Alice (______) Briant of Shalbourne. Both are buried in Old Rehoboth (Newman) Cemetery, Rumford (TAG 70:193-94, 203; RI Cems 63; see also BIRTH, DEATH, BURIAL, and MARRIAGE sections, below). "

1605 Birth

William Carpenter of Rehoboth was born in England about 1605 and died at Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, on 7 February 1658[/9]. He is buried along with his wife in Old Rehoboth (Newman) Cemetery, in present day Rumford, East Providence, Rhode Island. ^[3][4]

William2’s approximate birth year is calculated from his age, 33, as reported a few days before 2 May 1638 and recorded on that date in the passenger list of the Bevis, on which ship he and his family sailed to Massachusetts ^[5]

Baptism

No record of his specific date of birth or baptism has been found, and any such date appearing in the secondary literature is a fabrication.^[1]

1608 Residence at Westcourt Manor, Shalbourne

The earliest known record of William2 and his family of origin is that of their tenancy at Westcourt Manor, in the Wiltshire part of Shalbourne parish, beginning in 1608. ^[1]

The Shalbourne Parish crossed shire boundaries. The line separating Wiltshire and Berkshire bisected the parish, and the Hampshire border was/is only about four miles distant; it is therefore likely that he was born in one of these three counties. The entirety of Shalbourne parish has been in Wiltshire since 1895.^[1]

William is named with his father in the aforementioned 1608 Westcourt Manor record. The copyhold was reaffirmed in 1614 by cross-outs and insertions in the original, 1608 record, augmented by a margin note. Presumably in 1621, when the copy court roll was compared to the manorial court book, William2’s age, 16, was inserted in the original record in a space theretofore left blank ^[6]

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; 3 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).

Parentage

William's father William Carpenter was born in England about 1575 and lived for many years in the Wiltshire part of Shalbourne Parish. ^[1]

Education

William2’s will mentions many books, including “technical religious works of the time, Latin classics, Greek and Hebrew grammars, biblical concordances [and] some legal works” ^[7]Given his father’s apparent illiteracy and both men’s modest station in England, it is not surprising that William2 fails to appear in Oxford or Cambridge matriculation records; he was perhaps tutored by a local clergyman (see William1 of Shalbourne sketch, OCCUPATION, EDUCATION/OFFICES; OCCUPATION, above).^[1]

1625 Marriage to Abigail Briant

He married in the parish of Shalbourne, that part then in Berkshire, England, on 28 April 1625, Abigail Briant. She was baptized there on 27 May 1604 and buried at Rehoboth on 22 February 1686/7. She was the daughter of John and Alice (______) Briant of Shalbourne. ^[1]

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).

She married William Carpenter at St.Michael's and All Angels Church, then in the Berkshire Co. section of Shalbourne, England on Apr 28,1625. The family resided in the Wiltshire Co. section of Shalbourne. ^[8]

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).^[1]

Some genealogies show him married instead to an Abigail Searse. Such a person never existed, and apparently is a conflation of Abigail Briant's first name, and the last name of her nephew's wife, Miriam Sales.

Some older sources give wife Abigail's maiden name as Bennett or Searles. The first represents unwarranted linkage to a Bennett family of Sway, Co.Hampshire, and the second reflects apparent confusion with the maiden name of William Carpenter Jr's second wife, Miriam Sale(s). ^[9]

William Carpenter of Rehoboth: The Massachusetts Years

1638 Voyage on Bevis

With his son William and the latter's family, he sailed to Massachusetts on the Bevis in 1638. He died probably at Weymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony, or Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony. ^[10][11]

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).^[1]

She and her husband arrived in New England on the "Bevis" in 1638, settling first at Weymouth,MA and then, by 1645, Rehoboth,MA. Abigail was buried in the Newman Cemetery in Old Rehoboth (now East Providence,RI) on Feb 22, 1686/7. ^[12]

The Bevis passenger list describes William2 and his father as “of Horwell,” that is, Whorwell (now Wherwell), in Horwell Hundred, Hampshire, about 15 map miles south-southeast of Shalbourne. Whorwell/Wherwell, which 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—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).

