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William Carpenter of Providence

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Stonehenge near Amesbury in Wiltshire, England

William Carpenter (born about 1610 probably in Amesbury, Wiltshire, England - died September 7, 1685 at Providence (Pawtuxet section now in Cranston, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) was a co-founder of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He was listed by 1655 as a "freeman" of the colony. Genetic research has been conducted on his family.

Life and career

William Carpenter was the son of Richard Carpenter, who was born in England, probably in or near the Wiltshire town and parish of Amesbury or the adjacent parish of Newton Ton(e)y. His mother may have been Alice Knight, but this is not confirmed.

William married Elizabeth Arnold (23 Nov 1611 - after 7 Sep 1685), who was born in Ilchester, Somerset, England, the daughter of William Arnold (24 June 1587 - 1675/76) and sister of Benedict Arnold, the first governor of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.[1] William and Elizabeth had eight children together: Joseph, Lydia, Ephraim, Priscilla, Timothy, Silas, Benjamin, and William. William and his Elizabeth (née Arnold) were probably buried on their homestead in present day Cranston, Rhode Island.[2][3]

William Carpenter is the first person bearing the surname "Carpenter" to make permanent settlement in America.[4] He settled in Providence, Rhode Island, then called Providence Plantation and was instrumental in the development of the Colony holding many public offices.

Original 1600s town layout of Providence, RI with many of the street names on the East Side named after the original homestead strip owners. William Carpenter's lot is left of the letter "D" in Providence Neck.

Providence Plantation

While William Carpenter was not one of the first six male settlers of Providence Plantation with Roger Williams[5] in 1636, he arrived early the next spring with seven others.[6] His name is listed in the first deed executed in the Colony by Roger Williams.[7][7][8]

For defense against Indian attacks, William Carpenter built a block house on his property, the first in the colony, soon after settling there. In an Indian attack during King Phillip's War, many of the survivng Providence Plantation settlers gathered there for protection inside the block house. Because of William Carpenter's block house or fortified position, the settlers' brave stand compelled the Indians to retreat. William's son William Jr. was killed in the attack with many other settlers.[9]

Public offices

William Carpenter was one of four appointed by Boston authorities “to keepe the peace in [Pawtuxet],” 1642[–1658?].

Commissioner (deputy?) for Providence to Rhode Island General Court Assembly
1657-1665, 1675, 1676, 1679.
Appointed juror, General Court of Trials
1657/8 (but did not serve), 1661[/2], 1663, 1664; juror for Grand Inquest, 1658/9, 1663, 1665; then warden (magistrate) for General Court of Trials, 1660/1.
Providence town meeting moderator
June 1662, June 1665, September 1665, April 1666, September 1666, October 1670, December 1670, February 1670/1, April–September 1671.
General assistant for Providence to Rhode Island General Assembly
1665-1672.
Providence justice of the peace
1665/6, 1667, 1668 and officiated marriages from his office as an assistant for the Providence to the Rhode Island General Assembly from 1669-1671/72.
Providence town councilman
January 1670/1, June 1673.

Section References: [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

Relationship with other New England Carpenter families

William Carpenter of Providence, son of Richard Carpenter of Amesbury was a reportedly a first cousin of William Carpenter of Rehoboth, son of William Carpenter of Shalbourne, England. In addition he supposedly was closely related to Alexander Carpenter of Wrington, Somersetshire, and Leiden, Netherlands, of whom his four married daughters were in the Plymouth Colony in the early 1620s. This derives from Amos B. Carpenter’s[22] unsupported claim that Richard of William of Shalbourne, and Alexander Carpenter were brothers. No genealogical evidence has been found even hinting at a link between the Wrington Carpenters, on the one hand, and either of the other two afore-mentioned families, on the other; a connection is highly improbable. Traditional genealogical research methods provide good reasons to doubt also that Providence William and Rehoboth William were closely related.[23]

Results of recent genetic (Y-DNA) testing coordinated by the Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project support this conclusion: Based on a number of 67-marker tests, “we can state with 95% confidence that the most recent common ancestor of the two groups [descendants of the Providence and Rehoboth Carpenters, respectively] was more than 2 generations before the immigrants and less than about 20. Therefore, the DNA testing has very nearly ruled out the often-repeated claim that the Williams were first cousins. The most likely estimate is about 7 generations, but that is a very rough estimate, and the 95% confidence interval is a more reasonable description of what the DNA is telling us” (Carpenter Cousins).[24]

