William CARPENTER (1605 – 1659) was Alex’s 11th Great Grandfather two ways through his daughter Abigail and through his son Joseph.  He was two of 4,096 in this generation of the Shaw line.

William Carpenter was born in Wiltshire or Berkshire, England about 1605. His parents were William CARPENTER Sr. and  Alice [__?__].   He married Abigail BRIANT on 28 Apr 1625 at St. Michael and All Angels Church in Shalbourne Parish, Berkshire, England.

William died at Rehoboth, Plymouth Colony (that part now Rumford, East Providence, RI), on 7 Feb 1658/59.

Abigail Briant was, baptized on 27 May 1604 in at St.Michael’s and All Angels Church Shalbourne Parish, Berkshire, England.  Her parents were John BRIANT and Alice [__?__]. Some older sources give wife Abigail’s maiden name as Bennett or Searles. The first represents unwarranted linkage to a Bennett family of Sway, Co.Hampshire, and the second is the wife of another William Carpenter also born in 1605.  Abigail was buried at Rehoboth on 22 Feb 1686/87 at the Old Rehoboth (Newman) Cemetery

Ancestor File and others have show John’s wife to be Abigail Searles with the same date of death.  Recent article cited on Carpenter message boards and in other reports say she is proven as Briant. Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, “William1 Carpenter of Newtown, Shalbourne, Wiltshire (Bevis, 1638)” (2008) provides a detailed explanation.

BIRTH: The earliest known record of William and his family of origin is that of their
tenancy at Westcourt Manor, at Newtown in the Wiltshire part of Shalbourne Parish, beginning in 1608. The line separating Wiltshire and Berkshire bisected the parish, and the Hampshire border is only about four miles distant; it is therefore likely that he was born in one of these three counties. William’s approximate birth year is calculated from his age, 33, as reported a few days before 2 May 1638 and recorded on that date in the passenger list of the Bevis, on which ship he and his family sailed to Massachusetts

DEATH: Original Rehoboth vital records give Willliam’s date of death as 7 Feb 1658. In May of that year, however, William Carpenter Sr. was chosen Rehoboth waywarden, and on 22 Jun 1658, he was one of forty-nine proprietors (also including William Jr.) who drew lots for meadows lying on the north side of the town  His year of death is therefore presented in the first paragraph as 1658/59,

IMMIGRATION: William, his wife, four children, and father embarked at Southampton,
Hampshire, on the Bevis. The preamble to the ship’s passenger list, dated 2 May
1638, indicates that “they had been some Dayes gone to sea” They landed probably at Boston in June or July 1638.

The Bevis passenger list describes William and his father as “of Horwell,” that is, Whorwell (now Wherwell), in Horwell Hundred, Hampshire, about 15 map miles south-southeast of Shalbourne. Whorwell/Wherwell, which had a tradition of religious dissent—at least two of its vicars,  Stephen BACHILER [our ancestor] (1587–1605) and probable brother-in-law John Bate (1605–1633), were nonconformists—lies on a straight line from Shalbourne to the Bevis’s port of departure, at Southampton. (Another Bevis passenger in 1638 was Richard Dummer, who, with kinsman Bachiler, had been a partner in the Plough Company, which had recruited dissenters for migration to New England in 1631 and 1632.) It is clear from the chronology of Carpenter records at Shalbourne that the family was at Wherwell for a few months at most. It is indeed possible that they paused there only long enough to obtain from sympathetic authorities the certificates of conformity (one for each man) that customs officials would require for the Carpenters to leave England and from which the residence recorded for them on the passenger list was probably copied

Children of William and Abigail:

