Gene wrote:
An entry in Rehoboth Vital Records ([orig.] 2:241) reports the death
on 28
April 1732 of Ensign Abiah Carpenter. The inscription on his gravestone in
the Old Rehoboth (Newman Church) Cemetery also includes his military title
and says he died on 26 April 1732, in his 68th year.
Did you mean to assert a discrepancy between the VRs and the gravestone?
The Newman Cemetery is included in the RI Cem. DB, and the online index
gives the death date as the 28th, i.e., the same as the VR date.
While it's my impression that Rhode Island more frequently
granted
freemanship to men in their early 20s than did other colonies, the Abiah
Carpenter who acquired that status in 1681 was probably the one born at
Weymouth, 9 April 1643,
I'm not sure that's possible. The early Warwick records show that Abiah
Carpenter was named to juries in 1665 and 1667, and Austin says Abiah was
fined 20s in 1678 for *not* serving on a jury. I've always assumed that
only freemen would be appointed to juries.
John Chandler