AF:
Ancestral File has birth as abt 1624.John Carpenter of Horsham must have been a man of means, as he financed Samuel,
Joshua and Abraham had come to the Providence of PA (circa late 1670s) with money and status. His
children were well educated, especially those sent to the new world with excellent ability and judgment.
He was murdered while conducting his duties as Sheriff of Horsham.http://www.horsham.org/information/history.aspx
History of Horsham Township
Montgomery County, PA
(A more complete listing is below)
But one interesting fact has come to light; on 20 September 1645 a certain John Carpenter was prosecuted at the West Sussex Quaker (maybe should be Quarter?) Session at Petworth. The following extract appears in local historian William Albery's ‘Millennium of Facts in the History of Horsham'
‘...............a return of the defaults made at our Prishe of Horsham . Wee present Alexander Luxford,........Robert Beaste, John Carpenter and Edward Pinfold for keeping unlicensed Alehouses and of suffering drinking, and disorder in their houses on the Lords Day and for that they do oftentimes absent themselves from the Church and are Scoffers and Opposers of all goodness and all good men'.
There is a fighting chance that this is the father of Samuel Carpenter. If this is the case, and he would be about 35 years old at the time, we begin to build up an interesting picture of the man three times married, in rapid succession; twelve children; and apt to skate on thin ice. Certainly not the pillar of respectability that his sons were to become.
Albert also makes the point that this onslaught by officialdom on disrespect for the established Church ( and the above extract is only part of the Quarter Sessions proceedings that day), came at about the same time that George Fox began his ministry, and it would not be long before he came to Sussex to preach, in hope of converting the ungodly. But this was, of corse, four years before the birth of Samuel Carpenter, himself possibly the only member of his family to convert to Quakerism, and again possibly under the influence of his contemporary William Penn.SEE: "Abstracts of Wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at Somerset
House, London, England." 1904 by J. Henry Lea. 942.23 S21 1620.
Page 94 in item 276, the Will of Richard Pankherst of Linfield, Sussex (dated
30 Jan 1619/20 and proved 22 Mar 1619/20). A John Carpenter signs as the
first Witness. Was it this John Carpenter or a son?CHILDREN: Joshua and John Jr. were probably baptized on the same day. This
means they may have been twins?http://www.horsham.org/information/history.aspx
History of Horsham Township
Montgomery County, PA
Horsham Township is named after the town of Horsham in Sussex County, England. Horsham is one of several townships in Montgomery County whose name and size were determined by master survey lines drawn by William Penn's engineers as they first plotted this part of the colony for sale and settlement. Parallel lines, projected at intervals of a mile and a half and extending in a northwesterly direction from settlements along the Delaware, served not only as base lines for measurement of individual land grants but also as courses for future highways. County Line Road, Horsham Road, and Welsh Road are examples of highways so laid out. The effect of these survey lines upon the development pattern of Eastern Montgomery County is very much in evidence today.
In 1684, the entire township of 17 square miles was made available to individual purchasers. Samuel Carpenter, from the town of Horsham in Sussex County, England, after which the township is named, purchased five thousand acres, forty two hundred of them within the present boundaries of the township. In 1709, Carpenter, then Treasurer of Pennsylvania, began to sell tracts of land to migrating Quakers. In 1717, Horsham Township was established as a municipal entity by a vote of the people.
In 1718, Sir William Keith, then Provincial Governor of Pennsylvania, acquired twelve hundred acres of Carpenter's land on which he erected a house in keeping with the dignity of his office. The development of Keith's "plantation" proved to be a step in establishing closer ties between Horsham and neighboring communities, particularly those of Hatboro and Willow Grove. He was responsible for the construction of the present Easton Road (U.S. Highway 611) from the old York Road junction at Willow Grove to his mansion on County Line Road in 1722.
The first significant settlement in the Township centered around the junction of Horsham and Easton Roads and was known as Horshamville. Keith's extension of Easton Road prompted the establishment of the Horsham Friends Meeting House.
The township's early social and economic life revolved around this Meeting House. In a similar way, Prospectville, originally known as Cashtown, was established at the junction of two roads, Limekiln Pike and Horsham Road. This portion of Limekiln Pike was an extension of the original segment established in 1693 to provide a thoroughfare between Old York Road and the limekilns of Thomas Fitzwater in Upper Dublin Township. Prospectville, on a high elevation point within the township, offers a resting spot with a tavern for those traveling along either Limekiln Pike or Horsham Road. Here lived several generations of the Simpson family, one of whom was the mother of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States.
The hamlet of Davis Grove grew at the intersection of Keith's Road (now called Governors Road) and Privet Road and was once a focal point of community life. It was here the residents of the township came to vote, discuss politics, and attend community meetings. The "Golden Ball Inn", which at one time was used for housing guests of Governor Keith, enjoyed much Revolutionary splendor. The two roads were formerly through links. Keith's Road extended from Easton Road to Keith Valley Road and Privet Road, from Horsham Road to Easton Road. Expansion of the Willow Grove Naval Air Station caused the closing of these roads and the absorption of the hamlet. Today, there are virtually no remaining signs of the original settlement .
