CARPENTER-L Archives

From: "C.A.CARPENTER" <>
Subject: page 10 of 12 new Carpenter Info
Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 08:15:16 -0400

from Weymouth included the birth of "Abia" (correctly designed as William's
son), which was read by the county clerk of "Abra." And spelled out
accordingly.
In a serious distortion, Amos Carpenter claims that the Register refers
to "Abia" daughter, and Abraham son, born Feb. [sic] 9, 1643, children of
William Carpenter." [57] The unmistakable impression is of a single record
of a multiple birth, rather than two records, each of a single birth, made
several years apart. Forty years earlier, before he had discovered
William(2)'s will and knew of Abigail's existence, Carpenter had
contributed to a genealogy of the Vinton family,[58] in which Abiah's birth
record (cited from"Geneal. Reg., Oct. 1854") is depicted as separate from
and in conflict with that of the same date naming Abraham; there is no
reference to twins. Savage presents Abraham or Abiah as having been born at
Weymouth on the date in question,[59] indicating that he to, considered
their birth record as conflicting, rather than representing a multiple
birth. Carpenter's mischaracterization of the 1643 birth records seems to
reflect his determination to make all other evidence relating to William(2)
Carpenter's children comport with the name order in his will.
From the absence of all but but a birth record for so-called Abraham and
the abundance of records of Abiah, Carpenter correctly recognizes that
Abraham's existence is highly dubios and that the male Abiah's is certain.
But instead of rejecting the idea of a multiple birth, he notes that
Abiah's sister Abigail is named immediately after him in their father's
will and concludes that the name Abraham was mistakenly entered, not for
Abiah, but for Abigail.[60] This has always been rebuttable with the
evidence that Abigail had married John Titus by 1650 and is now refuted
directly by her 1629 baptismal record. It is therefore reasonable to
conclude (in keeping with the note on the town clerk' s file card) that a
single Carpenter birth-Abiah's-occurred at Weymouth in 1643. The record of
so-called Abraham was most certainly a repetition of Abiah's , with his
filial status correctly given but his name misstated (virtually the reverse
of the first record) Abiah's sexual misidentification in the first record
probably resulted from confusion of Abiah, a boy's name from the bible,
with the almost identical Abia (as it appears in his birth record), a
girl's name from Greek mythology.
The Shalbourne baptismal records make it clear that the four children
who accompanied William(2) and his wife Abigail (Briant) Carpenter on the
Bevis in 1638 were John, William, and Joseph. And carefull analysis of
Massachusetts records leads inescapably to the conclusion that three, not
four, children were born to the couple following their arrival at New
England: Samuel, Hannah, and Abiah.
_____________

[57] Carpenter Family, 46.
[58] John A. Vinton, The Vinton Memorial (Boston, 1858), 480-81
[59] James Savage, A genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of
New England, 4 vols. (Boston, 1860-62), 1:337.
[60] Carpenter Family, 46, 47.

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