"The former (William Carpenter) married Abigail and with wife and several children sailed to New England in the ship "Bevis" in 1638. His father, accompanied him but returned to England on the same ship. The son was admitted a freeman in Weymouth, Mass., in 1640, was a representative of that town in 1641 and 1643, and of Rehoboth in 1645, also holding other public offices. ..." Source Commemorative Biographical Record of Tolland and Windham Counties, Conn. T.H Beers and Company, Chicago 1903. Page 875.

The Bevis sailed in 1638, with sixty one passengers, among whom were "one William Carpenter, of Wherwell, aged 62 years; William, his son, aged 33, son's wife Abigail aged 32, and four grand children of 10 years or less, names not mentioned in the Clearance; and a servant , Thomas Bansholt, aged 14. He was representative of Weymouth, in 1641 and 1643 and from the town of Rehoboth in 1645; constable in 1641. ^[13]

1638 Occupation

On the ship manifest for the Bevis, William, age 33 (in 1638), and his father, also William but aged 62, are listed as carpenters.^{[14][15][16][1]}

1640 Weymouth

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).^[1]

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.^[1]

1640 Freeman

Listed as a Freeman in Weymouth, 13 May 1640. (TAG 70:193); Rehoboth, 4 June 1645 (PCR 2:84).4

1641 and following: 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 landallotment grievances, 1645;
• grand juror, 1646;
• fenceviewer, 1646, 1647;
• surveying activity for the town,
• 1649 (perhaps other years); constable, 1654;
• surveyor (overseer) of highways (way warden) 1654, 1658

(MBCR 1313, 318–19, 233; PCR 285, 102, 348–50, 99; Rehoboth Hist 32–33, 36, 38, 39, 40–41, 44–45, 46, 168, 171; RTM 141r/93, 58r/127).^[1]

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 mistakeridden 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 17). 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 127, [29?], 31; Rehoboth Hist 24–25, 55).^[1]

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 70196), has recently discovered it to be erroneous.^[1]

Almost all Rehoboth records made from 1643 to mid1649 are written in a single, distinctive hand. During this period, however, only one return from the Rehoboth town clerk is 5 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,”^[1]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 12177–78; PCLR 12293). 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 171).

1642 Commision as Captain?

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 2552). 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.^[1]

1642 Gorton Conflict

Our subject, the eventual William2 of Rehoboth, was then of Weymouth.) In September 6 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 226–27). 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.^[1]

1643 Rehoboth Land Allotments

William Carpenter's property alottment is given in reconstructed maps of the of the Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony "Ring of the Green" in what is present day Rumford, RI.^[17] His allotment is the North East quadrant adjoing the North East Gate.

Rehoboth Ring of the Green Map

1643 Division of Woodland

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 125). 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 4A3–4; Rehoboth Hist, 27; RVR [pub] 911). Thirtyone and June (a thirtyday month) are of 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, 43–4). 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 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 mid1644. ^[1]

1644 Rehoboth Subscription

On 3 5th month [July] 1644, thirty Rehoboth inhabitants (out of fiftyeight 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.)^[1]

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 13). 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 122r/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 13–41r/93 passim).^[1]

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 852–88 passim).^[1]

1653 Indian Deed in William's Handwriting

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. ^[1]

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.” ^[1]

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 164–65). ^[1]

