Joseph Carpenter (1634 - 1675)

Born 6 Apr 1634 in Shalbourne, Berkshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Margaret (Sutton) Carpenter — married 25 May 1655 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 6 May 1675 at age 41 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Plymouth Colony

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Leslie Thompson [send private message]

Biography

Joseph Carpenter immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

1633/1634 Birth and Baptism

Joseph Carpenter was born 1634 in Shalbourne, Wiltshire, England, and was the son of William Carpenter and Abigail Briant Carpenter.^[1] He was christened on April 6, 1634, at Shalbourne, Wiltshire, England.^[2]

Parentage

His parents were William Carpenter (1605 - 1658) and Abigail Briants (1604 - 1687).^[2]

Siblings

He had two sisters and five brothers as follows:^[2]

1. John Carpenter (bef. 1626 - bef. 1695)
2. Abigail (Carpenter) (Titus) Palmer (1629 - 1710)
3. William Carpenter (1631 - 1703)
4. Samuel Carpenter (1636 - 1637)
5. Samuel Carpenter (abt. 1638 - 1683)
6. Hannah (Carpenter) Carpenter (1640 - 1673)
7. Abiah Carpenter (1643 - 1688)

1638 Arrival

Born in 1634, Joseph would have been aged about four when the family migrated to Massachusetts on the Bemis in 1638 and would have been one of the four grandchildren of 10 years or less.

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; his son's wife Abigail, aged 32; and four grandchildren 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.^[3]

1655 Marriage

Joseph Carpenter married Margaret Sutton (1635-1700) on November 25, 1655, at Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony.^[2][1] His wife was born to John Sutton and Juliana Little in 1634 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, and she died in 1677 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony.^[2]

Children

Joseph Carpenter and Margaret Sutton had nine children, as follows: Children:^[2]

1. Joseph Carpenter was born on 15 Aug 1656 and died on 26 Feb 1718.
2. Benjamin Carpenter was born on 19 Jan 1657/58 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony; died on 22 May 1727 in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay; married Renew Weeks on 1 Jul 1683 in Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony.
3. Abigail Carpenter was born on 15 Mar 1658/59 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony; died on Mar 1708/09 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay,
4. Esther (Carpenter) Brintnall was born on 6 Mar 1660/61 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts Bay; died on 20 Dec 1730 in Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
5. Martha Carpenter was born in 1662 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony; died 22 Mar 1734/35 in Swansea, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay.
6. John Carpenter, born on 21 Jan 1670/71 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony; died in 1716.
7. Hannah (Carpenter) Skinner.
8. Solomon Carpenter was born on 27 Apr 1673 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony; died on 25 Oct 1674 in Swansea, Bristol,
9. Margaret (Carpenter) Chaffee was born on 4 May 1675 in Swansea, Plymouth Colony; died on 6 May 1751 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts Bay.

1675 Death and Burial

Joseph Carpenter died on May 4, 1675, either in Swansea, Plymouth Colony^[1] or in Rehoboth, Bristol County, Plymouth Colony.^[2]

He was buried at Knockum Hill Cemetery in Barrington, Bristol County, Rhode Island.^[4] His gravestone no longer exists.^[2]

Probate

His will is dated 3 May 1676 and exhibited to the court at Plymouth on 25 March 1676 on the oath of William and Samuel Carpenter. He mentions his sons, Joseph (eldest), Benjamin, and John, his wife (but not by name) who is with child, his five daughters (but not by name), and his brothers, William and Samuel. His inventory was taken on 20 May 1675.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Roberts, Gary Boyd; Ancestors of American Presidents. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009, p. 71.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44237520/joseph-carpenter: accessed February 8, 2024), memorial page for Joseph Carpenter (–), Find a Grave Memorial ID 44237520, citing Knockum Hill Cemetery, Barrington, Bristol County, Rhode Island, USA; Maintained by Kevin Avery (contributor 47024642).
3. ↑ Carpenter, Amos. A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America. Press of Carpenter and Morehouse, Amherst, MA, 1898, p. 38.
4. ↑ Mason, Alverdoo Hayward. Book A. Records of the Town of Swansea. 1662 TO 1705. United States, 1900.
5. ↑ "Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Probate Records, 1633-1967," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-997D-V3N4 : 11 March 2023), Wills 1633-1686 vol 1-4 > image 412 of 616; State Archives, Boston.

See also:

• Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Julian Adcocke, Wife of John Sutton¹ of Hingham and Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Their Family, The New England Historical & Genealogical Register (NEHGS, Boston, Mass., 2013) Vol. 167, WN 665, Page 14.
• The American Genealogist.
• Arnold, James N. Vital Record of Rehoboth. Narragansett Historical Publishing Co., 1897.

Research

Disambiguation

Two Joseph Carpenters are easily confused.

• This Joseph Carpenter, (bp. 1634-1675), is the son of William Carpenter of Rehoboth and his wife Abigail Briant.
• This Joseph's sister Hannah, born in 1640, married Joseph Carpenter, c. 1638- 1683, the son of William Carpenter of Providence and his wife Elizabeth Arnold. ^[6]

Additional Research

Eugene Cole Zubrinsby's Research

Joseph³ Carpenter (William^2-1) of Rehoboth and Swansea, Massachusetts was written and last revised in 2018 by Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, FASG, resident of Ojai, California, who was prepared for Carpenters’ Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2008 Update. He wrote the following words:

Joseph³ Carpenter (William² of Rehoboth, William¹) was baptized at Shalbourne, Berkshire, England, on 6 April 1634 and died at Swansea, Plymouth Colony, between 3 May 1675 (date of will [not 1676]) and 6 May 1675 (date of burial). He is said to have been buried near the “100-acre cove,” in that part of Swansea now Barrington, Rhode Island. Joseph married at Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony, on 25 November (not May) 1655, MARGARET SUTTON, who was baptized at Attleborough, Norfolk, England, on 30 November 1637 and died, probably at Swansea, between 21 March 1675[/6] and 4 October 1676 (not in 1700), daughter of John1 and Julian (Adcocke) Sutton of Hingham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and Rehoboth (TAG 70:194, 204; RVR 1:44; AttParReg 1:65v; MD 19:165; PCR 5:116; PCPR 3:2:33, 36, 37; SwVR A:147; NEHGR 15:26–27, 91:61–64; 143:299–300, 159:44–45; Carpenter [1898] 45 [burial place]; see also Marriage and Comments sections, below). [While the foregoing genealogical data is presented in Register style, the embedding, grouping, and severe abbreviating of source citations are conveniences that depart from it. Sources are cited in full in Key to Sources Notes, at the end of this sketch. The format below is patterned loosely after that used by Robert Charles Anderson in his Great Migration series.]

Marriage: The month of Joseph and Margaret (Sutton) Carpenter’s marriage, which Amos B. Carpenter mistakenly gives as May, is November (Carpenter [1898] 45; RVR 1:44).

Comments: Widow Margaret Carpenter submitted her husband Joseph’s estate inventory to the court on 21 March 1675[/6] (PCPR 3:2:36). In that her own inventory was taken on 4 October 1676, she died between those dates (see PCPR 3:2:37). The Old Rehoboth (Newman) Cemetery gravestone whose inscription Amos Carpenter presents as “M. C. D. Y. 1700 A. G. 65” and attributes to Margaret belongs to Mary (Kingsbury) Cooper, born at Dedham, Massachusetts, 1 September 1637, and died at Rehoboth, 18 September 1700, wife of Thomas2 Cooper (NEHGR 159:45n13; RI Cems 63; Carpenter [1898] 45). This misidentification caused Amos Carpenter to give Margaret’s gravesite as the "East Providence burial ground," that is, the Old Rehoboth (Newman) Cemetery (Carpenter [1898] 45). Having died so soon after her husband, however, she was almost certainly buried next to him, in present-day Barrington. (See par. 1, above).

Immigration: Joseph was the youngest of four Carpenter children who accompanied their parents and paternal grandfather to Massachusetts on the "Bevis" in 1638 (see William² of Rehoboth sketch, Immigration).

Residences: Shalbourne; Weymouth (probably 1638); Rehoboth (1644); and Swansea (by 22 February 1669/70). Amos Carpenter has Joseph removing to Swansea in 1661 or 1662, but the town was not established until fall of 1667, and Joseph was still living at Rehoboth on 2 April 1669 (Carpenter [1898] 45; PCR 4:169, 175; NEHGR 159:44, 45).

Occupation: House-carpenter/joiner. Joseph’s estate inventory contains an extensive list of house-carpenter’s tools (PCPR 3:2:35–36; JC Inv [transcr]).

