A few tentative conclusions can now be made on the Berkshire
evidence. First the Carpenters lived in Hungerford and to the adjacent north
in the early 1500s (Great Coxwell and Bradfield). By the 1600s they had
moved into
the region south of Hungerford (Great Bedwin, Little Bedwin, Shalbourne).
The transition from the northern area to the southern area coincides with
the
restitution of lands to the disenfranchised Seymour family in
the early 1600s.
Henry Carpenter of Great Coxwell suggests a connection with the cloth making
Winchcomb family who had land holdings throughout the greater Hungerford
area. We can tentatively
assume Henry was a wool producer.
The Carpenters that
lived in Hungerford itself were associated with, or were themselves, cloth
makers.
All of the above points to a likely connection
with the earlier clothier Thomas Carpenter of Reading from the late 1400s.
Thomas controlled the cloth production of the entire area as mayor
and master of the gild in the following
time periods (data supplied by the librarian of Reading Library):
1504-5 mayor
1506-7 mayor
1508-9 mayor
1509-10 mayor and master of the gild
BC