1658/9 Death and Burial

Original Rehoboth vital records give Willliam2’s date of death as 7 February 1658. In May of that year, however, William Carpenter Sr. was chosen Rehoboth way2 warden, and on 22 June 1658, he was one of fortynine proprietors (also including William Jr.) who drew lots for meadows lying on the north side of the town (RTM 131v/74, 158r/127; RPropR 4A7). His year of death is therefore presented in the first paragraph as 1658[/9], indicating that the original deathrecord date is Old Style (year beginning 25 March). For details concerning Old and New Style dating and the proper treatment (then and now) of pre1752 dates between 1 January and 24 March, see Donald Lines Jacobus, Genealogy as Pastime and Profession, 2nd ed. (Baltimore, 1968; repr. 1999 [paperback]), 109–13; “A Member Responds to ‘Ask a Librarian’ Question,” NEHGS eNews 6, no. 6, whole no. 152 (6 February 2004), online at www.newenglandancestors.org/publications/eNews_eNews_152.asp; Mike Spathaky, “Old Style and New Style Dates and the Change to the Gregorian Calendar A Summary for Genealogists,” online at www.genfair.com/dates.htm. ^[1]

1659 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 70196, 199n45).^[18] His extensive estate inventory, taken on 21 February 1658[/9], values his Rehoboth and Pawtuxet lands at £180 and £60, respectively. ^[1][18]

(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 2180–90A). (About 1643, William’s estate was calculated at £254 10s. [RPropR 11–2]. 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 4A3; RTM 131].) 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. ^[1]

Both are buried in Old Rehoboth (a.k.a. Newman) Cemetery, Rumford ^[19]

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 432, 34–35). An image of the former is available online at www.genealogy.com/users/c/a/r/JohnWCarpenter/PHOTO/0001photo.html. ^[1]

Children

Children of William Carpenter and his wife Abigail Briant:

1. John Carpenter, bp. at Shalbourne 8 Oct. 1626; m. Hannah Smith. ^[20]
2. Abigail Carpenter, bp. at Shalbourne31 May 1629; m. (1) JOHN TITUS, (2) JONAH PALMER SR. ^[20]
3. William Carpenter, bp. at Shalbourne22 Nov. 1631; m. (1) PRISCILLA BENNETT, (2) MIRIAM SALE. ^[20]
4. Joseph Carpenter, bp. at Shalbourne 6 April 1634; m. MARGARET SUTTON. ^[20]
5. Samuel Carpenter, bp. at Shalbourne 1 March 1636/7. Samuel died less than two months later and was bur. Shalbourne 20 April 1637 (TAG 70 194, 196, 204). ^[20]
6. Samuel Carpenter, b. at Weymouth ca. 1638 and given the name of his deceased brother; m. SARAH REDWAY. 7 ^[20]
7. Hannah Carpenter, b. at Weymouth 3 2nd mo. [April] 1640; m. Joseph Carpenter, son of William Carpenter of Providence. ^[20]
8. Abiah Carpenter b. at Weymouth 9 2nd mo. [April] 1643; m. MARY REDWAY. ^[20]

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). ^[1]

The following profiles are currently linked as children on WikiTree but are not documented as children of William Carpenter:

1. Abraham Carpenter. 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 70200–3). ^[1]
2. Ephraim Carpenter. 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 19, 2250; William3 sketch, CHILDREN). ^[1]

Descendants: Family of Heroes, 1776

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. ^[21][1]

Y Chromosome Results

The Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project has reconstructed William Carpenter, Jr's 74 marker Y haplotype using Y-DNA triangulation. See: http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Rehoboth_Carpenter_family#Genetic_research

YSearch - YSearch now defunct - Link now defunct - Legacy reference {https}://www.ysearch.org/lastname_view.asp?viewuid=HYZBT HYZBT] was associated by Carpenter-3828 with this reconstructed (aka ancestral) haplotype.

Group 3 of the Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project represents descendants of this William Carpenter. See Table 1 (&2&3&4) on the main web page and the lineage page at: http://carpentercousins.com/carpdna.htm#table1 & http://carpentercousins.com/generallineage.htm#reho

A distant cousin of Clark Carpenter who shares William Carpenter as their most recent direct paternal line ancestor needs to be in WikiTree along with their direct paternal line and YSearch ID - (YSearch now defunct - Legacy reference ) in order to confirm their direct paternal lines back to William Carpenter. See Chromosome_Confirmation Y Chromosome Confirmation.