Education: He signed his will, and his estate inventory includes several Bibles and other books (PCPR 3:2:33–36; JC Inv [transcr]).

Offices: Rehoboth: coroner’s jury, 1662. Swansea: way warden (surveyor [overseer] of highways), 1671; grand juror (Plymouth Colony Grand Enquest), 1673; appointed to preserve the town’s timber and wood, 1673 (PCR 4:13, 5:58, 114; SwTM 9, 19, 20).

Will/Estate: Joseph Carpenter’s will, dated 3 May 1675 (three days before his burial), mentions sons Joseph (eldest), Benjamin, and John, “my five daughters” (names not given), “my beloved wife” (executrix), and his brothers William and Samuel Carpenter (overseers). (William and Samuel probably became guardians of the children.) The will also acknowledges the impending birth of another child: “if hee be a son; that now my wife is with child withall; hee shall have his p[or]t[io]n . . .” (PCPR 3:2:33). The day after the will was written, Joseph’s sixth surviving daughter, Margaret, was born (SwVR A:33). Only four daughters have been identified.

Joseph’s estate (movable goods only), inventoried on 20 May 1675 and exhibited on 2 November 1676, was valued at £137 (not £437) 10s. 6d. (PCPR 3:2:33–36; JC Inv [transcr]; see also Occupation and Education, above).

Widow Margaret’s estate—the inventory was taken less than a year and a half after her husband’s (see Marriage, above)—amounted to £87 1s. 6d. While only £23 13s. remained after payment of debts, expenses for the children, etc., £38 8s. was nevertheless divided among eight children (a daughter had apparently died) on an unspecified date (probably in 1681 or 1682) (PCPR 3:2:37–38, 4:2:121 [see record dates at 4:2:120, 122]; MC Inv [transcr]).

Children: Numbers i–iv born at Rehoboth, viii–x at Swansea (RVR 1:10; SwVR A: 17, 33, 59).

i. JOSEPH⁴ CARPENTER, b. 15 Aug. 1656, d. Swansea 26 Feb. 1717/8, aged 63 [sic]; m. Swansea 23 Feb. 1681[/2?], MARY _______, b. ca. 1659, d. Swansea 1 or 12 March 1718[/9?] (not 1713), aged abt. 59; both bur. Kickemuit Cem., Swansea (that part now Warren, R.I.) (SwVR A:94, B:130/249; NEHGR 48:442, 70:25; RI Cems 69).

Corrections (to Carpenter [1898] 73–74, 122) concerning their son Joseph⁵, b. Swansea 20 June 1688: Rather than declaring marriage intentions at Bristol, Mass. (now in R.I.), on 16 February 1723, he married there (Rev. John Usher presiding) on 16 February 1723/4, Abigail Newton, daughter of Thomas² and Martha (______) Newton of Bristol. Joseph⁵ did not die in Surinam on 4 February 1745 but drowned with three others in passage from Hog Island to Bristol on 21 December 1728, when their canoe “sunk under them.” His widow, Abigail—not his sister of that name, who died at Swansea 1 February 1683 (not 1783)—married second, at Bristol on 29 (int. 16) February 1735/6, Obadiah Papill(i)on. Abigail Papillon, “widow, of Rehoboth,” where she had moved between 1763 and 1769, was buried at Providence, R.I., 16 February 1776. Joseph⁵ and Abigail (Newton) Carpenter had two (not three) children: 1. Sarah⁶, b. Bristol 3 Feb. 1724/5, d. probably Bristol 24 Feb. 174[7/]8; 2. Joseph, b. Bristol _ Oct. 1726, d. Surinam (rec. Bristol) 4 (not 24) Feb. 1745, aged 19 (SwVR A:22, 137; RIVR 6:1[Bristol]:13, 121, 8:150, 202, 224, 10:152; RIRoots 41: 62, 66–67; NEHGR 124:177, 179; MQ 67:139).