	Name	Born	Married	Departed
1.	John Carpenter	8 Oct 1626 Shalbourne, Berkshire, England	Hannah Smith|bef 1655	btw 10 Nov 1694 (will) and 23 May 1695 (probate) Jamaica, Long Island, NY
2.	Abigail CARPENTER	baptized 31 May 1629 Shalbourne, England	John TITUS Rehoboth, Mass . Jonah PALMER Sr. (as his second wife)	5 Mar 1710 Rehoboth, Mass
3.	William Carpenter	Baptized 22 Nov 1631 Shalbourne, England	Priscilla Bennett 5 Oct 1651 Rehoboth, MA . Miriam Sale 10 Feb 1663/64 Rehoboth, MA	26 Jan 1703 Rehoboth Mass
4.	Joseph CARPENTER	baptized 6 Apr 1634 at Shalbourne, England.	Margaret SUTTON 25 Nov 1655 in Rehoboth, Plymouth Colon	6 May 1675 Swansea, Plymouth Colony.
5.	Samuel Carpenter	1 March 1636/37 Shalbourne, England		20 April 1637 Shalbourne
6.	Samuel Carpenter	ca. 1638 Weymouth, Mass.	Sarah Redway 25 May 1660 in Rehoboth,	20 Feb 1682/83 Rehoboth
7.	Hannah Carpenter	3 Apr 1640 Weymouth, Mass.	Joseph Carpenter (son of William Carpenter of Providence) 21 Apr 1659 Rehoboth	1673 Oyster Bay, Nassau, NY
8.	Abiah Carpenter	9 Apr 1643 Weymouth, Mass.	Mary Redway 25 May 1660 Rehoboth	1688 Pawtuxet (now Warwick) Rhode Island

William  Carpenter’s admission as a Massachusetts Bay Colony freeman from Weymouth in 1640 required church membership. The minister at Weymouth was Rev. Samuel Newman, most of whose congregation accompanied him to Rehoboth, where he was also the minister. William Carpenter was one of Rehoboth’s fifty-eight original proprietors and he and much of his family is buried in Old Rehoboth (Newman Church) Cemetery. (While records of the time provide no direct evidence as to the religious affiliation of William (Gen. 2) Carpenter of Rehoboth, he was certainly not a Baptist, even though other Carpenters in New England were. In this regard, he is sometimes confused with William Carpenter (Rhode Island) of Providence and others.

Timeline

13 May 1640 – Freeman Weymouth

10 Mar 1644 – William was among fifty-eight original Rehoboth proprietors who
drew lots for the first division “in the Neck”

4 Jun 1645 – Freeman Rehoboth

OCCUPATION: House-carpenter/joiner and planter. The Bevis passenger list describes
him as a carpenter, and his estate inventory contains many house-carpenter’s tools

EDUCATION: William’s will mentions many books, including “technical religious works
of the time, Latin classics, Greek and Hebrew grammars, biblical concordances and
some legal works”. Perhaps he was tutored by a local clergyman.

OFFICES: Weymouth: deputy to Massachusetts Bay Colony General Court, 1641, 1643;
constable, 1641. Rehoboth: deputy to Plymouth Colony General Court, 1645, 1656;
townsman (councilman/selectman), 1645, 1647, 1648, 1653, 1655[/6]; one of six to hear
land-allotment grievances, 1645; grand juror, 1646; fence-viewer, 1646, 1647; surveying
activity for the town, 1649 (perhaps other years); constable, 1654; surveyor (overseer) of
highways (way warden) 1654, 1658

Perhaps the most repeated assertion as to the offices occupied by William Carpenter is
that he was Rehoboth’s first proprietors’ and town clerk. Amos Carpenter [1898] states that “at a proprietors’ meeting held in Weymouth before the emigration to Rehoboth, the latter part of the year 1643, William Carpenter was chosen Proprietors’ clerk. . . . He served as Proprietors’ and Town Clerk from 1643 until 1649” . At the bottom of the same page, author Carpenter presents a mistake-ridden transcription of a 1644 Rehoboth town order establishing wage rates for common labor. Following this (on a new line and near the right margin) is the phrase “WILLIAM CARPENTER, clerk.” It thus appears that William identified himself as the one who, as town clerk, had entered the record in the town book. The original record, however, is followed by no such indication of the clerk’s identity. Nothing but a blank space separates it from the next, unrelated record. Neither does William Carpenter’s name appear in the records of the proprietors’ meetings held at Weymouth in late 1643, nor does it appear thereafter in connection with a clerkship of any kind.