Through most of the early and the middle 19th Century, Horsham's population grew slowly. Its character was not altered in any significant way until about 1872, when the North Pennsylvania Railroad extended a rail line from Glenside to New Hope and established a station in the nearby community of Hatboro, two and three-quarter miles east of the nucleus of Horshamville. Horsham-Hatboro-Byberry Road provided easy access to Hatboro's station and, as a result, residential development began along the road virtually linking the two communities together. By 1890, the township's population reached 1,300.
In 1896, the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company's northern extension of the Philadelphia-Willow Grove trolley service was extended to Doylestown along Easton Road from the Willow Grove Amusement Park at Easton and Welsh Roads. This provided various connections to other trolly lines.
In 1926, Harold F. Pitcairn, a pioneer in the development of the autogiro, a forerunner of the helicopter, outgrew his flying field in Bryn Athyn and purchased 191 acres of farmland along Easton Road in the vicinity of Graeme Park. The new "Pitcairn Field" remained in operation for testing "autogiros" until 1942 when the United States Navy purchased the field. Today, the base is still in operation and, after the acquisition of additional land for the expansion of facilities, it has become one of the largest Naval Air Stations in the nation.Samuel Carpenter And The Naming Of Horsham Pennsylvania
By Brian Slyfield
Most people here in Horsham, England have heard of the town's connection with its namesake in Victoria, Australia, but, paradoxically, because the connection between our Horsham and the latter is, in fact, far stronger than with the former , ( and as has been noted in my earlier booklet ‘James Monckton Darlot and the Naming of Horsham Australia', published in March 2001, no direct link can actually be established between the two), but yet much less is known about it.
I had a vague notion that there was a Horsham somewhere on the eastern seaboard, but I had absolutely no idea what a wealth of history an investigation of that township would reveal. I little realized how important would be the Quaker link between the Horsham here and the Horsham in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and I knew certainly knew nothing of Samuel Carpenter, who, as this brief study will show, was someone of whom we in Sussex should be most proud. I had never heard his name mentioned before in local history circles, and yet here was a man, born in our town, who settled in North America, made his fortune, attained high office, and played a very major significant part in the early political development of that part of the United States . What is more, a township in the New World was named in his honor, after the town where he was born back in the Old World.
So this is the story, briefly, of him and his family, and of the times he lived in, and in developing it I am grateful for the help given to me by the Horsham Historical and Preservation Association, Pennsylvania, and its President, Peter Choate, Di Stiff at the Surrey History center at Woking, Rachel Hope from the Friends' Meeting House in Dorking, and two books in particular. Firstly ‘The Beginnings of Quakerism to 1660' by William Braithwaite, revised by Henry Cadbury, and secondly- and most importantly- "Samuel Carpenter and His Descendants', by Edward Carpenter and General Louis Henry Carpenter, published in 1912. This rare book, of which I was lucky enough to purchase a copy a dealer in Rutland , Vermont, is a weighty and exhaustive study of the family from its origins here in Horsham in the seventeenth century to its dynastic development in America up to the early 1900s, with all its ramification with other leading east coast families. It has provided me with a treasure-trove of valuable information. Jim Powell's ‘William Penn, America's First Great Champion of Liberty and Peace' was also most useful, as was Charles Harper Smith's essay ‘The Settlement of Horsham Township' in ‘Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin 1940'. Finally, as with the previous booklet, my thanks go to Ivan Legisa who has done much to make this production possible.
The Family Background
The surname Carpenter is a common one (as with Smith, Baker, Cook, Tanner, Cooper and so on, it is originally an occupational name) and there are plenty of examples in the Horsham, West Sussex parish registers. Such occupational names were common in medieval Sussex, and accounted for about 20% of all names at the time. In 1327 Sussex Lay Subsidy Roll, for example, 19% of the roll were occupation-based. And, unfortunately for the researcher, who is happiest with easily identifiable, out-of-the-way names, that of Carpenter is all too run of the mill. There are, for example, over 40 Carpenter baptisms recorded for Horsham in the seventeenth century, and while it would be wrong, of course, to assume that all entries in the Horsham baptism, marriage and burial registers refer to the same family, at the same time certain cautious but reasonable deductions can be made.
The earliest parish register record is for Thomas Carpenter, who was probably born about 1540, and who ‘married Ales (Alice) Fiste, widowed', on 20 May 1565. He was buried on 17 November 1581, and his wife eleven years earlier on 20 January 1570. The surname Feast is still fairly common in the area. On 5 November 1559 a Thomas Carpenter, probably the same one, acted as godfather the an infant William Davyson, and he preformed the same function two years later, on 3 June 1561, at the baptism of Thomas Rowe, when he was described as ‘juven' (young man or bachelor).
Susanna (baptized 6 August 1568) may well have been their daughter, but the date for Thomas (baptized 9 May 1563)does not quite fit. However both their father were named as Thomas. Perhaps Robert Carpenter, whose wife's name was Elizabeth and who was buried 28 April 1604, was also a son. In a following generation were Elizabeth, who married John Cooper on 12 September 1610 and Eleanore, who was baptized 9 August 1601. These two Carpenters may have been the children of the above Thomas or Robert.