ii. BENJAMIN CARPENTER, b. 15 (not 19) Jan. 1657[/8], d. Swansea 22? May 1727, aged 69,bur. Knockum Hill Cem., Barrington, R.I.; m. (1) prob. Dorchester, Mass., by 1680 (1st child b. 27 Jan. 1680[/1?]), RENEW WEEKS, b. Dorchester 12 6th mo. [Aug.] 1660, d. Swansea 29 July 1703, aged 43, bur. Knockum Hill Cem., dau. of William and Elizabeth (______ [not Atherton]) Weeks; m. (2) Swansea 27 Nov. 1706, MARTHA (BLISS) TOOGOOD (widow of Nathaniel), b. Rehoboth __ April 1663, d. there 22 March 1735, in 73rd yr., dau. of Jonathan Bliss and probable wife Rachel Puffer (not Miriam Harmon/Wilmarth) (RI Cems 68, 69; Stevens–Miller 46, 266–67, 273; DChR 194 ["Jotham ye son of Benjamen Carpenter ye mothers name was Renew ye daughter of William Weeks"]; DVR 7; SwVR B:81/173, 138/257; NEHGR 151:31–37, 159:361–62; BrCoPR [abstr] 1:240; RVR 1:5).

For major corrections of the secondary literature pertaining to Benjamin’s son John and his family, see NEHGR 159:49–53.

iii. ABIGAIL CARPENTER, b. 15 March 1659[/60?], d. perhaps Swansea, 1 Feb. 1683[/4?] (SwVR A:137). The death record gives Abigail’s parents as Joseph Jr. and Mary Carpenter (no. i, above), but their first recorded child is Mary, born 27 Dec. 1683 (SwVR A:35). If the Abigail who died in 1683[/4?] had been born to that couple (eight children are recorded for them at Swansea between 1683 and 1704), the logical explanation of the failure to record her birth is that she died at that time or so soon thereafter that only her death was recorded. This, however, probably conflicts with the birth date (late 1683) of the couple’s aforementioned daughter Mary: the date 1 Feb. 1683 probably represents Old Style dating (year beginning 25 March), which puts it only slightly more than one month after Mary’s birth. (To allay any possible confusion, the Abigail Carpenter who married Jonah Palmer Jr. in 1692 was William² and Abigail (Briant) Carpenter’s dau. Abigail (Carpenter) Titus [see Abigail³ sketch, first par.].)

iv. ESTHER CARPENTER, b. 10 (not 6) March 1661[/2?], d. Norton, Mass., 20 Dec. 1730; m. Swansea 19 March 1687, SAMUEL BRENTNALL/BRINTNELL, b. Boston 2 Dec. 1665, d. Norton between 19 Nov. 1735 (will, in 70th yr.) and 16 Dec. 1735 (est. inv.), son of Thomas and Esther (______) Brentnall of Boston, Norton, and Taunton, Mass. Samuel m. (2) Wrentham, Mass. (also rec. Norton) 23 May 1734, Elizabeth (Candage) Blake (widow of Jonathan2) (NoVR 202, 360; SwVR A:123; BVR 95, 250; BrCoPR [abstr] 1:246; BrCoPR 1:225; Norton Hist 78; Blake Gen 35; WrVR 2:260).

v. DAUGHTER, b. between 1662 and 1671; place in birth order uncertain. The Martha Carpenter who was born ca. 1663 and died at Swansea 22 March 1735, in her 73rd yr., is often said to have been Joseph and Margaret’s daughter (see, for example, Carpenter [1898] 58; Stevens–Miller 266). She was in fact their daughter-in-law Martha (Bliss) (Toogood) Carpenter, 2nd wife of their son Benjamin (no. ii, above) (NEHGR 159:361–62; see also WILL/ESTATE, above). Her proper identification eliminates the sole basis for the assertion that Joseph and Margaret had a daughter Martha.

vi. JOHN CARPENTER, b. ca. 1667, prob. Rehoboth (father still res. there 2 April 1669), d. East Greenwich, R.I., 25 Aug. 1753, in 87th yr.; m. (1?) by 1705, ______ GRINNELL, d. before 1721, dau. of Matthew2 Grinnell; m. (2?) by 1721 ELIZABETH _______; m. (3?) after 1726 ABIGAIL _______, living 12 Sept. 1753. Amos Carpenter mistakenly presents John and his sister Hannah (no. viii, below) as twins, born on 21 Jan. [sic] 1671/2. John’s birth is not recorded, however, and his age at death makes him about five years her senior (NEHGR 159:43–47 [also includes vital-event data about John’s children—Martha, Mary, Sarah, Diadema, Prudence, Cornel, Dinah, and Joseph—seven of whom Amos Carpenter mistakenly attributes (as he does two of John’s wives) to another John Carpenter, son of Oliver4 Carpenter (Abiah3) of Warwick and North Kingstown, R.I. (see Carpenter [1898] 75, 128–29)]; EGPR 2:67–73, at 67; see also Carpenter [1898] 58).

