I find this pretty interesting. As I look back at the history of my family
that I know, we have mostly been hungry for property.
In general we've been honest but there are some notable exceptions to that
among close kin in my Carpenter line which does go back to Wm of Providence.
Wonder if this is a genetic trace? I actually own very little land myself
but still feel that owning land would give me more wealth than what I do
know, even though my income would drop drastically if I wee to sell stocks
and such and buy land.
----- Original Message -----
From: <GeneZub(a)aol.com>
To: <carpenter(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 4:25 AM
Subject: [CARPENTER] William of Providence, Roger Williams, Baptist Church
Lloyd wrote:
<< Perhaps a discussion of William of Providence's relationship with
Roger
Williams and the founding of the Baptist church? Or is this just legend?
>>
Various records indicate that the relationship between William1 Carpenter
of
Providence and Roger Williams was complex and at times contentious.
Carpenter, whose father-in-law, William Arnold, had many land disputes
with his
neighbors, typically sided with the older man. Though respected for his
abilities--Carpenter was perennially elected to important civic
offices--he and
Arnold were often at odds in politics and religion with Roger Williams
and others
at Providence.
The following two paragraphs are taken from my sketch "William Carpenter
of
Providence, Rhode Island" (online at
http://members.cox.net/jrcrin001/Wm1-Providence.pdf):
Repeating (imperfectly) Benedict’s history of the Baptists, D. H.
Carpenter
names eleven men, including William Carpenter, as founders, at Providence
between 3 August 1638 and 16 March 1638/9, of the first Baptist church in
America (see Baptist Hist 1:473, 475; Carpenter [1901] 16). Benedict’s
account of
the baptisms that occurred on the latter date, however, does not
accurately
represent the description in Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop’s
journal
(the only known contemporaneous record). The latter identifies the
participants
only as Roger Williams, “one [Ezekiel] Holyman, . . . and some ten more”
(see WJ 286). An 1876 article about Roger Williams (John C. C. Clarke,
“The
Pioneer Baptist Statesman”) challenges Benedict: “Who those ten were, is
entirely unknown. . . . No records of their society or church remain. Mr.
Benedict
gave twelve names, and his error has been widely copied without
questioning.
Mr. Benedict gives the names of twelve of the first thirteen proprietors,
as
named in Williams’s deed, omitting, however, Mr. Throckmorton, who was an
undoubted Baptist. Mr. [Isaac] Backus [A History of New England with
Particular
Reference to the . . . Baptists, 2nd ed. (1871)] is against Benedict as
to
Waterman and Weston; and Roger Williams sets aside Arnold and Carpenter.
Probably the first twelve were of the following names, viz., Messrs.
Brown, Olney,
Scott, Throckmorton, Westcott, Holiman, Williams, and their wives and the
widow Reeves” (BQ 10:199, 204). Williams, in a letter to the General
Court at
Boston, depicts Arnold and Carpenter as “very far allso in religion from
you,
if you knew all” (RWCorr 444). The assertion that William Carpenter was a
founder of the church at Providence is therefore groundless. . . .
Over the years, William Carpenter joined with William Arnold, “most
ruthless
of the Pawtuxet proprietors,” and with the contentious, “inordinately
ambitious” William Harris, another Pawtuxet proprietor, in various
land-grabbing
schemes and political maneuvers (Irrepressible Democrat 134, 258–60, 269,
278).
The following excerpts from Roger Williams's aforementioned letter to
Boston
authorities (dated in 1655, when Providence was under Massachusetts
jurisdiction) describe Carpenter and Arnold as impediments to "all order
and
authority":
Thirdly, concerning four English families at Pawtuxet, may it please you
to
remember that two controversies they have long (under your name)
maintained
with us, to a constant obstructing of all order and authority amongst us.
. . .
And, therefore, (lastly) be pleased to know, that there are (upon the
point)
but two families which are so obstructive and destructive to an equal
proceeding of civil order amongst us; for one of these four families,
Stephen
Arnold, desires to be uniform with us ; a second, Zacharie Rhodes, being
in the
way of dipping is (potentially) banished by you. Only William Arnold and
William Carpenter, (very far, also, in religion, from you, if you knew
all) they
have some color, yet in a late conference, they all plead that all the
obstacle
is their offending of yourselves.
Gene Z.
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