There was also a Joan Carpenter, who was buried on 3 April 1598, and lastly there is the touching entry for Christopher, the ‘baseborn' son of Joan Carpenter (surely the same woman), who was baptized on 21 July 1567. This poor illegitimate mite was to live only two months and was buried 19 September 1567, while his mother lived another 30 years.
One tends to get a feel for family names, and as we have seen, and indeed will see to an increasing extent, the same Carpenter Christian names tend to recur. Among the men, Thomas, John, Robert, Henry, William and Samuel are most frequent, and while there is greater variety among the women, Ann, Elizabeth, Mary, Jane, and Sarah tend to be repeated. With some exceptions, all tend to be straightforward, run-of-the-mill names, which come up again and again through the generations. On the other hand Joan and Christopher, mother and son stand out as being different.
So these are the parish register entries for Carpenter to have survived up to 1653. We should also record that the Lay Subsidy Roll for 1524 records a certain Robert Carpenter from North Street, Horsham, as being required to pay tax. Horsham baptism, marriage and burial registers go back to a little after this 1541, three years after such official records were first ordered to be kept nationally, in 1583-but we must remember that our local record is incomplete. Time and damage have created more than a few gaps and there will be some entries that we will never know about. No firm conclusions about the Carpenter pedigree can be drawn from the entries that we do know, but it can be seen that people of that name had been local to the town since the time of Henry the Eighth, and no doubt earlier than that, and it is possible that they were from the same stock. The population of Horsham about 1550, for example , according to a religious census then taken (Victoria County History of Sussex volume 2, page 20) was estimated at 900 ‘houseling people' (communicants), and with such a low head count it is unlikely that there were several similarly named but unconnected families around. But it would be dangerous to take conclusions too far.
Certainly it is quite wrong to forge a link between the Horsham Carpenters and various other families of the same name but with the right coat of arms, such as the Earls of Tryconnel, as did the authors of ‘Samuel Carpenter and his Decedents'. This was mere fancy on their part, without a scrap of evidence, and something early genealogists were prone to do bedazzled as they were by the notion of a family crest.
We now come to the seventeenth century, and to some harder facts relating to Samuel Carpenter's father John, and his immediate family. I only have an approximate date for John Carpenter's birth, which must have been around 1610, as there is no register available, and nor is there anything to link him directoy directly to the sixteenth century Carpenters identified earlier- though there is a real likelihood that he came from the same stock. But what is clear, however is that he had no less than twelve children, the result of marriage, in turn, three wives. The American record, based on wills and burial entries etc., much of which are reprinted in ‘Samuel Carpenter and His Descendants', usefully confirms in most part that conclusions to be drawn from English data.
His first wife was Mary Somersale, the daughter of George Somersale, who had married Margaret Wood in Horsham on 29 December 1605, and she in turn married John on 15 January 1632, again in Horsham. But they were to be together no more than ten years, and she was buried 13 June 1642. It is interesting to note that this event took place just one day after her third child was baptized, and the two must be connected. Childbirth was a high-risk business in those days, and it looks like as if Mary gave her life for her boy Samuel (the first of two sons to bear this name), who ironically was to live only two years himself.
The couple's three children were Lea (baptized 27 December 1635), who also, I think died young; John (baptized 26 June or August 1638); and Samuel (baptized 12 June 1642, and died 3 September 1644).
After the death of his first wife he speedily married again, this time Saragh, and probably in 1643. They had six children, among whom was the Samuel who is the subject of this study. The list of their offspring is as follows: Robert (baptized 12 June 1643, buried 9 July 1644); twins Mary and Saragh (baptized 14 November 1644); Dameris (baptized 25 November 1646); Samuel (baptized 20 December 1649); Jane (baptized 13 March 1652). There is no burial register for wife Saragh, but it is likely that she died around 1652.
Without more ado John then married Elizabeth, perhaps also in 1652, and there were to be three more children; Abraham ( baptized 18 November 1652); Joshua (baptized 30 April 1654); and Debora (baptized 3 January 16550.
Of the twelve children, seven are mentioned in later family wills and records from America- John, Mary, Dameris , Samuel the second, Abraham, Joshua and Debora. Those who emigrated remembered their siblings back home, and they seem to be from a family that respected it's roots. The fact that certain other of the children were not mentioned may possibly mean that they had died young. This is certainly the case with Samuel the first and Robert, and may also be so with Lea, Saragh and Jane. Of those that lived, Abraham, Joshua, and Debora were to join the brother Samuel in the new world. John, described as a ‘householder', remained in Horsham, married and had children. Dameris, Debora and Mary also had children. Dameris married a David Hunt and lived in Southwark, and Mary was a widow in 1705, living in Lambeth.
