I'm afraid that several statements made in a posting earlier today require
clarification or correction.
Plymouth Colony was an independent colony until King Philip's War
1675-77, when it had to unite with Massachusetts Bay Colony (one source says 1691, but
that seems late) for mutual protection.
Although Massachusetts Bay Colony sent troops to the furthest corner of Plymouth Colony
(Swansea, which bordered Rehoboth to the south) during King Philip's War (1675–76),
the latter colony remained a separate entity until a royal charter, dated 7 October 1691,
joined Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, the Province of Maine, Martha's
Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into the Province of Massachusetts
Bay; the charter took effect on 14 May 1692.
Bear in mind that William Carpenter and his family didn't land at
Plymouth -- they landed at Weymouth (southern end of Boston Harbor) in 1638, and lived
there for five years.
While we have no record of the _Bevis_'s arrival, we can be fairly certain that it
landed at Boston, as did the vast majority of ships that delivered passengers to the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. It seems likely that the immigrant Carpenters settled
immediately (or almost so) at Weymouth—thirteen miles down the coast from Boston—but the
first record we have of them in America is dated 13 May 1640, when William2 Carpenter was
made a Weymouth freeman.
The town was not formally organized at that time, but many of the
early Town Meeting minutes and other correspondence are in what some claim to be William
Carpenter's handwriting. So, he was acting as Town Clerk (maybe one of several?) in a
low-profile way, without the title.
There is no evidence to support the claim in Amos B. Carpenter's often-inaccurate
genealogy of the Rehoboth Carpenters that William2 Carpenter ever served as Rehoboth town
clerk or proprietors' clerk, either formally or informally. That distinction goes to
Edward Smith, then of Weymouth and Rehoboth (later of Newport, R.I.), who occupied both
positions from late 1643 (when the first Rehoboth meetings were held at Weymouth) until
1649. William2 Carpenter's namesake son, William3, was Rehoboth town clerk almost
continuously from 1668 until his death, in 1702/3. For details, see
www.carpentercousins.com/Wm2_Rehoboth.pdf, 4-5.
Apparently there was dissension in the community, possibly due to the
fact that Weymouth had four competing Protestant churches. Reverend Samuel Newman and his
church members (including the Carpenter family) felt they could do better somewhere else,
and found an area about 45 miles Southwest.
While religious dissension did exist in Weymouth during the ministry of Samuel Newman,
there was but one church in Weymouth (as in all New England towns at this time), and from
1639/40 to 1644, Newman was its pastor.
They purchased an area eight-by-eight miles from Asamacum, chief
sachem of the Pequot Tribe, and in 1643/44, 40 families did a mass exodus from Weymouth to
their new Rehoboth. . .
The land was purchased from Osamequin (popularly known as Massasoit), chief sachem of the
Wampanoag tribe; the Pequots were in southeastern Connecticut. Asamacum is, to my
knowledge, a one-time spelling variant of the aforementioned Osamequin. Although
home-lots were drawn in late 1643 (at Weymouth), settlement of families almost certainly
didn't begin until 1644.
Several of William's descendents remained in or near Rehoboth,
but others moved on to Long Island, Connecticut, or points West in the colony.
Of William2's children, two left the vicinity of Rehoboth: John3 went to Huntington,
then Hempstead, and finally Jamaica, all on Long Island; Hannah3, upon marrying Joseph2
Carpenter (William1 of Providence), joined him in Warwick, Rhode Island, and later
accompanied him to Musketa (now Glen) Cove, Long Island (see
carpentercousins.com/John3_Mass&LI.pdf;
carpentercousins.com/Hannah3_Mass&RI&NY.pdf). Joseph3 moved to adjacent Swansea,
and Abiah3 moved to Warwick, only 8-9 miles away (see
carpentercousins.com/Joseph3_Rehoboth&Swansea.pdf;
carpentercousins.com/Abiah3_Mass&RI.pdf). One could not go west from the original
Rehoboth settlement and remain in Plymouth Colony. Immediately west of Rehoboth was the
Seekonk River, which separated Plymouth Colony from Providence Plantations.