Genetic research

The Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project[25] has conducted Genealogical DNA testing on twenty males with genealogical paper trails in 2010. Nine males who have incomplete genealogical data but match genetically were placed in subgroups of Group 2.[26] These twenty nine males are believed to be descendant of the immigrant William Carpenter (born about 1610) who settled in Providence, Rhode Island from England. By a process of genetic triangulation, their common ancestor's Y-DNA DYS markers were re-constructed. See table below.

The haplotype DNA testing of representative samples of member of Group 2 based on Single-nucleotide polymorphism or SNP testing reveals Haplogroup R1a1a1b1a. The short hand code is: R-Z282.

Table 1 shows the reconstructed haplotype of William Carpenter (born about 1610) that used Genetic Triangulation and shows 74 DNA Y-chromosome Segments (DYS-markers).

Table 1. - William Carpenter (ca1610 - 1685) reconstructed Y-STR haplotype
Y-STR Allele Y-STR Allele Y-STR Allele Y-STR Allele Y-STR Allele
DYS393 13 DYS390 25 DYS19 16 DYS391 10 DYS385a 11
DYS385b 14 DYS426 12 DYS388 12 DYS439 10 DYS381i 13
DYS392 11 DYS382ii 29 DYS458 15 DYS459a 9 DYS459b 10
DYS455 11 DYS454 11 DYS447 24 DYS437 14 DYS448 20
DYS449 32 DYS464a 11 DYS464b 14 DYS464c 15 DYS464d 16
DYS460 11 Y-GATA-H4 12 YCA-IIa 19 YCA-IIb 23 DYS456 16
DYS607 16 DYS576 20 DYS570 20 CDYa 33 CDYb 35
DYS442 14 DYS438 11 DYS441 14 DYS444 12 DYS445 11
DYS446 12 DYS461 11 DYS462 11 DYS463 11 Y-GATA-A10 13
DYS635 23 Y-GGAAT-1B07 9 DYS531 11 DYS578 8
DYS395a 16 DYS395b 17 DYS590 8 DYS537 12 DYS641 10
DYS472 8 DYS406s1 11 DYS511 10 DYS425 12 DYS413a 211
DYS413b 22 DYS557 15 DYS594 10 DYS436 12 DYS490 12
DYS534 13 DYS450 8 DYS481 24 DYS520 21
DYS520 21 DYS617 12 DYS568 11 DYS487 13 DYS572 11
DYS640 11 DYS492 12 DYS565 13
Notes: Differences between Group 2 & Group 3 are:

DYS464a=16 for Group 2 & DYS464d=17 for Group 3.
DYS413a=21 for Group 2 and DYS413a=22 for Group 3.
DYS635=23 for Group 2 and DYS635=24 for Group 3.