What else do we know about their father John Carpenter? The answer, unfortunately, is precious little, apart from the fact that, according to Samuel Carpenter and His Decedents', he died 9 August 1671. But one interesting fact has come to light; on 20 September 1645 a certain John Carpenter was prosecuted at the West Sussex Quaker Session at Petworth. The following extract appears in local historian William Albery's ‘Millennium of Facts in the History of Horsham'
‘...............a return of the defaults made at our Prishe of Horsham . Wee present Alexander Luxford,........Robert Beaste, John Carpenter and Edward Pinfold for keeping unlicensed Alehouses and of suffering drinking, and disorder in their houses on the Lords Day and for that they do oftentimes absent themselves from the Church and are Scoffers and Opposers of all goodness and all good men'.
There is a fighting chance that this is the father of Samuel Carpenter. If this is the case, and he would be about 35 years old at the time, we begin to build up an interesting picture of the man three times married, in rapid succession; twelve children; and apt to skate on thin ice. Certainly not the pillar of respectability that his sons were to become.
Albert also makes the point that this onslaught by officialdom on disrespect for the established Church ( and the above extract is only part of the Quarter Sessions proceedings that day), came at about the same time that George Fox began his ministry, and it would not be long before he came to Sussex to preach, in hope of converting the ungodly. But this was, of corse, four years before the birth of Samuel Carpenter, himself possibly the only member of his family to convert to Quakerism, and again possibly under the influence of his contemporary William Penn. So perhaps this is now the right moment to discuss the Quaker movement and its presence in Horsham, as this was to be the one powerful force that motivated Samuel for the rest of his life, and spurred him to success in the new world.The Quakers and Horsham
The Quaker movement was founded by George Fox in 1647. He was a Leicestershire man, son of a Puritan weaver, and had felt a ‘divine call' from an early age. In his early twenties he founded the mystical Protestant sect which had emphasized a direct link with God, and held that an individual's conscience, not the Bible, was ultimate moral authority. He took the path of an itinerant preacher, spreading his beliefs from village to village and town to town. It was a time for non-conformity to flower, and of repression by the establishment, and Fox was imprisoned eight times during his life, the longest period being three years. Quakers incited the ire of the authorities in particular for their refusal to recognize the established Church, to pay tithes and other dues, and to bear arms, as well as for their determination to worship wherever and whenever they choose.
It was also the time of other, oddly titled and strange sects, such as the Muggletonians, the Ranters, the Fifth-Monarchy men, the Familists, the Seekers and the Grindletonians. I promise you none of these are made up. Lodowick Muggleton was a London tailor who became a zealous Puritan much in dread of hell-fire, who would, apparently, only listen to preachers if they had short hair. But these were all fringe groups, and none were to match the Quakers in terms of energy, organization and zeal, and most importantly-a sustainable set of beliefs.
Throughout his life Fox's missionary zeal drove him to travel far and wide, to all corners of England and Wales, to Scotland and Ireland, and further afield to Holland, the West Indies and North America. He had the support of a band of traveling preachers, thirty in 1653, and double that number the following year, and all supported by a succession of doctrinaire pamphlets published by the Society of Friends, as the movement should more rightly be called. In an age of pamphlets, the Quakers were the greatest pamphleteers. The term ‘Quaker', incidentally, stems from a court appearance by Fox in Derby in 1650, when he urged the bench to ‘tremble at the word of the Lord', upon which a sharp-witted magistrate, one Gervase Bennett, promptly dubbed Fox and his companions ‘Quakers'- the which term quickly became common coin.
It appears that the Quakers first preached in Horsham in 1655, The movement's archives tells that ‘This Blessed Testimony and Joyful Tidings of Salvation was first preached in the north side of the county of Sussex about the third month (i.e. May) in the year 1655 at the Towne of Horsham by John Slee, Thomas Lawson and Thomas Lawcock; and no man receiving them into his house some of them Declared the Truth in the open market in a powerful manner....this was to the Great evening they were given hospitality by Bryan Wilkason, who recently moved down from the north and who lived out at Sedgewick, and the next day they ‘had a meeting' in his house. It was at this house that George Fox was to stay, as well.
So these were the beginnings. Samuel Carpenter was still only six and as yet unaffected by the movement he was to join later. When this was we do not know, but it would clearly have been when he was a young man, and no doubt influenced by two other leading figures who were to make their presence felt locally. Ambrose Rigge and the Great William Penn. Ambrose Rigge suffered much persecution, and was imprisoned in Horsham gaol for seven years in 1662. William Penn, whose destiny, like Carpenter's, was to lie in North America, was only five years older than Carpenter, so they were roughly contemporary.
As Penn was to play an important part in the future of Samuel Carpenter, we need also to speak of him a little. He was born 14 October 1644 in London. His father was Admiral Penn, a respected naval man who was much sought after because of his knowledge of our costal waters and the quality of his seamanship, and who had good connections with the Stuart Kings. But his mother, Margaret, was summed up by Samuel Pepys as follows; ‘a well-looked, fat, short old Dutch woman, but one who hath been heretofore pretty handsome'.
