John,
That Greenwood Carpenter Jr.'s mother, Elizabeth Negus, had a surname immediately
casts doubt on her having been a slave. Moreover, the state index card pertaining to
Greenwood's birth (10 May 1763; apparently derived from Swanzey, N.H., Vital Records
Volume C [on FHL film #15,328]) indicates that Elizabeth was white, as was her son (see
<
https://www.familysearch.org/search/image/show#uri=https%3A//api.familyse...>).
The index card's inclusion of this information--probably not in the original
record--suggests that the town clerk who transcribed the original and forwarded it to
Concord in 1905 assumed (properly) that if Elizabeth had NOT been white, the record WOULD
have said so.
I can think of three reasons to conclude that Elizabeth Negus was perhaps Greenwood
Sr.'s common-law wife but more likely someone with whom he had an adulterous
relationship (the index card calls her a "housewife"): First, he didn't
initiate divorce proceedings against his first wife, Sarah Leathers, until eight years
after Greenwood Jr.'s birth. Second, Sarah is said in Greenwood Sr.'s divorce
petition to have "run off" in 1763. That this is also the year of Greenwood
Jr.'s birth suggests that that event (or the pregnancy leading to it) may well have
provoked Sarah's departure. And third, New England birth records of this period
virtually never include the mother's surname unless it differed from that of the
father when their child was born.
It remains to be determined whether Elizabeth was a Negus by birth or marriage.
Gene Z.
On Jul 10, 2011, at 12:01 AM, John L. Carpenter wrote:
A recent researcher from Wisconsin looking for info supposedly a
descendant of Greenwood [Carpenter ] was looking for a son of Greenwood oral history he
says indicated That Greenwood Jr. was a illegitimate and that his mother may have been
Black , perhaps a slave,and probably named Elizabeth. Family stories also suggest that
the son was sent away, but later returned to Swanzey , N. H. . . . The town history did
indicate that Greenwood married for a second time to a Susan Hammond, but offered no
explanation concerning what happen to his wife and their three children born in
Massachusetts.( NOTE: on his divorce application he notes she ran off and left children
behind in 1763, to marry another man and had a child with him.) . . . Greenwood was
grated by The second legislature Divorce in colonial New Hampshire was Granted a
divorcee, from his wife,Sarah Leathers (aka Sally) formerly of Charleston,in the Province
of the Massachusetts Bay to Greenwood Carpenter o!
n April 5, 1771. . . . He was
now free to marry Susan Hammond, or so he thought, so the couple married in December of
1773 [sic; 1771?] and began to rebuild their new life. . . . The story of the
illegitimate Greenwood Jr. and his slave mother Elizabeth seemed plausible. Who was she ,
however and how could we find out if, as it appears ,the birth had been omitted from town
records? After a internet search of by HSCC ( Historic Society of Cheshire County) staff
solved the mystery. Although The Swanzey vital records did not contained the birth , the
town clerk had recorded it is his record book, and the LDS church had made those records
available online. On May 10 ,1763 Greenwood Jr was born in Swanzey ,N. H. to Greenwood
Carpenter and Elizabeth Negus. . . . The family story of the illegitimate Greenwood ,Jr
and his slave mother Elizabeth began to look plausible, Ezra had owned slaves for his
farm. The town vital records seemed to have omitted this birth from the !
town records. The researcher went back to Wisconsin disappoint!
ed, howe
ver a researcher at the Cheshire County Historic Society (HSCC) solved the mystery .
Although the Swanzey vital records did not contain the birth , the town clerk had
recorded it in his record book, and LDS church had made those records available on line.
On May 10 , 1763 Greenwood Jr was born to Greenwood Carpenter and Elizabeth Negus in
Swanzey, N.H. A copy was sent to the researcher in Wisconsin. . . . The primary mystery
was solved. . . . Greenwood Jr. apparently married a woman by the name of Hannah and
moved to Albany, N.Y. Where he applied for a pension for his service in the Revolutionary
War. He may have died in 1828 when his pension was discontinued. It was later reinstated
to hid widow Hannah who received government payments for many years. No additional info
or reference for Elizabeth Negus that matches the woman who gave birth to Greenwood
Carpenter Jr.