I fear I went into panic when finally assembling data for
Berkshire, England. I saw the possibility that we were
all descended from a c. 1500 Lollard. I saw that he was a 'trade
carpenter' and that explained the surname for our particular Berkshire
Carpenter
line. I am told that such an event would be extremely unlikely
at such a late date as c. 1500.
A more likely explanation for the 'alias' problem is the
traditional 'illegitimacy' explanation for it. Let me quote from the
Oxford Companion to Local and Family History for 'Alias':
"Alias (Lat. 'otherwise'). Aliases were used in cases of illegitimacy, upon
the remarriage
of a parent, upon inheriting property from a female
relative, etc. In some cases the alias form
was inherited for several generations and was thus similar to a
double-barrelled surname. (p. 11)"
The parish records for Great Coxwell do not show a Barfoot notation until
1598 when a Henri Barfoot had a daughter Joan in 1598. This same Henrie
begins a succession of children after this and often records his surname as
'Carpenter alias Barforde'. The other Henry Carpenter, who was father of
William in
1576, also had a daughter Joan in 1562 and a succession of children
after that. This Henry never used an alias. The two Henrys' children and
later descendants
can be well sorted out.
I suspect that the Carpenter family was established in the immediate area
well before 1500 and that the Lollard William Barford was an illegitimate
descendant
of the original Carpenter family. A Barford origin from Wilts seems
farfetched.
The Great Coxwell parish records begin in 1557. The first child of Henry
was, as noted above,
in 1562. This takes us right back to some of the earliest parish
records in England. All we can hope for prior to this are wills.
No notation for a William Carpenter son of William Carpenter (1576) seems
to exist. A burial notation for 1683 for a William
Carpenter exists which should be the T.....NTER incomplete notation of a
William and Anne Carpenter
who had a Henry in 1671.
On the whole, the records show that the descendants of the father of
1576 William Carpenter had left Great Coxwell by 1600. The remaining
Carpenters seem Barford-Carpenters like the Henry Carpenter buried in 1643.
Sincerely,
Bruce Carpenter
December 31, 2001