After Oxford Penn took to the Quaker movement, and in 1670 we hear of that famous story whereby he was tried for challenging the Conventicle Act (which aimed to suppress religious dissent by branding it sedition) by holding a public meeting. The jury acquitted him, but the Lord Mayor of London refused to except their verdict, and all the jurors were promptly despatched to Newgate for two months for not bringing in a politically correct verdict. In due course they wee set free, whereby they in turn sued the Lord Mayor for false arrest. The result was a ruling that juries must not be punished for their verdicts, and a key precedent in support of trial by jury was created.
William Penn has a close connection with Horsham, in between 1676-1707 he owned Warminghurst Place, a great house, sadly no longer standing, to the south of town, about ten miles distant on the Downs. The house's great claim to fame is that it was here that the Constitution of Pennsylvania was written, prior to Penn's first visit to America in 1682. He worshiped at the Blue Idol meeting house in Coolham, and no doubt in Horsham as well. Wether Carpenter's and Penn's path crossed before the latter's occupation of Warminghurst I do not know , but it is surely likely. The former cannot have helped being influenced by this latter pivotal figure, and Horsham was a center for movement, much visited by its leading lights.
From this distance we will never know what made Samuel Carpenter convert, but the Quakerism was a movement for independently-mined individuals, and hard-working and talented folk, and it is clear from his future career that Carpenter was all of these things. So at some point, whatever it was that lit the fuse, he became a Quaker, at an age when he was probably in his late teens or early twenties. His father died in 1671, when Samuel was 22, and around that time he left Sussex for good, to make his fortune in the New World.
Quakers are renowned for their well-documented records, and there is a good deal of information deposited in the Surrey History Centre relating to Horsham Friends. But sadly I have not, so far come across the name of Samuel Carpenter. There exists, for example, a vellum-bound minute book for the period 1668-1682 which carefully records the business of the ‘men's monthly meetings', but his name does not crop up. We read of matters such as the welfare of old or poor folk and declarations of intentions to marry. The first record is of a meeting at Richard Chasemore's house ‘on Horsham Heath on the ‘14th day of the 8th month 1668, and from thence adjourn'd ye same day to ye house of James Matthews in Horsham town', at which Ambrose Rigge was present, along with thirteen others. Again at the end of the book we see that William Penn was present at the meeting at John Shaw's house in Shipley' on the 12th of the 5th month 1682'. But nothing of Samuel Carpenter, who was doubtless too junior to attend these ‘management' meetings, and who had no cause to be an item on their agenda. But his name may still come to light, and investigations will continue.
Samuel Carpenter's early career
The Quakers were great merchants and men of business, and much respected for their probity. Samuel Carpenter seems to have been very much in the classic Quaker mold, and his determination to make his way in life dovetailed neatly with his religious drive. One of these two key areas of Quaker expansion in America was Barbados, in the West Indies, which first saw their presence in 1655. It was a time of great prosperity for the island, and a wealthy sugar-planter, Lieutenant-Colonel Rous, an influential figure and friend of the Governor, was one of the first to be converted by Quaker missionaries from England.
About 20 years afterwards Samuel Carpenter shook the dust of Horsham from his shoes, and embarked on his great adventure. We know he was in Barbados in 1683, because there is a record of him being fined by the authorities for failing to furnish men at arms (the issue of pacifism again), and he was subject to the same penalty in 1683, along with Henry Wheatley, with a fine in kind of 6673lbs of sugar. There was a close link between the Quakers in the Caribbean and those further north on the Atlantic seaboard, and doubtless Carpenter built up a healthy business trading items such as sugar, tobacco, grain, skins and furs between the two locations, as well as with the Old World. And at the very least they went along with the concept of slavery. It is a curious fact, given their many issues of principle, that the Quakers showed no anti-slavery sentiment, and they were happy to own slaves, as we will note later with examples from the Carpenter family itself.
After ten years or so of building up his commercial career, he accepted the invitation that William Penn was offering Quakers (and others) to settle in his new colony on the banks of the Delaware, and he sailed north. He arrived at the newly-founded Philadelphia in July 1683, about the same time as another Quaker, 38 year old Hannah Hardiman, who emigrated from Haverfordwest in South Wales, and they were married the next year on 12 December 1684, with the following words from Samuel to his wife-to-be and the assembled gathering ‘Friends in the fear of the Lord, and in the presence of this assembly, I take thee my friend Hannah Hardiman to be wife'. This extract forms part of the first marriage certificate known to exist in Pennsylvania.
Hannah's journey from her native South Wales would have been extremely perilous. The route at that time was not fully charted, and navigational instruments were less than perfect. For fear of the Newfoundland Banks, ships sailed south to the Azores and then went across the Atlantic. Many ships were wrecked along the coast of Portugal, and for those who made it, the journey might last at least four months. In addition to the natural hazards there was also the ever-present danger of piracy, but this did not stop the settlers coming, and in 1683 William Penn reported that ‘since last summer we have had about sixty sail great and small shipping, which is a good beginning'. Samuel and Hannah, each from a different direction, were of course part of this good beginning.
