Isaac CARVER (1562 – 1598) was  probably not Alex’s 13th Great Grandfather;  one of 16,384 in this generation of the Miner line.    See note  from Bev Anderson on  Robert CARVER‘s page.

Isaac Carver was born in 1562 – Doncaster, Yorkshire, England. His parents were James CARVER and Catherine [__?__]. He married Catherine [__?__]. Isaac died in 1598 in Leyden, Holland.

Children of  Isaac and Catherine

There is no documentary proof that James and Catherine (_____) Carver were the parents of Isaac (Robert’s father) and John Carver, the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, but there is strong circumstantial evidence.

James Carver was a yeoman of Doncaster, Yorkshire. The parish where John Carver was baptized was only seven miles from Austerfield which is next to Bentley where the early English homes of the Brewster and Bradford families were located. It is possible that the father’s name was Robert, not James.

Charles Edward Banks in English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers identified John Carver as the son of Robert Carver and gives his baptism at Duncaster, County York , on 9 Sep 1565. The NEHGR, Vol. 67, p. 382 (October 1913) has two baptismal records which bear out this statement: “1564 Sept. 9 John, s. of Robert Caruer” and “1567 March 27 Wilim s. of Robte Caruer.” These entries were copied from the parish register of Duncaster, County York and were found in a manuscript volume in the Library of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

In the Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, compiled by Little, the statement is made that Isaac Carver, father of Robert and brother of John died at Leyden which leads one to believe he too had followed his brother there.”

“It is said the name Carver is derived from the occupation of wood carver, and some work in cathedrals of East Anglia was done by skilled carvers of this family. The names Adam le Karver and Richard le Kerver are found on the Hundred Rolls, and some bearing the name Carver at a later date were settled in various parts of England.

John Carver, first governor of Plymouth Colony, was “sonne of James Carver, Lincolnshire, yeoman” and it has been the commonly accepted tradition that Robert Carver, the emigrant, was his brother, which tradition was supposed to have been established as fact by the historian of Marshfield, Mass., who received information from a Carver descendant whose grandfather had lived 21 years with his grandfather Robert, the emigrant. But it is now known that Robert was a son of Isaac, a brother of Governor Carver and consequently the Governor’s nephew.”

The Carver Family of New England, Clifford Nickels Carver, p.23:

“In Leyden the Carvers [John & Catherine] lived first on Widdleberg, and, after 1617, on Middelgracet. And here it appears that the nephew Robert Carver, joined John Carver, for in one of the Leyden records, Robert Carver is referred to as the grandson of Katharine Carver (the wife of James Carver and mother of Isaac and John).

In the Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine, compiled by Little, the statement is made that Isaac Carver, father of Robert and brother of John died at Leyden which leads one to believe he too had followed his brother there.”

Sources:

http://trees.ancestry.com/owt/person.aspx?pid=2214959