Thanks to John Carpenter and John Chandler for Suffolk
and clarification of Godwin. The insight of continental
origins and name usage is very useful. The text I am reading now
renders Galfridi or Galfridus as Geoffrey. This leads me
to the substance of this letter, which is to
announce that the three volume history of St. John the Baptist Hospital
in Oxford is going to prove a very, very important parcel
of Carpenter family history. Hospitals in the Middle Ages had a wider
role of activity than modern hospitals. They could act as inns for example.
With these books the Carpenter line can seemingly
be traced back to the early 1200s. One of the founders of the
charity (along with the King) was a Galfridus Carpentarius. Many, many
family members are
mentioned with dates, and the personages seem the same as those
found in the Curia Regis Roles. Was it the case the Carpenters first
settled in the coastal trading cities (set up shop) and then moved to
Herefordshire, Oxford and then London. This should have been no surprise
to me given the extensive mid 1300s data on Stanton St John (Oxford)
Carpenters (Sir John Carpenter and others) and their connection to the
London
Carpenters. Here again
all the names and dates are the same. According to the editors of the
St. John Baptists books, these charitable trusts were very much
family (clan) charities with later members of a family renting
land and homes from the hospital. As you look through the books the
Carpenters
used St John Baptist through to the 1700s! The first Carpenter in Oxford
was a Radulfus Carpentarius in the very first years of the 1200s.
As I looked through the Curia Regis Rolls the first Carpenter
who showed the common pattern of land aquisition (in this case in Suffolk)
was a Radulfus Carpentarius. Was Ralph the father of Adam? The Curia regis
Rolls
says Adam was the father of Galfridus. Same people?
A major problem now is Mediae Latinitatis. Does John Chandler read Medieval
Latin?
BC