But initially the shock of their new surroundings must have been great. The site if Philadelphia, one day to become one of North America's great cities, was no more than a few wooden huts, with limitless woodland stretching into the distance. The only pervious settlers were a few European settlers along the Delaware, and there were also of course the native tribes, such as the Susquehannock, Shawnee and Leni-Lenape, who were to live in relative harmony with their new neighbors.
But Carpenter arrived with means and determination, and set about securing a good location from which he was to mount his commercial operations. A 1683-84 map of Philadelphia shows his lot as extending from what are now known as Front and Second Streets, and he was granted, as were others, land in the surrounding countryside as an adjunct to his city property. But how did this donation of land come about, and by what means was William Penn able to dispense such largesse? Let us look, briefly, at the background context.
Land in the New World
Back in England the Quakers had been a major thorn in the Establishment's side. They would not pay their dues, nor would they accept the established church. They were obstinate and difficult, none more so than William Penn. For his part he wanted freedom, and was sure that religious toleration could not be found in England. So he went to Charles II and asked for a charter to establish a colony in America. The King saw an ideal solution to the problem of this troublesome man opening up before him, Penn was granted, on March 4 1681, the rights to an enormous tract of territory west of Delaware and north of what is now Maryland, which was only occupied by a scattering of Dutch and Germans, as well as the native Indians.
Charles proposed the name Pennsylvania (Forests of Penn) in honor of William's late father, and he was to own the land, accountable directly to the King. There is also a story, as, well, that as part of the deal the government could write off £ 16,000 that was owed to the late Admiral Penn, and at the beginning of each year William Penn had to give his King two beaver skins and one-fifth of any gold and silver mined in the territory. Just this for a stretch of land larger than Scotland and Wales put together. So Penn sailed to America on the ship Welcome, arriving 8 November 1682, and founded Philadelphia (‘the city of brotherly love'). The rest, as they say, is history.
In his First Frame of Government, Penn set out his model for this new society. There would be a Governor (himself), and Council (with 72 members), backed up by a General Assembly (500 members). There were provisions made for free enterprise, a free press, trial by jury, and religious toleration, and no military conscription. Women were encouraged in education, and to have equality in expression with men, and capital punishment was reserved for only two crimes (murder and treason) at a time when the English penal code listed the death penalty for some 200 offences. He called Pennsylvania his ‘holy experiment', and in due course it attracted many other apart from Quakers, seeking freedom from persecution: Catholic, Jews, Huguenots, Lutherans, Moravians. The attraction of the place, and Penn's principles, was such that by the time of the American Revolution Pennsylvania's population had grown to 300,000, and it was one of the largest colonies. It was, to quote a historian, American' first melting pot.'
A man of substance, and a town named Horsham
This was the framework within which Samuel Carpenter developed his own career. He built a wharf by the river, in order to load and unload his merchandise, which is mentioned by William Penn himself, in a letter dated 1683: ‘There is a fair key of about 300 feet square a little above Walnut Street built by Samuel Carpenter to which a ship of five hundred tons may lay her broad side' . He also built a mansion in which to live, described later by a certain Deborah Logan as ‘a large brick edifice of an antiquated and peculiar style', as well as a nearby coffee house or tavern.
At an early stage he played his part in the management of the colony, advising Council ‘towards the raising of a tax upon liquors, viz upon Brandy 12d ye Gallon, Beer, Ale, Rum, Spanish Wine 5d per Gallon: Madeira each pipe 50s, French Wine 4 £ per Tun and give in this way 1000 £ by way of customs upon goods'.
It appears that he was appointed to the Council in 1685, and in that same year was a trustee of a newly-established Friends' school. In 1688 he gained further preferment on being appointed one of three Commissioners of State, whose responsibility was to represent William Penn in his absence. He was now at the hear of affairs, and Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, says 'The name of Samuel Carpenter is connected with everything of a public nature'. He also bought much land as his fortunes increased, but later he was forced to sell to liquidate debts incurred through trade losses stemming from the 1703 war.
As part of his expansion plans, in 1684 Carpenter purchased 5,000 acres in what is now known as Montgomery County, 4,200 of which lie within what is now Horsham Township. The delineation of the land was determined by William Penn's engineers, and they projected parallel lines, at intervals of a mile and a half and extending northwesterly direction from settlements along the Delaware. These acted not only as base lines for the measurements of land grants, but as courses for future highways, which can be seen today. After a number of years' delay, his purchase was finally ratified by William Penn's Board of Property in 1702. Between 1708-1714 (the year of his death), he disposed of some 2,500 acres at a price of between eight to ten shillings an acre. Given that he had probably paid only £ 100 for the whole 5,000 acres in the first place, his had been a canny investment.
By 1709 Carpenter had reached the elevated position of Treasurer of Pennsylvania, but he died in 1714, only three years later. Three years after that, in 1717, Horsham Township was established as a municipality entity by a vote of the people, and it was appropriately named after the home town of its founding father. The first recorded deed describing the district thus, in fact, is dated 31 December 1716: ‘in Horsham Township', and Charles Harper Smith in his essay ‘The Settlement of Horsham Township' stated that ‘there is convincing evidence that Samuel Carpenter has named his 5,000 acres ‘Horsham' before the township was formed and subsequently suggested the name of both the township and the local Friends Meeting'.