Less often repeated but nevertheless persistent is the claim by Amos Carpenter [1898] that William was commissioned a captain by the authorities at Boston “about 1642”  The date’s lack of precision is consistent with the fact that evidence of such an appointment is not found in the records of either Massachusetts Bay Colony or the Essex Quarterly Court (the latter lacked the authority for such an act). If a William Carpenter were to have been made a captain about this time, it probably would have been William1 of Pawtuxet, Rhode Island (d. 1685). (Pawtuxet— not to be confused with Pawtucket—was then part of Providence Plantation and is now in Cranston.

WILL/ESTATE: William’s will is dated “the 10th month [December] the 10th day of
the month” (year not given—perhaps as early as 1656, no later than 1658) and was
proved on 21 April 1659 . His estate inventory, taken on 21 February 1658/59, values his Rehoboth and Pawtuxet lands at £180 and £60, respectively.

(The Pawtuxet property was in northern Warwick, R.I., across the Pawtuxet River
from the Providence section of the same name.   His personal estate contained many carpenter’s implements, including a lathe and turning tools; various types and sizes of saws and planes; jointers, spokeshaves, drawing knives, chisels, adzes, gouges, a vise, and glue. The value of his entire estate totals to £644 19s. 10d.

Too Many Carpenters

There were several Carpenter families in early New England.   There were even several William Carpenters born in 1605 who immigrated to America

Our William CARPENTER b. 23 May 1605 – England Parents William CARPENTER and Alice [__?__] m. Abigail BRIANT d. 7 Feb 1659 – Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass

William Carpenter b. 23 May 1605 – Amesbury, Wiltshire, England m. Abigail Sears 28 Apr 1625 England d.7 Sep 1685 – Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.

William Carpenter b. 23 May 1605 – Somerset, England; d. 26 May 1667 – Pawtucket, Providence, Rhode Island

William Carpenter b. May 1605 – Amesbury, England; m. Elizabeth Arnold Apr 1625; d. Sep 1685 – Bristol, Mass.

It’s hard to know for sure, but it doesn’t seem they were closely related.  William Carpenter (Rhode Island), son of Richard Carpenter of Amesbury was a reportedly a first cousin of William Carpenter of Rehoboth, son of William Carpenter of Shalbourne, England. In addition he supposedly was closely related to Alexander CARPENTER of Wrington, Somersetshire, and Leiden, Netherlands, of whom his four married daughters were in the Plymouth Colony in the early 1620s. This derives from Amos B. Carpenter’s [1898] unsupported claim that Richard of William of Shalbourne, and Alexander Carpenter were brothers. No genealogical evidence has been found even hinting at a link between the Wrington Carpenters, on the one hand, and either of the other two afore-mentioned families, on the other; a connection is highly improbable. Traditional genealogical research methods provide good reasons to doubt also that Providence William and Rehoboth William were closely related.

Results of recent genetic (Y-DNA) testing coordinated by the Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project support this conclusion: Based on a number of 67-marker tests, “we can state with 95% confidence that the most recent common ancestor of the two groups [descendants of the Providence and Rehoboth Carpenters, respectively] was more than 2 generations before the immigrants and less than about 20. Therefore, the DNA testing has very nearly ruled out the often-repeated claim that the Williams were first cousins. The most likely estimate is about 7 generations, but that is a very rough estimate, and the 95% confidence interval is a more reasonable description of what the DNA is telling us” (Carpenter Cousins)

Children

1. John Carpenter

John’s wife Hannah Smith was born about 1635 Her parents were William Smith and Magdalen [__?__] of Weymouth, Massachusetts; Rehoboth; and Huntington and Jamaica, Long Island. Hannah was living in 1704 (sold dower rights to son William).