vii. DAUGHTER, b. between 1662 and 1671; place in birth order uncertain (see Will/Estate, above).

viii. HANNAH CARPENTER, b. 21 1st mo. [March] 1671 [uncertain if 1670/1 or 1671/2], d. probably Norton, after 29 June 1757 (named in husband’s will); m. probably Swansea, by 1695 (1st child b. 30 May 1695), THOMAS SKINNER, b. Malden, Mass., 3? Nov. 1668, d. Norton between 29 June 1757 (will, in 89th yr.) and 19 May 1758 (probate), son of Thomas and Mary (Pratt) Skinner (BrCoPR [abstr] 2:219; WrVR 1:189; MalVR 79; Skinner Kinsmen 8, 14–18; Ackley–Bosworth 277–78, 280; NEHGR 53:401–2; Norton Hist 88–89).

In the absence of documentary evidence that Thomas Skinner’s wife, Hannah, was by birth a Carpenter, let alone this Hannah Carpenter, strong circumstantial evidence makes the case. Six children—Thomas, Solomon, Joseph, Hannah, Esther, and Mary—were born to Thomas and Hannah Skinner at Wrentham between 1695 and 1706; his will mentions all but Mary and adds Benjamin and Samuel (WrVR 1:189; Skinner Kinsmen 15–17; BrCoPR [abstr] 2:219). Four of these names—Solomon, Joseph, Esther, and Benjamin—are also those of siblings (and, in one instance, also the father) of the subject Hannah Carpenter (see nos. i, ii, iv, above; ix, below). A fifth, Samuel, is also the name of her sister Esther’s husband, Samuel Brentnall/Brintnell (see no. iv, above). They, like Thomas and Hannah Skinner, settled in a part of Norton that is now Mansfield (Norton Hist 78, 89). Thomas Skinner’s will describes his daughter Esther as the widow of Ebenezer Brintnall; they had married at Norton in 1728 (Skinner Kinsmen 16; BrCoPR [abstr] 2:219; NoVR 202). Ebenezer, who died at Norton about 1748, was the son of Samuel and Esther (Carpenter) Brentnall (BrCoPR [abstr] 1:246, 2:35; WrVR 1:36).

ix. SOLOMON CARPENTER, b. 27 April 1673, d. Swansea 25 Oct. 1674 (PCR 8:51).

x. MARGARET CARPENTER (probably posthumous), b. 4 May 1675, d. Rehoboth 6 May 1751; m. probably Swansea (rec. Rehoboth), 4 June (not Jan.) 1695, THOMAS CHAFFEE, b. Swansea 19 Oct. 1672, d. Rehoboth 21 Feb. 1754, son of Nathaniel and Experience (Bliss) Chaffee (RVR 1:163 [not 95], 2:258, 3:358; SwVR A:63, 107).

Comments: Joseph Carpenter was one of seven founding members of the Swansea Baptist Church. Formed at Rehoboth in the fall of 1666 (not in 1663), it was relocated to neighboring Swansea about a year later, when the latter town was established (NEHGR 139:23–24; Rehoboth Hist 63).

Previous Genealogists' Research on Sutton Family

With no supporting evidence, Edward Sutton (1900) claimed that John¹ Sutton’s widow, Julian, had accompanied him from England to Massachusetts in 1638 (Sutton Gen 6n†).

Later writers have asserted, however, that Julian was not the wife with whom he had immigrated and previously fathered children.

Charles E. Banks (1930) identified the wife who arrived with Sutton on the Diligent as having the forename Elizabeth (Planters 193).

Howard Dakin French (1937) demonstrated in a Sutton-family article, however, that in attempting to reconstruct the identities of the ship’s Sutton passengers, Banks had mistaken John² Sutton of Scituate, Plymouth Colony, for his father and ascribed the son’s wife, Elizabeth [House], and four of their children to John¹ (NEHGR 91:63).

Charles H. Pope [1900] had also confused the son’s wife and children with the father’s but did not claim that she had immigrated with him or borne any of his children [Pioneers 441].

Mary Lovering Holman (1948) did not name a first wife of Sutton’s but (without explanation) nevertheless described "Julian ———" as his second and was noncommittal as to the children’s maternal parentage (Stevens–Miller 269–70).