References

  1. John O. Austin, Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, 1887, p 242
  2. 36; John Osborne Austin, The Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island, rev. ed. (Baltimore, 1969)
  3. 5:323–25, 6:141, 150, 17:62–63; The Early Records of the Town of Providence, 21 vols. (Providence, 1892–1915); digital images online at http:// books.google.com and www.ancestry.com
  4. SEE: "GENEALOGICAL & FAMILY HISTORY OF WESTERN NEW YORK", LEWIS 1912, PAGE 274.
  5. See: Pawtuxet at: http://www.pawtuxetcove.com/
  6. 3:90–91, 4:73, 14:274; The Early Records of the Town of Providence, 21 vols. (Providence, 1892–1915); digital images online at http:// books.google.com and www.ancestry.com
  7. 7.0 7.1 See also: William Carpenter in New England appears in Providence records under the heading "Agreements & orders the second year of ye Plantation" (Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, THE GREAT MIGRATION: IMMIGRANTS TO NEW ENGLAND 1634-1635, Vol. 1 (A-B) [Boston, 2000], p. 84, citing Hingham Book of Possessions, p. 30; THE EARLY RECORDS OF THE TOWN OF PROVIDENCE, Vol. 1 [Providence, 1892], p. 3).
  8. SEE: "Genealogical History of the Carpenter Family" aka "The Carpenter Memorial", by A.B. Carpenter 1898, page 34 (No. 9-4).
  9. Amos B. Carpenter (1898). Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family. Carpenter & Morehouse. p. 34+. (No. 9-4)
  10. Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, 1628–1886, ed. Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, 5 vols. in 6, 4:1: 332, 333; (Boston, 1853–1854)
  11. Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, ed (1853). Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England: 1642-1649. 2. Massachusetts: W. White, printer to the commonwealth. pp. 26–27. http://books.google.com/books?id=ND8OAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0uAK7PPy4uSOOTqIdzSEwbw#PPA26,M1. 
  12. Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, ed (1854). Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England: 1642-1649. 5. Massachusetts: W. White, printer to the commonwealth. http://books.google.com/books?id=VYsMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0uAK7PPy4uSOOTqIdzSEwbw. 
  13. passim, 4:52, 6:103–4, 7:227, 8:11, 47, 15:84–149; The Early Records of the Town of Providence, 21 vols. (Providence, 1892–1915)
  14. Horatio Rogers, George Moulton Carpenter, ed (1892). The Early Records of the Town of Providence. 1. Providence (R.I.). City Council: Snow & Farnham. p. 28. http://books.google.com/books?id=ncMTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0lWSMFOUMHB0XEh_y8MgP-&lr=#PPA28,M1. 
  15. Horatio Rogers, George Moulton Carpenter, ed (1893). The Early Records of the Town of Providence. 2. Providence (R.I.). City Council: Snow & Farnham. pp. 110, 114, 118–19, 128, 131. http://books.google.com/books?id=2MMTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0lWSMFOUMHB0XEh_y8MgP-&lr=. 
  16. Horatio Rogers, George Moulton Carpenter, ed (1893). The Early Records of the Town of Providence. 3. Providence (R.I.). City Council: Snow & Farnham. pp. 2–247. http://books.google.com/books?id=9cMTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:0lWSMFOUMHB0XEh_y8MgP-&lr=. 
  17. 1:366, 419, 428, 468, 480, 492, 501, 504, 508, 2:38–449, passim, 3:28–29; Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, 10 vols., ed. John Russell Bartlett (Providence, 1856–1865); digital images of vols. 1 and 3 online at www.familysearch.com
  18. 1 1:39, 50–51, 70, 2:42–75, passim; Rhode Island Court Records: Records of the Court of Tri-als of the Colony of Providence Plantations, 1647–1670, 2 vols. (Providence, 1920–1922); digital images online at www.ancestry.com
  19. 1, 6, 7, 8; Rhode Island General Court of Trials, 1671–1704, transcr. Jane Fletcher Fisk (Boxford, Mass., 1998)
  20. 159; More Early Records of the Town of Warwick, Rhode Is-land, ed. Cherry Fletcher Bamburg and Jane Fletcher Fiske (Boston, 2001)
  21. For other assignments, activities, etc., see: 2:123–24, 3:19, 28, 31, 42–43, 58; The Early Records of the Town of Providence, 21 vols. (Providence, 1892–1915); digital images online at http:// books.google.com and www.ancestry.com. and RICR 1:430, 444, 482, 507, 2:151–537, passim; Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, 10 vols., ed. John Russell Bartlett (Providence, 1856–1865); digital images of vols. 1 and 3 online at www.familysearch.com and 46; Rhode Island General Court of Trials, 1671–1704, transcr. Jane Fletcher Fisk (Boxford, Mass., 1998)
  22. Amos B. Carpenter, "A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America" [informal title: Carpenter Memorial] (Amherst, Mass., 1898)
  23. Carpenters' Encyclopedia of Carpenters 2009 (DVD format).
  24. http://www.familytreedna.com/public/carpenter%20cousins%20%20dna/default.aspx Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project.
  25. "Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project". http://carpentercousins.com/carpdna.htm#toc. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 
  26. "Carpenter Cousins Y-DNA Project - Table 1 - Group 2". http://carpentercousins.com/carpdna.htm#table1. Retrieved 2009-10-22. 

Bibliography

Further reading

History and Genealogy of the Carpenter Family in America From the Settlement at Providence, R.I., 1637-1901, Daniel Hoogland Carpenter, The Marion Press, Jamaica, New York, 1901

See also

External links