RESIDENCES: Shalbourne; Weymouth (probably 1638); Rehoboth (1644); Long Island
(mid-1650s). John may have departed Rehoboth as early as 1653, for on 28 June of that year his name fails to appear among those of forty-one signatories, including his father and brother William Jr., who on that date authorized four others to settle a land-rights issue with a group of Plymouth men.. He is also omitted from a December 1657 rate list naming his brothers William Jr. and Joseph among fifty-five Rehoboth men and from a list of those, including William Jr., who drew meadow lots on Rehoboth’s north side in June 1658.. Undated Rehoboth proprietors’ records (ca. 1662) indicate that he had sold his land holdings there to James Redway, father-in-law of John’s brothers Samuel and Abiah and of their brother William’s son John

Dated 7 Dec 1660, the deed by which he purchased a dwelling house, home lot, and eleven acres of meadow at then Dutch-controlled Hempstead, Long Island, calls him “John Carpendar of Hontinton [colony not stated]” . Amos B. Carpenter assumes (as, initially, does Herbert Seversmith) that this was the southwestern Connecticut town of Huntington (now Shelton) that town was not established until 1789.. The Huntington to which the deed refers, although under Connecticut authority from 1660 to 1664, was separated from Hempstead only by the town of Oyster Bay, on Long Island; it was first settled in the early 1650s. Confirming that John Carpenter had been living at Huntington, Long Island, is his having witnessed on 25 Sep 1660 Ann Crocker’s sale of her Oyster Bay house and land to Richard Lattin of “hunting Towne”. On 14 Feb 1663/64, a meadow lot was laid out to him at Jamaica, Long Island . He was nevertheless living at Hempstead on 12 May 1664, and when on 8 Nov 1665 he bought a dwelling house and home lot at Jamaica, he was still “of Hempstead” He clearly did not settle at Jamaica until after this purchase.

OCCUPATION: Carpenter and planter. John left “my carpenter shop tools” to his sons . He is said to have been an itinerant carpenter as a young man. The itinerancy, however, appears to be an assumption based on dubious claims of his presence in Connecticut in the mid-1640s and the mistaken notion that he had migrated there from Rehoboth in the mid-1650s

FREEMAN: He was one of fifteen Hempstead men accepted as freemen by the Connecticut General Court on 12 May 1664

EDUCATION: He signed his will (and various other documents) and left “my books to be equally divided amongst all my children”

OFFICES: Hempstead: selectman, 1663/34 . Jamaica: captain of fusilier company by 1670 ; overseer of poor, 1670; committee to settle minister, 1676; delegate to choose county treasurer, 1683[/4]; in delegation to meet with governor, 1685; commissioner, 1686; delegate to choose county representatives to Provincial Assembly, 1689/90
.
A New York history names John Carpenter eleventh on a list of twelve Rutsdorp (Jamaica) magistrates for the period 1659–1673, suggesting that he held the office toward thevend of that period

WILL/ESTATE: The will of John Carpenter, dated 10 November 1694 and proved 23
May 1695, names sons John (eldest), Hope (second), Samuel (third), and William (coexecutor); daughter Ruth Ludlam; grandchildren Hannah and Abigail Rhodes and [John4’s son] Solomon Carpenter; wife Hannah (co-executor); and overseers Joseph and Nehemiah Smith. Real estate, in addition to parcels of specified size totaling 171 acres, includes several of unspecified area: home lot and adjoining pasture; “addition” of fresh meadow; and “lotted land within fence and without.” Son John had previously received property “out of my stock and estate as a part of his portion.” Household goods include items of pewter and brass

2. Abigail CARPENTER (See John TITUS‘s page and  Jonah PALMER Sr. page)

3. William Carpenter

William’s wife Priscilla Bennett was  born xxx. She was probably the daughter of Edward Bennett and Elizabeth Edgington. (There is a marriage of an Edward Bennett and Elizabeth Edington at Weymouth, Co.Dorset on 27 Oct 1622) Priscilla died  20 Oct 1663 in Rehoboth, Mass.

