Person:William Carpenter (136)

Origin

Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, FASG, who has done extensive research on the Carpenter family, states "The ancestry of William¹ Carpenter, including his parentage, is unknown ..." and provides the following additional information:

"William¹ was of Newtown, Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire, England, by 1608, when he became a copyholder [a type of tenant] at Westcourt Manor (Westcourt Recs 7)."^[3] At that time, Shalbourne straddled the Wiltshire/Berkshire border, and Hampshire was about 4 miles away. "It is likely that William was born in one of these three counties."^[3].

A couple of William Carpenter's were baptized in the 1570's about 30 miles from Shalbourne - one north in Great Coxwell, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire) and one south-southwest in Salisbury, Wiltshire. "Evidence that either of these persons was the eventual William¹ Carpenter of Shalbourne has not been found."^[7]

There was also a William Carpenter mentioned in the Jan 1606[/07?] will of Robert Carpenter of Marden, Wiltshire, who might be of the correct age, but "no satisfactory evidence has been produced establishing that ... Robert Carpenter's [son] William is identical with ... William¹ of Shalbourne, Wherwell, and the Bevis (1638)".^[8]

Further Reading

Carpenter Sketches includes an article on William Carpenter by Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, which the reader is referred to for more extensive information, as well as source citations. Zubrinsky periodically updates the article, and the reader is encouraged to check it for his latest research.

1. ↑ William¹ Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, in Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Carpenter Sketches: Links to Sketches And Articles Representing the Most Current and Reliable Scholarship Concerning Early Generations of the Carpenter Families of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island and Their Ancestors. (Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, 2008)
   accessed 13 Feb 2025.

   p. 3: 'William¹'s having emigrated only three months after the death of Alice Carpenter, who was buried at Shalbourne on 25 January 1637[/8], might be interpreted to suggest that she had been his wife (though not necessarily William²'s mother); it is possible, of course, that she was an unmarried sister or daughter (TAG 70:194-95).'
   
   p. 5: 'The only known child of William¹ Carpenter is the son named with him in his record of tenancy at Shalbourne Westcourt and with whom he emigrated: the eventual William² Carpenter of Rehoboth (Westcourt Recs 7; NEHGR 14:336;'
   
   p. 6: 'The ancestry of William¹ Carpenter, including his parentage, is unknown ...'

2. ↑ William¹ Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, in Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Carpenter Sketches: Links to Sketches And Articles Representing the Most Current and Reliable Scholarship Concerning Early Generations of the Carpenter Families of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island and Their Ancestors. (Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, 2008)
   page 2, accessed 13 Feb 2025.

   'The record of William's renewal of his Westcourt tenancy on 22 June 1614 gives his age as 40 (Westcourt Recs 7). The passenger list of the Bevis, the ship on which he left England, is dated 2 May 1638 and states William's age as 62 (NEHGR 14:336; TAG 70:193, 203; see also IMMIGRATION, below). From these facts is calculated a birth year of about 1575.'

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} William¹ Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, in Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Carpenter Sketches: Links to Sketches And Articles Representing the Most Current and Reliable Scholarship Concerning Early Generations of the Carpenter Families of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island and Their Ancestors. (Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, 2008)
   accessed 13 Feb 2025.

   page 2: 'William¹ was of Newtown, Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire, England, by 1608, when he became a copyholder [a type of tenant] at Westcourt Manor (Westcourt Recs 7).'
   
   page 4: 'He was living at Newtown by 1 June 1608 and until at least about 18 September 13 Charles [1637]; on the latter date a new family assumed tenancy of the parcels previously leased by the Carpenters (Westcourt Recs 7).'

4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 William¹ Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, in Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Carpenter Sketches: Links to Sketches And Articles Representing the Most Current and Reliable Scholarship Concerning Early Generations of the Carpenter Families of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island and Their Ancestors. (Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, 2008)
   pages 2-3, accessed 13 Feb 2025.

   'Until recently (2023) the latest known record of William¹ was the aforementioned Bevis passenger list entry of 2 May 1638. ...'
   
   The author goes on to say that William¹ signed an undated estate inventory that has been estimated to have been taken shortly before 28 Jan 1640/1 in Weymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The signature 'differs considerably' from that of his son on a 1653 deed (facsimiles of both signatures provided).

5. ↑ William¹ Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, in Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Carpenter Sketches: Links to Sketches And Articles Representing the Most Current and Reliable Scholarship Concerning Early Generations of the Carpenter Families of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island and Their Ancestors. (Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, 2008)
   page 5, accessed 13 Feb 2025.

   'The Bevis passenger list describes William¹ as a carpenter (NEHGR 14:336). That his copyhold included not only a messuage [house and adjoining land] with a garden but also a small number of acres in nearby common fields indicates that he was also a husbandman [subsistence farmer] (see Westcourt 7; “Recommended Reading,” GMN 16, no. 3).'

6.   Carpenter, Amos B. (Amos Bugbee). A genealogical history of the Rehoboth branch of the Carpenter family in America: brought down from their English ancestor, John Carpenter, 1303 : with many biographical notes of descendants and allied families - aka: Carpenter Memorial. (Reprint: Salt Lake City, Utah - Original: Amherst, MA: Reprint: Genealogical Society of Utah - Originial printing: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, Reprint: 1963 - Original: 1898)
   pages 35-36.

   'The Bevis sailed in May, 1638, with sixty-one passengers, among whom were "one Willam Carpenter, of Wherwell, aged 62 years; William, his son, aged 33 years; son's wife Abigail aged 32 years, and four grandchildren of 10 years or less, names not mentioned in the Clearance; and a servant, Thomas Bansholt, aged 14 years." '

7. ↑ William¹ Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire, and Weymouth, Massachusetts, in Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Carpenter Sketches: Links to Sketches And Articles Representing the Most Current and Reliable Scholarship Concerning Early Generations of the Carpenter Families of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and Providence, Rhode Island and Their Ancestors. (Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters, 2008)
   page 2, accessed 13 Feb 2025.
8. ↑ Zubrinsky, Eugene Cole. Abiah³ Carpenter of Warwick, Rhode Island, and his family. Appendix 1: Were William¹ Carpenter of Providence and William² Carpenter of Rehoboth first cousins?, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   159(2005):66.

   "... no satisfactory evidence has been produced establishing that ... Robert Carpenter's [son] William is identical with ... William¹ of Shalbourne, Wherwell, and the Bevis (1638), ..."