Person:Florence Unknown (143)

Died abt 1661 -- Great Migrations notes: In the Calendar of Dutch Manuscripts, Volume 9, is an abstract of a petition dated 7 April 1661: "John Carman, Caleb Carman and Benjamin Coe, husband of Abigail Carman, praying that John Hicks, who married their mother, may be obliged to render an account of the estate" [p. 223]. Edith Carman Hay took note of this document, including the additional information that the three principals were "representing their minor brother Joshua" [ NYGBR 70:335]. The original of this document was damaged in the Albany fire of 1911; the surviving portion does show that brother Joshua was named, but also includes a reference to their mother "Florentje Carman." ^[1]

“Although wide credence has been given the statement that John Carman was the son-in-law of Robert Fordham, we have found nothing to substantiate it, nor have we found any evidence of contacts between the two men before their purchase of Hempstead from the Indians. Neither is listed among the inhabitants of Stamford of that period. We have seen that John Carman came to the Massachusetts Bay Colony (from Hampshire ?) in 1631; at that time Robert Fordham was Vicar in Flamsted, Herts, and until he came to America in 1638 he held that assignment, and was also a licensed preacher in Lincoln Diocese; he was born in 1603,--hence hardly old enough to be John Carman's father-in-law.”^[2]

Byron S. Palmer, who wrote the materials on deposit at NEHGS, claims that Rev. Robert Fordham of Hemel Hempstead, Hertshire was a Puritan deprived of his right to preach and that John Carman also suffered for his Puritanic faith, so they together with their neighbors chartered the Lyon in 1630.

1. ↑ Council Minutes 9:574
2. ↑ Hay, Edith Carman (Mrs. William H. Hay) and Sidney Wilson, “John Carman,” New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, LXX, 1939 (October). Found online at http://home.att.net/~carman_family_history/articles/art02.htm