Edward Bennett came to New England with his wife Elizabeth and four children, and settled in Weymouth,MA in 1636 where land was given to him. He was made a Freeman at General Court held in Boston, May 26, 1636. He resided in Weymouth seven years, when he joined the Rev. Newman’s Company, and became one of the original proprietors of that part of Rehoboth, MA called Seekonk, moving there with his family in 1643. He died there in 1645/46.

William’s second wife Miriam Sale was born about 1644.  Though Edward’s first wife Margaret ____ Searle/Sale could have been the mother of several children, her banishment for adultery makes it unlikely, and it is more likely that Edward’s second wife Rebecca, who died in 1664, was the mother of most children, including Miriam. See Great Migration, Volume 6, pp.142-3.  Miriam died 1 May 1722, Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass and is buried in Newman Cemetery , East Providence, Providence, Rhode Island

RESIDENCES: Shalbourne; Weymouth (probably 1638); and Rehoboth (1644).

OCCUPATION: Planter. He owned a “long Cross cutt saw” (willed to house-carpenter son
John) and other, unspecified tools, suggesting some carpentry skills

FREEMAN: Propounded 6 June 1660 but not admitted until 1 June 1663

EDUCATION: He was for almost thirty-five years Rehoboth town clerk. His will mentions several volumes (mainly theological), and his estate inventory includes an item for unspecified books valued at £3 10s.

OFFICES: Surveying activity for the town, 1659, 1660, 1663, 1663/4, 1666, 1679, 1684, 1685 (probably other years); way warden (surveyor [overseer] of highways), 1659, 1675; constable, 1663; town clerk, 1668–1692, 1694–1702/3; coroner’s jury, 1668, 1679; committee to settle bounds between Rehoboth North Purchase and Taunton, 1670; chosen North Purchase “clerk of the community,” 1682; rater/assessor, 1679–1686, 1690–1691, 1694, 1696, 1700; juryman at Plymouth, 1682/3; committee to seat the meeting-house, 1683; townsman, 1683–1686, and selectman, 1687–1689, 1691–1693, 1695–1701; town treasurer, 1694, 1697–1699; “juror for trials,” 1694; pound keeper, 1694; committee to engage schoolmaster, 1700

4. Joseph CARPENTER (See his page)

6. Samuel Carpenter

Samuel’s wife Sarah Redway (Redway, Reedaway, Readaway, Reedeway, Reedaway, Reddaway, and Reddeway) was born about 1642 in Hingham, Plymouth, Mass. Her parents were James Redway and Mary Whipple.  Sarah married, second, 18 Jan 1687/88 in Rehoboth to Gilbert Brooks.  Sarah died 15 Jul 1717 (not 8 Jan 1717/18 or 29 APR 1712) Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.

RESIDENCES: Weymouth (probably from birth, ca. 1638); Rehoboth (1644).

OCCUPATION: Cooper and planter

FREEMAN: Though there is no known record of Samuel’s having been propounded for or admitted to freemanship, he appears on the Plymouth Colony list of freemen dated 29 May 1670

EDUCATION: Samuel’s estate inventory includes an item for four books, and his signature as a witness appears on several deeds

OFFICES: Grand juror (Plymouth Colony Grand Enquest), 1661; surveying activity for the town, 1663, 1663/4; way warden (surveyor [overseer] of highways), 1664, 1680; constable, 1666, 1677; coroner’s jury, 1668, 1673/4