I wouldn't spend a lot of time figuring out what county a town
was in at a particular time, because county government wasn't a big factor in the
early days, and in modern times in Massachusetts has taken an even lower profile.
For anyone interested in consulting land, probate, or court records (as all serious
researchers should be), it's imperative to know the county in which a Massachusetts
town was located. It's the counties--Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk (extinct), and Suffolk
from 1643; Barnstable, Bristol, and Plymouth from 1685--who kept (and still keep) those
records.
Gene Z.
On Jun 2, 2013, at 12:52 PM, John Carpenter <carpenter114(a)comcast.net> wrote:
Date: Sun, 02 Jun 2013 15:49:30 -0400
From: John Carpenter <carpenter114(a)comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [CARPENTER] Confusion - clarification
To: carpenter(a)rootsweb.com
Message-ID: <51ABA1CA.9080400(a)comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Bob -
You're entirely welcome. Sharing is key to building a consensus
regarding who are ancestors were, and to understanding something about
their lives and times.
Plymouth Colony was an independent colony until King Philip's War
1675-77, when it had to unite with Massachusetts Bay Colony (one source
says 1691, but that seems late) for mutual protection.
This site has a pretty good early history, but stops after the first 20+
years:
http://www.ushistory.org/us/3a.asp
Several articles are available from this page:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/plymouth/
This site is a rich resource of maps of Massachusetts at various points
in history:
http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/wilkie/Wilkie/maps.html
This site has some interesting historical and geographic information, if
you are trying to figure out which towns were in which counties, and when:
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cisctlist/ctlistidx.htm
Bear in mind that William Carpenter and his family didn't land at
Plymouth -- they landed at Weymouth (southern end of Boston Harbor) in
1638, and lived there for five years. The town was not formally
organized at that time, but many of the early Town Meeting minutes and
other correspondence are in what some claim to be William Carpenter's
handwriting. So, he was acting as Town Clerk (maybe one of several?) in
a low-profile way, without the title. Apparently there was dissension
in the community, possibly due to the fact that Weymouth had four
competing Protestant churches. Reverend Samuel Newman and his church
members (including the Carpenter family) felt they could do better
somewhere else, and found an area about 45 miles Southwest. They
purchased an area eight-by-eight miles from Asamacum, chief sachem of
the Pequot Tribe, and in 1643/44, 40 families did a mass exodus from
Weymouth to their new Rehoboth, reducing the population of Weymouth by a
third! Our William was one of the incorporators of Rehoboth, and served
the new town in several capacities there, as others have documented
well. Several of William's descendents remained in or near Rehoboth,
but others moved on to Long Island, Connecticut, or points West in the
colony. And some of those moves aren't well documented, which leads to
research frustration.
The original town site lies in what is now Rumford, Rhode Island.
William and several of his family are buried in the Newman Church
Cemetery in Rumford. But the Rehoboth land extended East to include
what is now the town of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. In the current
Rehoboth, MA there's a Carpenter Street, which suggests that at least
one member of the family had land or built a home in the Eastern part of
the new town.
The county structure in the early colony tended to change, but many of
the town boundaries did not. If you look at a map of the town
boundaries of Eastern Massachusetts, you'll see a straight line that
runs from Scituate southwest to North Attleborough -- that's the line
between Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony. I wouldn't spend
a lot of time figuring out what county a town was in at a particular
time, because county government wasn't a big factor in the early days,
and in modern times in Massachusetts has taken an even lower profile.
There's no area in Massachusetts that isn't within a town (that has been
true since the mid-1800s), so there's no 'unincorporated area' for a
county to serve.
Maybe some of the above info resources will help with your timeline. I
think it's great that you are putting together a timeline and history,
to better understand why your ancestors moved when they did. It's also
a good way to keep the generations straight, and to discover errors in
birth/marriage/death dates.
Every discovery in this project leads to another story and another
insight. It's infinite, and absorbing. Try to get two or three of your
youngest generation involved, because your family story keeps growing
and you'll never be done.
Best,
jec