Contributed by Carpenter-3828 , Oct 14, 2015 and edited by Peter Roberts, Oct 1, 2017.

SNP testing results

The Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project^[22] has SNP tested a member from Group 2 and 3 representing the descendants of the two (2) William Carpenter immigrants (1635 & 1638) who settled in Providence, Rhode Island and Rehoboth, Massachusetts respectively.^[23]

Haplogroup R-YP6281 (shorthand code) and Ria1a1b1a3c~? (longhand code) is defined by SNP YP6281. This SNP is estimated to have occurred about 2,500 years ago. You can see this defining SNP YP6281 posted in green under Group 2A (a sub-group of Group 2) and Group 3 at the following link. https://www.familytreedna.com/public/carpenter%20cousins%20%20dna/default.aspx?section=ycolorized

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35} Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, "William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth Massachusetts" (2008; rev 16 Oct 2012, 12, online at http://www.carpentercousins.com/Wm2_Rehoboth.pdf. Accessed Sept 27, 2015
2. ↑ Results of recent genetic testing coordinated by the Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project support this conclusion Based on a number of 67marker 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 8 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). The Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project has conducted Genealogical DNA testing on twenty males with genealogical paper trails as of 2010. Nine males who have incomplete genealogical data but match genetically were placed in subgroup of Group 3. These twenty nine males are genealogically and genetically descendants of the immigrant William Carpenter (born about 1605) who settled in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts from England. By a process of triangulation, their common ancestor's Y-DNA DYS markers were re-constructed. SEE: http://www.isogg.org/wiki/Rehoboth_Carpenter_family#Genetic_research The haplotype Y-DNA testing representative samples of member of Group 3 based on Single-nucleotide polymorphism with SNP testing reveals Haplogroup R1a1a1b1a. See also the 2015 ISOGG tree for the shorthand code of R-Z282. To see the Group 3 Y-DNA markers, go to the main web page Table 1 then scroll down to Group 3. Each member has a an ID number. Clicking on the ID number takes you to the lineage page for that person. On the far right of each table may be a red arrow ( > ) indicating more markers are on the next table. There are 4 tables. Reconstructed DYS markers are shown by the common ancestor's name at the top of the table, and in this case William. The lineages for Group 3 can be accessed directly at: http://carpentercousins.com/generallineage.htm#reho
3. ↑ Read this to determine the first American Carpenters of Rehoboth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehoboth_Carpenter_family
4. ↑ Entered by Living Large, Apr 3, 2013
5. ↑ TAG 70:193–94, 203; cited by Zubrinski, William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
6. ↑ (Westcourt Recs 7; Crookston cited by Zubrinski, William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
7. ↑ MD 14:231–33; Colonial Families 2:553).
8. ↑ original notes
9. ↑ original notes
10. ↑ Read this to determine the first American Carpenters of Rehoboth http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehoboth_Carpenter_family
11. ↑ Entered by Living Large, Apr 3, 2013
12. ↑ original notes
13. ↑ Carpenter, Amos. A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America. Press of Carpenter and Morehouse, Amherst, MA, 1898, Page 38.
14. ↑ Category: Bevis (Beuis), sailed May 1638, http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Bevis_%28Beuis%29%2C_sailed_May_1638
15. ↑ http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/bevis1638.shtml
16. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20060211032914/http://www.calaisalumni.org/Maine/ships.htm#Bevis
17. ↑ Rehoboth Ring of the Green Map. “Historic Bus Tour 2016: A map of the “Ring of the Green,” the original town center of Rehoboth, now located in Rumford, RI. “, Rehoboth Antiquarian Society Newsletter, March 2016, pp 3-4, original image accessed 25 Oct 2018 has been removed from the internet.
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1} "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-VSV3 : 6 March 2023), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 192 of 616; State Archives, Boston. Page 80-90
19. ↑ TAG 70:193–94, 203; RI Cems 63; cited by Zubrinski, William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts.
20. ↑ ^{20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7} Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, FASG, Ojai, California. William2 Carpenter (William1) of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. 2008; Prepared for Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2008 Update. Last revised 16 October 2012. Pages 6-7; http://www.carpentercousins.com/Wm2_Rehoboth.pdf. Accessed Sept 27, 2015. Zubrinsky notes that the first five children were baptized at Shalbourne, and the remaining three at Weymouth. (TAG 70 194, 203–4)
21. ↑ Raymond George Carpenter, American Genealogist for the Carpenter Family, author of "The Family of Heroes." (serial) settlement at Providence, RI 1637-1901. By Daniel Hoogland Carpenter of Mapelwood, Essex, NJ. Published by the Marion Press of Jamaica, Queensborough, NY in 1901. 370 Pages.
22. ↑ Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project is a surname project handling genealogy and DNA testing. The Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project shows the results of genetic triangulation in its results tables that are cross linked (via Table 1) to the related individual and group lineages. See more at: https://carpentercousins.com
23. ↑ See the related FamilySearch.org article which references "Ria1a1b1a3c~? (SNP YP6281)" at: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=SNP_testing