A 1989 sketch of the immigrant Suttons revived the notion of a first wife Elizabeth, claiming that the marriage of John Sutton of Wortwell [in Norfolk] and Elizabeth Skarlett of Norwich in the parish of St. Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk, on 4 December 1627 was that of the eventual emigrants (English Emigrants 194 [Skarlette]; StSNParReg 1:3[marriages]:25r). In support, the authors asserted that John¹ Sutton’s known children John and Margaret were baptized in Norwich St. Stephen on 11 March 1631 and 16 January 1632, respectively. The original parish register confirms the key elements of the marriage record presented in the Sutton sketch. Neither child’s baptismal record, however, is found on either of the stated dates or any others. The baptism dated 11 March 1631[/2] was of "John the Sonne of John Secker"; that dated 16 January 1632[/3] was of "Marey the dafter of John Rochester" (StSNParReg 1:1[baptisms]:45r, 45v). But even if the John Secker entry were instead to have named John Sutton, he would have been about ten years younger than John² of Scituate, who was "aged 70 years or there abouts" in 1691 (NEHGR 91:63).

We may therefore dismiss the claims that John¹ Sutton sailed to America with a wife Elizabeth. It remains to be demonstrated, however, that it was Julian—her maiden name, Adcocke, was established in the original, 2008 version of this sketch—who made the crossing with him, and that she was the mother of his children.

Daniel Cushing, a contemporary of the Suttons’ at Hingham, Massachusetts Bay Colony, listed the town’s earliest families in a memorandum book more than forty years after their respective arrivals. He recorded that John Sutton had come from the parish of Attleborough, Norfolk, on the Diligent in 1638 with a wife and four [sic] children, none of whom is identified (NEHGR 15:25–27). Cushing’s immediately preceding entry was of Stephen Paine and his family (also unnamed), emigrants from the parish of Great Ellingham [adjacent to Attleborough]; they had arrived on the same ship as the Suttons and many others from that area. Former Attleborough resident John Adcocke, whose will was dated at Great Ellingham 14 (not 12) October 1638 and proved 30 January 1638[/9], named among his legatees “Stephen Payne my sonn in lawe” and “Elizabeth Sutton my grandchild” (NorArch Wills; NEHGR 143:299–300). Adcocke had married in Attleborough 7 October (not 20 July) 1593, Elizabeth Eldred (AttParReg 1:31r; NEHGR 143:299, 300n, m. 20 July). (She was probably the one of that name whose baptism of 20 November 1570[?] was recorded in the parish register of Old Buckenham, Norfolk [next to Attleborough], with parents’ names no longer legible. It is perhaps significant that Margaret and Alice, daughters of Jerom[e] Eldred, were baptized in Old Buckenham on 15 January 1571[?] [OBParReg 4 (question marks in transcr.)].) Among the Adcockes’ children were daughters Julian and Neele, baptized in Attleborough on 11 February 1598/9 and 20 February 1602/3, respectively (AttParReg 1:36r, 39r; NEHGR 143:300n). Neele (not Niobe, Noole, or Rose) Paine, wife of Mr. Stephen Paine, died at Rehoboth in 1660[/1?] (RVR 1:50a; NEHGR 143:300). On 3 June 1673 (a year after John Sutton’s death, at Rehoboth on 1 June 1672), letters of administration were “graunted unto Julian Sutton, widdow, the late wife of John Sutton, of Rehoboth, deceased, and unto [her nephew] Nathaniel Paine, to administer on the estate of the said Sutton” (RVR 1:51; PCR 5:116; NEHGR 143:302). Julian herself was buried at Rehoboth on 4 June 1678 (RVR 1:55a).

It is evident from the foregoing that by 1638, the year of their emigration, John Sutton and Stephen Paine had married, respectively, sisters Julian and Neele Adcocke, and that the former had had with Sutton a daughter Elizabeth. (The claim, frequently seen online, that Julian’s maiden name was Little is without merit.) John and Julian Sutton had by then been married at least fifteen years: Elizabeth and Mary, each described as "daughter of John Sutton and Juljan his wife," were baptized in the parish of Great Saxham, Suffolk (about 35 miles from Attleborough), 25 May 1623 and 10 August 1625, respectively (GSParReg). (The Suttons’ presence in Great Saxham was probably tied to Julian’s maternal kinship with the family of John Eldred [c1552–1632], whom a 1592 grant of arms describes as "fourth son of John Eldred of Buckenham in Norfolk, son of John Eldred of Knatshall [sic] in Suffolk, son of William, who was son of John of Knatshall." Born in New Buckenham [by Old Buckenham (see above) and about 10 miles from Knettishall], Eldred became a wealthy intercontinental merchant and London alderman who in 1597 bought the manor of Great Saxham. He lived primarily in London, but his son John apparently stayed continuously in Great Saxham at least during the 1620s [Suffolk Hist 105, 107–8, 114–15, 118–19; DNB 174–75].)

The Suttons had returned to Attleborough (presumably where John and Julian had married) by 27 November (not October) 1629, when Judith, daughter of John Sutton, was baptized there (AttParReg 1:61v; search results, FamilySearch [www.familysearch.org], bap. Oct.). Margaret, the only other Sutton child for whom an English record has been found—it identifies her as the daughter of [blank] Sutton and [blank]—was baptized in Attleborough on 30 November 1637 (AttParReg 1:65v)

(“[An]thony sonne of John Sutton of Rat[cliff] highway taylor & Julian ux[o]r,” was baptized in the parish of St. Dunstan, Stepney, Middlesex [now part of Greater London], 25 June 1626 [StDSParReg 2:178r]. It is unlikely, however, that he was the immigrant couple’s child: Stepney is a considerable distance from the countrysides of Attleborough [100 miles] and Great Saxham [80 miles]. John¹ Sutton, moreover, was not a tailor but a carpenter [Early Rehoboth 3:160]. Anthony’s father was probably the John Sutton baptized in St. Dunstan on 25 July 1599, son of William Sutton of Ratcliff [StDSParReg 1:n.p.].).

From the appearance in Massachusetts records of aforementioned Mary and Margaret—and of John, Hannah, Esther, and Anne, four Suttons found only in Massachusetts records—Howard French identified these six as comprising the children of John¹ Sutton (NEHGR 91:63–64; see also Stevens–Miller 1:269–70). Hannah, as French recognized, was born perhaps at Hingham. Omitted from his list, however, are Elizabeth, who was living in England four months after her family’s June 1638 emigration, and Judith, who probably by then had died (NorArch Wills; Planters 191). French also concluded (apparently from passages in Julian Sutton’s nuncupative will) that the other adult member of John Sutton’s family was “his wife, Julian” (maiden name not given) (NEHGR 91:64). Her oral declaration, dated 25 April 1678 and proved 5 June 1678, named as her principal legatee “son in law” Sergeant John Fitch, “with whom shee had sojourned about five yeers,” and also mentioned “the rest of the children” (PCPR 3:2:110). Though French never explicitly said so (his evidence was rather slender), he seemed to imply that Julian was the mother of all the Sutton children. The additional evidence presented above shows this to be correct, with the possible but unlikely exception of John², who was born about 1621. (For more details, see Zubrinsky, "Julian Adcocke, Wife of John¹ Sutton of Hingham and Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Their Family," NEHGR 167:7–14.)

Key to Source Notes:

