The data I wish to introduce is preliminary and coincidental. It involves a
group of patronymic Carpenters in Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Oxford. All
three places, I wish to remind were all-important places for cloth
production in the period discussed. A Ralph Carpenter appears in the Curia
Regis Rolls in a series of land acquisitions in Hereford, Suffolk and
Norfolk. I would like to add Oxford as well. Many of Ralphs land holdings
were royal lands (manum domini regis). A Ralph was found having rented a
mill from the Earl of Norfolk. This could have been a wool fulling mill.
Ralph appears with a William Carpenter in Norfolk land settlements
suggesting a family relationship. I suspect William was a son. William also
appears in Norfolk settlements with a John specified as his son. Also in
Norfolk was an Adam Carpenter, who in a later land settlement had a
specified son Galfridus. Adam also showed a patter of land acquisition like
Ralph, but in Kent. However, Adams activities take him in the end to
Herefordshire. In Oxford at during the same years the exact same names
appear in the records of the charity behests of St. John the Baptist
Hospital. In 1220 Radulfus Carpentarius makes his appearance. The name
Radulfus appears once suggesting no long-term residence in the town. However
from 1226 a Iohannes Carpentarium appears in several instances of quitclaims
of his property to the hospital. We could draw a number of conclusions from
this; that John was wealthy, that John now lived outside of town (in style)
etc.
Contemporary with John is Willemus Carpentarius de Coule who appears in a
St.John related quitclaim for 1235 and 1242. William Carpenter seems well
established outside of Oxford and could easily be the father of John.
If we return to Adam Carpenters son Galfridus once again, in 1246 the
hospital is given a formal charter by King Henry III. Among the list of
charter patrons,with the King, s Galfridi Carpentarii. Geoffrey Carpenter
first appears in Oxford St.
John records in 1210, but it isnt
until 1240 the he begins to surrender his town holding to the hospital,and
finally as a charter member of the royal charity itself. Geoffrey also
appeared active in Lincolnshire in the early 1200s with a Rodger Carpenter.
Rodger held land in Norfolk with John Carpenter in the 1230s. Much later in
the 1280s a Rodger Carpenter becomes one of the tenants of the hospital,
suggesting an older man in need of care. Already the hospital was
functioning as a place for Carpenters as Geoffrey had originally intended. A
William Carpenter held Lincolnshire land in the early 1200s. The
Lincolnshire Carpenters maintain themselves there through the 1300s as ship
owning merchants. Another Carpenter in Oxford in 1240, and appearing in the
same ducuments as Geoffery, is a Robert Carpenter. Their relationship is
unspecified. Robert Carpenter appears in many Kent dispositions at the same
time as Adam. Might Robert have been Geofferys brother? The Lincolnshire
Carpenters can be connected to a Richard Carpenter in London through the
merchant Gilbert Carpenter. The Oxford Carpenters can be traced to the
London Merchant Rodger Carpenter. They all can be connected to the
Fleetsteet area of London through the 1300s.
All the above Carpenters in Kent, Sussex, Lincolnshire, Norfolk etc.,
exhibit what is plainly an overlapping pattern of land ownership. One
Carpenter from one area joins with another in a joint ownership. I do not
quite understand this, but might there be some legal reason for this? As I
stand back from my notebooks, and view the data as a whole, there seems some
kind of clan economic activity. Was this typical? Was this a result of their
having come from another country. This discovery of a charity for Carpenters
says a lot, I think, about their mentality as a group at this point in
history.
Sincerely,
Bruce Carpenter