See Also:

• Zubrinsky, Eugene [http//www.carpentercousins.com/carplink.htm "Carpenter Sketches"] A collection of 12 sketches providing the best documented information on the two William Carpenters families who immigrated in the mid 1630s to America. They are not brothers, they are not the same person, and they are not first cousins. They are genetically related per YDNA testing.

• 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 TrevorRoper, 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]).

• [http//www.werelate.org/wiki/PersonWilliam_Carpenter_%285%29 William Carpenter of Rehoboth, MA.]

• Anderson, Robert Charles and George F. Sanboorn, Melinda Lutz Sanborn. The Great Migration, (New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts, 1999), p. 88.

• NEHGR, (Boston New England Historic Genealogical Society), 15954. Bredehoft]], - Link now defunct - Legacy reference {https}://familysearch.org Entered by Tom Bredehoft, Feb 14, 2013

• CARPENTER MEMORIAL

• Passengers Aboard the Ship Beavis" SECOND BOAT NOTES" Vol I #1. May, 1980,pp. 1215

• Arnold, James. VITAL RECORD OF REHOBOTH Narragansett Historical Publishing Co. 1897;

Key to Source Notes from Zubrinski

From Zubrinsky.

See also [http//www.werelate.org/wiki/SourceZubrinsky%2C_Eugene._Carpenter_Sketches Carpenter Sketches Source List.]

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 YDNA 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 Emails, 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.greatmigration.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–) 11

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 10/639/1119–20 (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/~rigenweb/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 Record of Rehoboth, 1642–1896 (Providence, 1897)

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)

Family Search Ancestral File (pre-2003 user submissions) - Ancestral File now defunct - See notes in link) https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:1:MWMN-49Z

• Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. "The Family of William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, With the English Origin of the Rehoboth Carpenters," The American Genealogist 70 (Oct. 1995):193-204.

• Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. "Abiah3 Carpenter of Warwick, Rhode Island, and His Family, With Additional Material Concerning William1 Carpenter of Providence, Rhode Island, and William2 Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 159 (Jan. 2005):55-68; (Oct. 2005):362-64 (additions and corrections [hereafter a&c]); 161 (Oct. 2007):300 (a&c); 163 (Oct. 2009):297-98 (a&c).

• Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. "Three John Carpenters: A Chain of Mistaken Identities," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 159 (Jan. 2005):43-54; (Oct. 2005):361-62 (a&c); 163 (Oct. 2009):297 (a&c).

• Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. "The Immigration and Marriage of William1 Carpenter of Amesbury, Wiltshire, and Providence, Rhode Island," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 164 (Jan. 2010):36-40; 164 (Oct. 2010):296-97 (a&c).

• Carpenter, Amos Bugbee “Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America” : Carpenter & Morehouse, Amherst 1898 pp 38-43 https://archive.org/details/genealogicalhist00carp/page/38/mode/1up?view=theater

• http://carpentercousins.com/carplink.htm

• Find A Grave: Memorial #13522767