Dear Bruce,
Thank you for the ISBN and such.
You wrote: "The sentence about his ancestry is the only one. 'Appears'
suggests Fryde, and probably Dyer before him, have no clear indication
of his ancestry." Can you quote what they 'appears' and 'probably'
say
about his ancestry?
I appreciate this.
John R. Carpenter
La Mesa, CA
carpenter wrote:
The important book for Bishop Carpenter's estates is
Dyer's Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society:The Estates
of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540, Cambridge, 1980.
This I have not seen, but was the basis of the book
I mentioned by E.B. Fryde, Peasants and Landlords, St. Martin's Press, New
York, 1996, ISBN
0-86299-866-2. Chaper 11 is entirely taken up with Carpenter's estates.
There is a mountain of unpublished material in England I didn't
realize existed. Chapter 11 goes from p. 169-184 and is exclusively
Carpenter
connected. Other sections of the book deal with him also. The sentence about
his ancestry is the only one. 'Appears' suggests Fryde, and probably Dyer
before him,
have no clear indication of his ancestry. In Carpenter history Bishop
John is the major frustration. The Dyer book might be a help.
Basically all the moveables of the estates were the personal property of the
Bishop.
The unmovables were church property. When the Bishop died the animals
were disposed of and the next Bishop was free to make of the estates what he
pleased.
All manner of people were the tennants of the estates, from serf to
gentleman, rich and poor.
The Bishop was not much of a business man and spent much of his wealth
on his projects like Westbury College. What is interesting
in all this was the economic depression in the wool trade at this time.
After the Bishop the
Worcester episcopal estates give up sheep farming. These must have
been hard days for the Carpenters and this explains the lack
of really wealthy members of the family into the late 1400s. They
seem to settle into small estates and no longer have a place in national
affairs.
This was partly politics with the demise of the House of Lancaster.
There is a lot more to learn.Just the tipof the iceburg.
BC
----- Original Message -----
From: John Carpenter <jrcrin001(a)home.com>
To: carpenter <carp(a)tezukayama-u.ac.jp>
Cc: <CARPENTER-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2000 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: Peasants and Landlords
> Dear Bruce,
>
> Can you quote verbatim page 169? And the pages about the Bishop's
> estates and wool business? Could you also give the book's LOC or ISBM
> ID number? Good find!
>
> Thank you!
>
> John R. Carpenter
> La Mesa, CA
>
> carpenter wrote:
> >
> > Another book just in my possession is PEASANTS AND LANDLORDS IN LATER
> > MEDIEVAL ENGLAND by Fryde, 1996. There is major material on Bishop John
> > Carpenter within. The author tells us that, "He appears to have come
from
> > Westbury near Bristol and to have descended from a family of Episcopal
> > tenants there." (p. 169) An entire chapter is dedicated to the
Bishop's
> > estates and his wool business. Directly connected to these estates is
> > Chipping Camden where I discovered Richard Carpenter in the company of
> > drapers, in the role of broker and agent. Here we are talking about the
> > Cotswolds, the crucial wool producing region of England in the 1400s.
> > Associated are the estates of the earls of Warwick and Richard Beauchamp
who
> > was directly associated with Bishop John Carpenter. The Warwick earls
were
> > also wool producers, finished cloth producers and even ship owners. This
> > book may prove a crucial one for Carpenter history. The Carpenters must
have
> > been tenants of the Beauchamps as well.
> > Cordially,
> > Bruce Carpenter
>