ESTATE: Samuel’s estate inventory was taken on 27 Feb 1682/83, and widow Sarah swore to its accuracy on 1 March 168[2/]3 . The inventory contains ample evidence in land, implements, and animals of his having been a farmer; it also lists many tools and materials pertaining to the cooper’s trade. His estate (land included) was valued at £436 10s. 6d. The inventory identifies tracts of specified area totaling 220 acres and several other parcels of unspecified size, including his home lot, described elsewhere as comprising twelve acres Samuel died intestate. On 6 March 1682/3, the Plymouth Colony Governor and Court of  Assistants granted letters of administration on Samuel’s estate to his brother William, son Samuel Jr., and relict Sarah. His estate was settled the same day, with Sarah to receive a widow’s one-third, dower share and £26 “for and toward the bringing vp of four smale children, and the remainder to be deuided into eleuen p[ar]tes, the eldest to haue a double p[ar]te, and the rest to be deuided amongst the children equally and in a like proportions, viz., the children of Mr Samuell Carpenter, late deceased

Children of Samuel and Sarah:

i. Samuel Carpenter b. 15 SEP 1661 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; d. 17 JAN 1735/36 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 8 JAN 1682/83 Rehoboth, Mass. to Patience Ide.

ii. Sarah Carpenter b. 11 JAN 1662/63 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; d. 5 JAN 1747/48 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 17 MAY 1683 Rehoboth, Mass. to Nathaniel Perry. His parents were our ancestors Anthony PERRY and Elizabeth [__?__]

iii. Abiah Carpenter b. 10 FEB 1664/65 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.
d. 28 APR 1732 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 30 MAY 1690 Rehoboth, Mass. to Mehitable Read

iv. James Carpenter b. 12 APR 1668 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; d. 27 APR 1738 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 26 JUN 1690 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass. to Dorothy Bliss  Her parents were Jonathan Bliss and Miriam Harmon and her grandparents were Thomas BLISS and Dorothy WHEATLEY.

v. Jacob Carpenter b. 5 SEP 1670 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass; d. 1690 Canada

vi. Jonathan Carpenter b. 11 DEC 1672 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.
d. 23 AUG 1716 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 13 MAR 1698/99 Rehoboth, Mass. to Hannah French b. 19 OCT 1679 Rehoboth, Mass. d. 13 FEB 1746/47 Rehoboth, Mass. Her parents were John FRENCH, and Hannah PALMER.

vii. David Carpenter b. 17 APR 1675 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.
d. 26 JUL 1701 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 22 NOV 1697 Rehoboth, Mass to Rebecca Hunt

viii. Solomon Carpenter b. 23 DEC 1677 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; d. ABT 1750 South Kingston, Washington, RI; m. Elizabeth Tefft

ix. Zachariah Carpenter b. 1 JUL 1680 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; d. 8 APR 1718 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 8 NOV 1705 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass. to Martha Ide

x. Abraham Carpenter b. 20 SEP 1682 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.
d. 22 APR 1758 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass.; m. 1 MAY 1705 Rehoboth, Bristol, Mass. to Abigail Bullard

7. Hannah Carpenter

Hannah’s husband Joseph Carpenter was born about 1638 in Providence Plantations.  His parents were William Carpenter of Providence and Elizabeth Arnold (Wiki).  Joseph died at Musketa Cove, Oyster Bay Township, Long Island, NY (now Glen Cove) after Feb 15,1682/83 and before Mar 15,1683/84.

He married, first, about 1658, Hannah Carpenter. (The date of Apr 21,1659 recorded in early sources is questionable because it is the same date as the day on which Hannah’s father’s will was proved.)  He married, second, before 2 Sep 1674, Ann Weeks/Wickes.

RESIDENCES: Providence Plantation; Warwick (Pawtuxet section), Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (ca. 1658); Musketa Cove (probably late 1668: Joseph was of Pawtuxet on 7 November and of Musketa Cove on 30 November). It was presumably when Joseph married Hannah Carpenter that they left the homes of their respective families of origin—his at Providence (Pawtuxet section), hers at Rehoboth—and settled on the southern, Warwick side of the Pawtuxet River, which at its mouth bisects the village that is its namesake

