CARPENTER-L Archives

From:
Subject: Re: questions
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 14:26:32 EST

In a message dated 3/4/2005 3:00:15 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, John
Chandler writes:

In any case, I feel sure that William was indeed chosen for the General
Court, since
Savage is seldom wrong about such things.



Colony records confirm it: Massachusetts Bay Colony records list William
Carpenter among the deputies to the General Court at Boston in 1641 and 1643.
Plymouth Colony records for 1645 don't provide an explicit list of deputies
but do list William Carpenter as being admitted a freeman at the beginning of
the court session (4 June 1645). That he was a deputy from Rehoboth (along
with Stephen Payne) is nevertheless implied in the minutes immediately
following the list of freemen: "It was ordered by the Court, that a committee should
be elected & authorized for the p[re]paring of some p[re]sent lawes for
redresse of some p[re]sent abuses, and for p[re]venting of future, whereupon these
p[er]sons following were elected and nominated, viz: Mr Will[ia]m Collyer,
Mr John Browne, Mr John Alden, Mr Will[ia]m Paddy, Nathaniel Souther, Jonathan
Brewster, Josias Winslow, Edward Case, Edmond Eddenden, Anthony Annable,
Richard Burne, Mr Anthony Thacher, Steeven Payne, and Will[ia]m Carpenter."
(Note that Carpenter is not among those whose names are preceded by "Mr," a term
of respect designating a gentleman [as distinct from a husbandman or
yeoman]. Neither is he called "captain.")

Quoting almost certainly from Rehoboth town-meeting records, Seversmith says
that in May 1645 William Carpenter and Stephen Payne were sent as deputies
to the General Court, "to certify the town's minds."

Gene Z.

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• questions by "Bruce E. Carpenter" <>
  • Re: [CARPENTER] questions by (John Chandler)
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