Gene wrote:
therefore not surprised when, in checking _Records of the Governor
and Company of
the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628-1686_, Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed.,
5 vols. in 6 (Boston, 1853-1854), I found no record whatsoever of a William
Carpenter's having being made a captain. And if a William Carpenter had been
made a temporary captain in 1642, to assist in putting down Gorton's
encroachments on Providence Plantations, it would not have been William Carpenter of
Rehoboth but William Carpenter of Providence. ABC's own description of the
matter (and those of others) makes that clear.
Another point to consider: when the Massachusetts authorities decided in
1644 to put an end to the Gortonites, they sent a company of their own
militia with its own captain. It's not clear to me what good a "captain"
would be without the personnel to make the military force. Surely,
Providence had its own militia in 1642 (composed of all the able-bodied
men in the town).
John Chandler