OCCUPATION: Miller and planter. D. H. Carpenter states that Joseph had a corn mill at Warwick when he was an inhabitant there.. In fact, the mill—in which he sold his half-interest to his uncle Stephen Arnold in 1674, with complications ensuing—was on the north side of Pawtuxet Falls, in the township of Providence; John Sweet had the corn mill at Warwick. At Musketa Cove, “Carpenter and his friends . . . constructed a saw mill and a gristmill across what is now known as Glen Cove Creek. The harbor was ideal for shipping lumber to New York City and the creek was dammed to provide power for the mills. Their goal was [to] furnish New York City with lumber for the construction of housing. The site for the saw mill had many congenial conditions—a fine stream, opportunity for a short dam, and easy access to navigable water at high tide. The lumber produced by the saw mill found a ready market in New York City. By 1679, two years after Carpenter’s purchase from the Indians was officially ratified by the colonial New York government, the mill was producing nine different thickness[es] of boards and timber, as well as tile laths, shingle laths, wainscot, ‘feather-edged’ boards for paneling, and custom-cut walnut for cabinet-making”.

FREEMAN: Although there is no record of Joseph’s having been admitted a freeman in either Rhode Island or New York, that status (comparatively easily achieved in Rhode Island) was a prerequisite to his being chosen for public office at Warwick. It is therefore virtually certain that he had been admitted a freeman of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations by 1662

EDUCATION: He signed his deeds and other documents

8. Abiah Carpenter

Abiah’s wife Mary Redway was born 27 May 1646 in Reboboth. Her parent sere James Redway and [__?__]. Mary died probably at Pawtuxet (Warwick) after 1669 and certainly before 7 Mar 1676/77.

Abiah settled in Pawtuxet (now Warwick) between Jul 1, 1661 and Jul 12, 1663. He died there after 14 Dec 1687, and probably before 26 Dec 1689, and certainly before 22 Mar 1698/99.

According to NEHGR, Vol 159, pp.55-64, it is likely that Abiah remarried after Mary’s death, but evidence has not yet been found. It has been said that he married a sister, Abigail, of Ann Wickes/Weeks, possibly at Musketa Cove, Long Island during a brief residence there in 1670, but no concrete evidence exists.

MARRIAGE(S): At Warwick on 14 Sep 1667, William and Mary Baker bound out their seven-year-old daughter, Mary, to Abiah Carpenter, so that he and his wife (not
named) “may . . . educat & instruct [her] in all things that perteyneth to  houswifery” . That Abiah’s wife at that time was Mary Redway is deduced from her father James Redway’s will, dated 26 July 1677 and proved 4 June  1684, which instructs that“Rebeckah Carpenter the daughter of Abiah Carpenter” receive twenty acres from the next land division . Redway’s will names three others, known to be another daughter’s child and two sons-in-law, in the same fashion as it does Rebecca and Abiah; that is, the relationship of each to the testator or any of his daughters is unspecified. With James Redway’s other daughters’ husbands accounted for, Abiah’s wife could only have been Mary.

RESIDENCES: Weymouth; Rehoboth (1644); Pawtuxet (Warwick) (ca. 1662). The area
called Pawtuxet is on both sides of the Pawtuxet River, one part in northern Warwick and
the other in Cranston (formerly southern Providence). Abiah was still of Rehoboth on 1 July 1661, when Kekettowicket, chief sachem of Pawtuxet, relinquished to him and three Pawtuxet (Warwick) men his interest in a parcel of land at the latter place. On 13 July 1663, however, Abiah Carpenter, [brother-in-law] Joseph Carpenter, Benjamin Smith, and Mr. Henry Reddock were all of “Pautuxett in Warwicke” when they asked that the Warwick Court of Trials transfer their prosecution “concerning a Riot” to the General Court of Trials to be held at Portsmouth. Abiah’s father had bequeathed him a home lot, meadow, and other land at Pawtuxet and instructed Abiah’s mother and brother Samuel to “healp him to build an house” there .

