Person:Elizabeth Carpenter (6)

"Elizabeth Carpenter, born ca. 1644, living 1694; married first, Richard Jones, who died at Haddam, Conn., in 1670; second, John Chappell of New London, Conn.; and third, ----- Hill who is as yet unidentified. The small inventory of the estate of Richard "Joanes" was taken 5 Sept. 1670; administration was granted 18 Apr. 1671 to the relict, Elizabeth; and the children were named with their ages as David, 8 years, Elizabeth, 5 years, Mary, 2 years, and Patience, born March 1670/1. [Manwaring's Digest, 1:211]. It will be noted that Elizabeth Carpenter named her son after her father and only brother; her first daughter after her mother and herself; Mary after her only sister; while Patience was presumably the virtue she felt she needed when, a poor widow, she have birth to a posthumous child. One of the proofs is found in a suit brought 28 Apr. 1747 by the heirs of Richard Jones for the recovery of lands in Haddam [Connecticut Archives, Towns and Lands, 7:228, cited in full in The American Genealogist, supra, 11:190-91]. The petition states that Richard Jones of Haddam died about August 1670, leaving children David (who died soon after his father); Elizabeth Jones who married Ebenezer Booth of Stratford and died in June 1709 leaving several surviving children, who are named along with heirs of deceased children; Mary Jones who married Thomas Barnes of Farmington, living in 1747; and Patience Jones who married Evart Cosseboom and by him had only one surviving child, David Cosseboom of Smithtown, Long Island.

Since the marriage is on record of Thomas Barnes of Farmington in June 1690 to Mary Jones; and Mary wife of Thomas Jones was called granddaughter by Mrs. Elizabeth Brunson in her will; it is certain that Elizabeth Carpenter married Richard Jones and left descendants. Her three daughters, left orphans at a very early age, may have been parceled out between relatives, or apprenticed, which would explain their marrying in such scattered places. Mary, who married in Farmington, may well have been raised by her grandmother, Mrs. Brunson, who gave a legacy to Mary but not to her sisters, and made Mary's husband, Thomas Barnes, sole executor of her will.

At New London, Conn., on June 20 1675, John Chappell's child Experience was baptized. This girl was 18 years old when Mrs. Brunson made her will, naming Experience Chappell as her grandchild. Richard Jones had been dead close to five years. His widow's brother, David Carpenter, was then living in New London, and Elizabeth (Carpenter) Jones may well have lived or visited in his home for a time. John Chappell was a son of George Chappell of New London. In the early 1680s he was living in Lyme, Conn., but in 1704, calling himself of Flushing, Island of Nassau [Long Island], and son of George Chappell deceased, he conveyed to [his brother] Nathaniel Chappell [New London Deeds, 4:31; 6:78]. If Elizabeth accompanied him to Long Island, that could explain the marriage of her youngest Jones child, Patience, to a Long Island man. However, there must have been a separation, followed by divorce; for Elizabeth married, third, a man named Hill, before 1694, while John Chappell was living ten years later.

Experience Chappell was of Wethersfield when she married there, prior to 10 Apr. 1701 when she and her husband were before the Court, Robert Harris, then of Wethersfield. He deserted her in 1709, but she waited until 1728 to divorce him. The divorce records are cited in full in my account of certain Harris families in TAG supra, 23:161-62. They were definitely parents of three Harris sons, Thomas (b. ca. 1702), Daniel (b. ca. 1705), these two of Wethersfield, and Abraham (b. ca. 1709), of Middletown, Conn. At the time the Harris article was written, I was uncertain whether to place these three as children of Robert or Walter Harris."^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Jacobus, Donald Lines. Notes on Connecticut Families - The Will of Mrs. Elizabeth Carpenter Orvis Brunson. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (Jan 1965)
   41:42-43.