Much of Carpenter's land, after his death, fell into the hands of Governor Sir William Keith, who had ambitious plans for his Horsham estate. He intended to clear the land, plant it with grain, build a large distillery and brewery, and supply the Colony with beer and other Alcoholic beverages. But his plans were never fully executed; he ran into financial difficulties and hastily and secretly left the Colony in 1728. But that is another story.
Back to Samuel Carpenter. He was joined in America by two of his brothers, Abraham and Joshua, though interestingly neither of them appeared to be Quakers. One assumes that they joined him directly in Sussex, but there is no evidence to that effect. But clearly they had the same adventurous spirit as their brother- unlike their eldest brother John. Who stayed on in his home town. John was born in 1638, some years apart from the other three, who were all born between 1649-54, and possibly there was little in common between them.
Abraham was also a merchant, who married but left no children. He was buried 10 April 1708, three year after his wife, whose name In do not know, and his will is instructive, particularly as regards the question of slavery, touched on earlier. It stipulates, at the veery end, ‘The negro woman Hagar to live with Samuel Carpenter, and her son Ishmael to live with her. Give the boy Ishmael to Samuel Carpenter'.
Joshua seems to have arrived in America about 1686, perhaps at the same time as Abraham, and he again became a prosperous and influential citizen. He was a Justice of the Peace in 1693, an Alderman in 1701, a Commissioner of Property in 1708, and a member of the Provincial Assembly for a number of years between 1702-1721. He is also described as a brewer, and lived to the age of 68, and was buried 24 July 1722. His wife Elizabeth survived him for another seven years, and they had two children, Samuel and Sarah.
Samuel and Hannah Carpenter had three children Samuel, John, and Hannah. Hannah the mother was herself a distinguished member of the community, and possessed considerable intellectual ability. She was particularly concerned with the education of children, and some of her writings still exist today. She died 24 July 1728, but her husband pre-deceased her by 14 years. As we have seen Samuel died in 1714, on 10 April, at the relatively young age of 65, but after a full life of achievement. He died in the house of his son-in-law William Fishbourne, and in his will he leaves much property to his wife and children, despite his possibly reduced circumstances. Among his assets were a mansion, ten warehouses and an adjoining wharf, as well as cash and other property.
A vivid image of the old Quaker style of dress, which Samuel would most likely have adopted, is given in this description of his great grandson, known as Thomas Carpenter of Carpenters's Landing (1752-1847), whose attire was no doubt considered an anachronism at the time of the description, but which offered a vivid throwback to an earlier age. ‘He wore a brown cloth coat of Quaker pattern, velvet small clothes (breeches) with silver knee-buckles, or fair top-boots, vest with lapels and pockets reaching th the hips, and the Quaker broad-rimmed hat. The buckles, silk stockings and fair top-boots in later years gave place to plain trousers and boots'.
Later generations
Samuel Carpenter and his brother Joshua were a major part of the first American generation of a powerful and interlocking group families, which were to make their mark on the future history of tier state, in the fields of politics, administration, the military and the law. One only has to dip into ‘Samuel Carpenter and His Descendants', to understand something of the various dynastic groupings, and to get a flavor of this impressive heritage.
Pillars of society in Philadelphia and elsewhere in the State of Pennsylvania, they occupied positions of authority: judges, ambassadors, senators and bankers, academics and state legislature members. Tonkins, Lipincotts, Whartons, Ludlows, Fishbournes and Dickinson, as well as Carpenter, a roll call of some of the leading families in 18th and 19th century Pennsylvania, among which could be counted no less a figure than Edith Wharton, one of America's leading novelists in the early part of the 20th century.
Again a little of the flavor of the Carpenter stock can be given by the career details of Brigadier-General Louis Henry Carpenter, born 1839, co-author of his family history, and six generations down from Samuel Carpenter. He was a solider who first fought in the Civil War with the 6th United States calvary, was at Gettysburg and served as aide-de-camp to Sheridan, and ended up with the rank of Colonel. Later he joined the 10th Calvary and spent 13 years on the Great Plains, fighting the Sioux and Cheyenne, and commanded in turn Fort Robinson in Nebraska and Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. At the end of his colorful career he was engaged in the Spanish-American War, and held the post of Military career, but he surely would have been proud of his qualities of resolution and leadership.
This study of Samuel Carpenter and his family takes me to the beginning of the 20th century, but no further. But while it is certain that their blood still flows in the veins of many Pennsylvanians today, our exploration of the last 100 years is a voyage of discovery that must, regrettably, wait for another time.
Horsham Pennsylvania Today
To those unfamiliar with the geography of the eastern seaboard of America, a word of explanations: Pennsylvania lies to the west of the state of New Jersey, south of New York State. It occupies a position between the Atlantic and the Great Lakes, the nearest of which is Lake Erie, and it is cut through from south to north by the swathe of the Appalachian Mountains.