• Ackley–Bosworth | Nathan Grier Parke II, The Ancestry of Lorenzo Ackley & His Wife Emma Arabella Bosworth, ed. Donald Lines Jacobus (Woodstock, Vt., 1960); digital images online at www.Ancestry.com.
• AttParReg | Parish Registers of Attleborough, Norfolk; digital images online at www.familysearch.org (England, Norfolk Parish Registers, 1538–1900 > Attleborough > Baptisms, Marriages, Burials > 1552–1652).
• Blake, Francis Everett, Increase Blake of Boston, His Ancestors and Descendants, with a Full Account of William Blake of Dorchester and His Five Children (Boston, 1898)
• BrCoPR | Bristol County, Massachusetts, Probate Records, vols. 1–4 [Family History Library (FHL), Salt Lake City, film #461,882]
• BrCoPR [abstr] | H. L. Peter Rounds, Abstracts of Bristol County, Massachusetts, Probate Records, 2 vols. (Baltimore, 1988)
• BVR | Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630–1699, Ninth Report of the Boston Record Commissioners (Boston 1883; repr. Boston 1908)
• 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).
• DChR Records of the First Church at Dorchester in New England, 1636–1734 (Boston, 1891) [FHL film #856,696].
• DNB | Leslie Stephen, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 17 (New York & London, 1889); digital images online at http://books.google.com.
• DVR | Dorchester Births, Marriages, and Deaths to the End of 1825, Twenty-first Report of the Boston Record Commissioners (Boston, 1890).
• 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)
• EGPR | East Greenwich, Rhode Island, Probate Records [FHL film #926,804, item 3].
• English Emigrants | Dorothy C. Knoff and Gerald E. Knoff, Thirty-One English Emigrants Who Came to New England by 1662 (Baltimore, 1989).
• GSParReg | Parish Registers of Great Saxham, Suffolk, 1555–1812 (not paginated) [FHL film #952,199, item 2].
• IGI | International Genealogical Index, online at www.familysearch.org.
• C Inv [transcr] | Joseph Carpenter estate inventory (transcription), online at www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/P239.htm, a Plymouth Colony Archive Project webpage (contains errors [as of 8/25/11]).
• MC Inv [transcr] | Margaret Carpenter estate inventory (transcription), online at www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/P278.htm, a Plymouth Colony Archive Project webpage (contains errors [as of 8/25/11]).
• MD | The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 1 through present (1899–1937, 1985–)
• MQ | The Mayflower Quarterly, vol. 1 (1935) through present.
• MalVR Deloraine Pendre Corey, Births, Marriages and Deaths in the Town of Malden, Massachusetts, 1649–1850 (Cambridge, Mass., 1903).
• NEHGR | The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 1 (1847) through present.
• NorArch | Wills Archdeaconry of Norfolk, Original Wills, 1638, #111 [FHL film #167,112].
• Norton Hist | George Faber Clark, A History of the Town of Norton, Bristol County, Massachusetts, from 1669 to 1859. (Boston/Norton, 1859); digital images online at http://books.google.com.
• NoVR | Vital Records of Norton, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, 2 vols. (Boston, 1906).
• OBParReg | Walter Rye, transcr., ed., The First Register Book of the Parish of Old Buckenham in Norfolk, 1560 to 1649 (Norwich, 1902) [FHL film #924,190, item 7].
• 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).
• Pioneers | Charles Henry Pope, The Pioneers of Massachusetts (Boston, 1900); digital images online at www.archive.org !
• Planters | Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the Commonwealth, 1620–1640 (Boston, 1930; repr. Baltimore, 1997); digital images online at www.Ancestry.com.
• 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.
• RIRoots | Rhode Island Roots, vol. 1 (1975) through present.
• RIVR | James N. Arnold, Vital Record of Rhode Island, 1636–1850, 21 vols. (Providence, 1891–1912).
• 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]; citations of vol. 1 in text, above, include any necessary corrections to page numbers cited in James N. Arnold, Vital Record of Rehoboth, 1642–1896 (Providence, 1897).
• Skinner Kinsmen | Natalie R. Fernald, The Skinner Kinsmen: Descendants of Thomas Skinner of Malden, Massachusetts (Washington, D.C., 1939); digital images online at www.ancestry.com.
• StDSParReg | Parish Registers of St. Dunstan, Stepney, Middlesex – Baptisms, vols. 1 (1568–1608) and 2 (1608–1637) [FHL film #595,417, items 1 and 2, resp.]
• Stevens–Miller | Mary Lovering Holman, Ancestry of Colonel John Harrington Stevens and His Wife Frances Helen Miller (Concord, N.H., 1948).
• StSNParReg | Parish Registers of St. Stephen, Norwich, Norfolk; digital images online at www.familysearch.org (England, Norfolk Parish Registers, 1538–1900 > Norwich, St Stephen > Baptisms, Marriages, Burials > 1538–1653).
• Suffolk Hist | John Gage [Rokewode], The History and Antiquities of Suffolk. Thingoe Hundred (London, 1838); digital images online at http://babel.hathitrust.org.
• Sutton Gen | Edward F. H. Sutton, Genealogical Notes of the Sutton Family of New Jersey (New York, 1900).
• SwTM | Swansea, Massachusetts, Town Meetings, 1670–1718 [FHL film #903,396, item 5].
• SwVR | Swansea, Massachusetts, Vital Records [FHL film #903,395, items 5, 7].
• TAG | The American Genealogist, vol. 9 (1932) through present.
• WrVR | Vital Records of Wrentham, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, 2 vols. (Boston, 1910).

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.

Gene Zubrinsky has contributed many articles, including four Carpenter pieces, to the leading genealogical journals and local history magazines.