Notwithstanding Amos Carpenter’s claim that Abiah resided at Musketa Cove for a few
years beginning in 1668 , Abiah was of Pawtuxet on 30 Nov of that year, when his brother-in-law Joseph Carpenter deeded him twenty acres and “a fifth parte of three Square Miles [all at Musketa Cove] . . . provided [he] shall cum within three Yeares after, ye date beneith written, & possess ye said Lands with his ffamely” . He was also of Pawtuxet on 14 June 1669, when he quitclaimed back to Joseph “my hole, right and titell of Land, at Musketow Cove” ; the witnesses to this deed, however, were Oyster Bay men . Evidently in the week following the expiration of his term as Warwick constable (1 June 1668 to 7 June 1669), Abiah visited Musketa Cove and decided against settling there . He almost certainly returned soon thereafter to Pawtuxet, where Warwick records locate him in mid-January 1669/70.  A 1670 entry in Musketa Cove merchant Moses Mudge’s account book shows
Abiah Carpenter as indebted to him for a half-pint of rum (NYGBR 109:204; NEHGR
159:57n9). Mudge, however, “was in Warwick, R.I., in the period 1668–70 [marriage and
birth of son Jarvis], but returned to Long Island by Aug. 1674” (TAG 81:24; NEHGR
161:300). It is therefore likely that the account-book entry refers to a transaction at Warwick rather than Musketa Cove. Warwick townsmen made Abiah a juryman at least annually from April 1670 to November 1673 (on the latter date for the following February)

OCCUPATION: Amos Carpenter calls him a mariner, but the extent of Abiah’s land
holdings and the nature and frequency of his public service point to his having been a
planter. Not a single seafaring reference is found in records pertaining to Abiah3. The mariner label probably reflects confusion with Abiah Carpenter (Oliver), Abiah who died in 1729, apparently in the West Indies, and whose death record calls him captain and  mariner

FREEMAN: There is no record of Abiah’s having been admitted a freeman, but we may
be certain that he was. Freemanship was a prerequisite not only to his 1682 election as
Warwick deputy to the General Assembly but also to his being named, first in 1665, a
juror at the General Court of Trials. At the General Assembly convened at Newport on or about 13 May 1665, the governor presented a list of five “pertickelares” reflecting “his Majestyes will & pleasure.” Item two was “[t]hat all men of competante estates and of civill conversation, who acknowledge and are obediante to the civill magistrate, though of differing judgements, may be admitted to be freemen, and have liberty to choose and be choosen [sic] officers both civill and [military]” . As this implies, Rhode Island freemanship requirements were considerably less restrictive than those of the other New England colonies at this time. An “Extract from the Report of the King’s Commissioners concerning the New England  Colonies, made December, 1665” states that in Rhode Island “[t]hey admitt all to be freemen who desire it”. On 2 May 1666, the General Assembly considered a list of Warwick men propounded by the town to be freemen: “soe many of them who are not alredy admitted, are now admitted freemen of the Collony” . In the spring of 1669, the General Court of Trials fined the town of Warwick for choosing Abiah Carpenter and Job Almy as grand jurors when neither was eligible—Carpenter because he was already serving as constable and Almy because he was not a freeman. In light of the above, it is probable that Abiah was a freeman by 1665.

EDUCATION: Abiah signed his name as a party to a 1667 agreement and a 1669 deed
and as witness to a 1677 deed. His father left him two books: “Ursinus Chatichisme and hellens history of the world” (MD 14:233). (Zacharias Ursinus was the primary author of the Heidelberg Catechism [1563; rev. 1619].)

OFFICES: Juror, General Court of Trials, 1665, 1667, 1669 (did not serve ), 1670–1672, 1674, 1675 (fined for nonattendance), 1676–1677, 1678–1679 (fined for nonattendance), 1681, 1687; constable, 1668; juror, Warwick Court of Trials, 1671/2; deputy to General Assembly, 1682

Sources:

http://carpentercousins.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehoboth_Carpenter_Family

http://carpentercousins.com/Joseph3_Rehoboth&Swansea.pdf

http://carpentercousins.com/Wm2_Rehoboth.pdf