Condolences to John L. Carpenter on the loss of his father, whom John described in
yesterday's posting to this list as "a descendant of The Coles & Carpenter
Families of Mosquito Cove, (Glen Cove, L.I. NY) in the Rhode Island Branch."
It is inappropriate to refer to the Carpenters of Rhode Island and Musketa (not Mosquito)
Cove, N.Y., as "the Rhode Island Branch." That the title of Amos B.
Carpenter's 1898 volume includes the phrase "Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter
Family in America" reflects his belief that the respective fathers of William2
Carpenter of Rehoboth and William1 Carpenter of Providence were brothers. This, however,
has been refuted by both conventional genealogical methods and DNA-test results (see
http://members.cox.net/jrcrin001/Wm1-Providence.pdf; a forthcoming revision will argue
that William of Providence probably resided previously at Salem). It is therefore
inappropriate to treat these two (distantly related) groups as though they were branches
of a single family. Continuing to do so subtly perpetuates the fallacy that William2 of
Rehoboth and William1 of Providence were first cousins. The Rehoboth Carpenters and the
Providence Carpenters are separate families.
John lists the first three American generations of his and his father's Carpenter
ancestry as follows:
William Carpenter (of R.I. ) 1605 - 1685 / m. Elizabeth Peake Arnold
Joseph (of L.I. , N.Y.) 1635 - 1695 / m. Hannah Carpenter (of Rehoboth Branch)
Nathaniel 1668 - 1729/30 / m. Tamra Wright Coles
While William2 of Rehoboth was born "about" 1605, the best estimate of the birth
year of William1 of Providence is "say" 1610 (see
http://members.cox.net/jrcrin001/Wm1-Providence.pdf). As has been stated several times on
this list, while Elizabeth Arnold's mother's maiden name was Peake, it is
inappropriate to use it to create a middle name for Elizabeth. Throughout the seventeenth
century and most of the eighteenth, middle names were almost nonexistent.
Of the several reasons to doubt that Joseph2 Carpenter of Musketa Cove was born in 1635
(in England), the most significant is that in a deposition he gave on 16 October 1664,
Joseph reported his age as "26 yeeres," implying a birth year of about 1638 (the
place almost certainly Providence). The attribution to Joseph of a 1635 birth year
derives from Amos B. Carpenter's mistaken assumption that Joseph must have been an
adult by 3 May 1656, when he witnessed a deed between his father and the latter's
brother-in-law Stephen Arnold. Witnesses as young as fourteen (the _age of discretion_)
are found in early New England records (see
http://members.cox.net/jrcrin001/Joseph2-RI-NY.pdf). If, as above, it is inappropriate to
refer to the R.I./L.I. Carpenter family as a branch, it is equally so to describe the
Rehoboth family as a branch.
Nathaniel3 Carpenter of Musketa Cove was born between "say" 1668 and 10 Feb.
1672[/3?]; he died on 25 2nd month [April (not February)] 1730 (see
http://members.cox.net/jrcrin001/Joseph2-RI-NY.pdf). His wife, Tamar, was the daughter of
Robert and Mercy (Wright?) Coles. Even if there were genealogical proof of Mercy's
maiden name, there is no reason to assign it to Tamar as a middle name.
Gene Z.