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From: "carpenter" <>
Subject: [CARPENTER] Tudor Carpenters 1
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 12:11:09 -0500

INTRODUCTION

The following series of essays will aim at providing an alternative and more
historically convincing genealogy of the Wiltshire Carpenters of the 1500s
in England. The basic premise that I wish to provide evidence for is that
the Wiltshire Carpenters are the descendants of Thomas Carpenter, the known
son of Roger ‘the spicer’ Carpenter of London. Roger Carpenter perished in
the plague c. 1350. I submit that previous researchers of Carpenter family
history had completely missed this line of Carpenters and their
significance. They instead sought the ancestry of the Wiltshire Carpenters
in the illegitimate children of a priest Richard Carpenter. This, although
amusing, is at odds with demographic common sense and crucial to be
presented historical evidence. Previous researchers of Carpenter family
history wanted the American Carpenters to be the lineal descendants of the
gentry Carpenters of Herefordshire and surrounding areas. The Wiltshire
Carpenters, while relatives of the above, developed into a different family
group in many aspects by 1600. The Carpenters who immigrated to
Massachusetts in the 1600s had no knowledge of a connection to the
gentrified Carpenters of Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire,
with their coat of arms and family connection to John Carpenter the Town
Clerk of London and John Carpenter the Bishop of Worcester. Indeed, from
1350 and the death of Roger Carpenter, until 1638 and the arrival of the
Bevis in Massachusetts, a three hundred year period of time had elapsed. The
two branches of the old London Carpenter family of the Middle Ages had
developed in two entirely different directions. Basically, the Carpenters of
Wiltshire lived on the great area wool estates like Downton, Boscombe and
Upton Scudmore. Their surviving wills all date from mid 1500, suggesting
they were on the whole part of one generation that moved into Wiltshire from
some other location. I submit that this location was the nearby Newberry and
Reading area. These individuals are clearly a family group with common given
names and occupation.

Bruce Carpenter

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