Carpenter Family Update
December 2004
Carpenter English Lineage Nullified

In the Carpenters’ Encyclopedia of Carpenters (CE CD 2001) introduction, I wrote the following:
“… genealogy or family history works are never completed ... because of births, deaths, new
material ... This CE CD version 2001 is dedicated to the Carpenter Family Researchers who
contributed to it, use it, add to it, and correct the errors in it” (emphasis added). In the
last section was this: “ALL WORKS OF MEN (and women) are imperfect. If you find an error,
and there is no doubt you will find some, please let me know.”

Many of you have taken the challenge and have made corrections and additions to your lines.
Gene Zubrinsky of Ojai, California, in particular has been forthright in his effort to correct
the errors to the Carpenter English ancestry he has seen in the CE CD 2001 and elsewhere.

Most of us are not even remotely proficient reading old English wills. Having experience with
sixteenth- and seventeenth-century handwriting, however, John F. Chandler, Gene Zubrinsky and
Terry L. Carpenter have been collecting and looking at the wills to glean any clues that could
help on the Carpenter ancestry. Gene has reviewed the recorded will of Rev. Richard Carpenter
(b. abt 1468, of Homme, Herefordshire; d. Wiltshire, 1503 [CE CD 2001, RIN ref. no. 2781]) and
found that it describes each of two beneficiaries, Robert and Peter (no surnames given), not as
“sonne/sunne” but as “svnt” (i.e., servant). (The difference is hard to see when you are
expecting to see sons listed in that part of the will.)

The rest of us, John, Terry, and I, concur with his interpretation. (A PDF file of the
will—Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 13 Blanyr [PROB 11/13]—may be purchased online at
www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk; it is also available on FHL film 0,091,903, and a
copy is posted on my web page at:
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/a/r/John-R-Carp...

This finding refutes the assertions of earlier researchers that Rev. Richard Carpenter was the
father of Robert Carpenter of Upton Scudamore and thus invalidates the English lineage claimed
for the Rehoboth and Providence Carpenters from Rev. Richard Carpenter backward.

Captain William Carpenter-584 (b. England abt 1605; d. Rehoboth 1658[/9?]) came to America on
the Bevis. It is certain that his father, who accompanied him, was also named William
Carpenter-98 (b. England abt 1576; d. abt 1638). Extensive reviews of earlier research, however,
have not found documentation or evidence that Robert Carpenter of Marden-14708 (b. abt 1545; d.
abt 1607) was the latter William’s father, as previously claimed. Thus the lineage to William
Carpenter-14711 (b. abt 1520; d. abt 1587) and then to Robert Carpenter of Upton Scudamore-14706
(b. abt 1495; d. abt 1545) is dubious. Even without the discovery of the aforementioned errors
in the will of Rev. Richard Carpenter, the lineage it nullifies would therefore still be doubtful.
The ancestry has not been proved as earlier given.

As to the ancestry of the Providence Carpenters, recent findings seem to point away from Marden
and toward Newton Toney, adjacent to Amesbury (see The New England Historical and Genealogical
Register 159 [January 2005]:66, 67n).

While this nullification of the Carpenter English ancestry has occurred, the rightful pieces of
the jig-saw puzzle will hopefully fall in place with more diligent research. I encourage all
Carpenter researchers to share what they find and to document where the information came from.
This way their new information can be verified by others.

John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA