After I saw the Hampshire Carpenter I took out
the Victoria History volumes for Hampshire and discovered
yet another rich yoman Thomas Carpenter for the years of
Henry VIII in north Hampshire. Thomas was described as a 'miller', but don't
assume this only meant 'corn miller'. Might also be 'fulling miller'.
This Thomas was also mayor of the town.
If you take all the 'yoman' Carpenters from the period and place them on the
map
you will see they all lived in the historical circle 0f Reading, Newbury,
Northern Wilts and Hampshire. In this circle are Werewell (sp?) and related
places.
Only later can they really be found south into Wilts. These yoman
Carpenters
were ignored previously, perhaps because they were not 'gentlman'
Carpenters.
This was how the period history developed. From London/Surrey to
Reading/Newbury
and finally into Wilts, late 1400s to late 1500s. Wool and cloth production.
Another point is all the places there were no Carpenters. I haven't made a
study of
Wilts parish registers, but the few that I have seen show Carpenters in only
certain places.
This makes some people unhappy who insist there were Carpenters
in every village and William Carpenter could have been a descendant of
any one of them. True, but the literature points to something else.
Of couse the theory the Homme Carpenters flew in from
Bristol Bay is an impossibility.
BC