Philadelphia, on the Delaware, is roughly equi-distant between New York to the north and Baltimore to the south, with Washington a little beyond. Horsham Township lies 18 miles to the north of Philadelphia, near Warminster and east of route 476. It is one of the oldest original municipalities in Montgomery County, and now has a population in excess of 22,000- perhaps half that of Horsham Sussex. It is home to office complexes and corporate centers, with attractive residential housing, a number of quality golf courses and all the other trappings of society today. Affluent, civilized and a pleasant place to be, and now just 284 years on from its foundation, but in many ways light years away from those early days.
The Carpenter story, briefly outlined in this booklet, has also come a long way- and it has been a fascinating journey, from late medieval Sussex and an unruly beer-house owner, to the high principles and pragmatic trading skills of the Society of Friends, and with a scattering of some of the key names in Pennsylvania's history thrown in for good measure. And if there is one thing In have learnt in developing this story, it is that in Samuel Carpenter, we here in Horsham England have a son of whom we may not have known much before, but whom we can be justly proud of now.
Final Note: In am always keen to correspond with any reader who might be able to provide new or more accurate information on the Carpenter family, so if you do have something to add please write to me at the following address: Arun House, Denne Road, Horsham, West Sussex, UK, RH121JF.ARTICLE:
Carpenter Coat of Arms by Terry Lee Carpenter, 1997
Regarding item 3 ...
3. Carpenter of Cobham, Surry, and Sussex.
Shield: Argent, a greyhound passant, a chief sable.
Crest: A greyhound’s head erased per fesse, sable and argent.
Motto: “Audaces Fortuna Juvat” (“Fortune Favors the Brave”).This coat of arms was granted on 4 Mar 1663. The greyhound is symbolic of
speed and loyalty, and was on occasion granted for service to the English
Crown. These arms were used by the early descendants of Samuel Carpenter of
Horsham, Sussex, who emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1683.NOTE:
This Coat of Arms was granted to a William Carpenter per the Herald’s College, London, 1663 and subsequently found on the Tombstone of Daniel Carpenter of Rehoboth, MA who was born in 1669.
That motto was given as: "Celeritas virtus fidelitas" being Speed, Courage, Fidelity.
She may have died young.
SEE page 2 of Samuel Carpenter and his Descendants" 1912, which has Chr and
Burial information.
SARAH DIED ABOUT 10 MONTHS AFTER THE BIRTH OF SAMUEL. ONE WONDERS IF SHE DIED DURING CHILDBIRTH OR COMPLICATIONS. NO MENTION OF A SURVIVING CHILD.
NAME: "Saragh" in register.
SEE page 2 of Samuel Carpenter and his Descendants" 1912, which has Chr and
Burial information.
He may have died young. Not listed in all records.
NAME: "Saragh" in register.
Mary was willed 50 pounds, by her brother Abraham in the the New World, in
1708 or to her children if she was deceased. She was a widow, being of Lambeth,
England at that time.
Abraham followed his brother to the new world and Philadephia in 1683. He
remained a member of the Church of England.
Per page 34 in the 1912 book, Abraham left no children and his wife died about
the third month of 1705. His will was signed 26 Mar 1708 and proved 14 April
1708.Watson in his "Annals of Philadelphia" relates that "Abram Carpenter was fined
5 pounds by the Grand Jury for avoiding the duties of watchman and constable."http://www.surnameguide.com/carpenter/samuel_carpenter_genealogy.htm
ABRAHAM CARPENTER.The following is a copy of a letter written by J. E. Carpenter, 710 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, May 2d, 1879, to Charles Perrin Smith, Esq..
TRENTON, N. J.
MY DEAR SIR:-I have just found some valuable material to assist in locating the family of our ancestor, Samuel Carpenter, in the old country. I had known before that Samuel and Joshua Carpenter had a brother Abraham, who was with them here in Philadelphia, but whether he was permanently a resident of Philadelphia, or whether he died here, I did not know. Recently, . in making some investigations in the office of Register of Wills, of this city, I found the Will of Abraham Carpenter. Most fortunately, it gives more information respecting the members of the family in England than any authentic document in existence that I know of. Thee following are briefly some of its provisions:
It is called the Will of Abraham Carpenter, Merchant. He leaves all of his estate to his brother Samuel, and his brother Samuel's son Samuel, in trust to pay legacies, &c.
A legacy is left to his sister Mary (widow) in Lambeth, England. A legacy to Damaris, wife of David Hunt, of the borough of Southwark, his sister.
A legacy to the children of his brother, John Carpenter, late of Horsham, in Sussex.
A legacy to his cousin (perhaps a grand-niece, as the term is used in another place in his Will in this sense) Susanna, daughter of John and Ann Welch, of Southwark. (Ann Welch was perhaps the daughter of his sister Damaris Hunt.)
A legacy to the children of his sister Deborah Jupp, deceased.
A legacy to the children of his sister Mary.
A legacy to the children of his sister Damaris. A legacy to his kinsman, Thomas Mitchell.
A legacy to his cousin, Robert Story, to be paid when twenty-one years of age or married.
Robert Story was the son of Enoch Story, who married Sarah, the daughter of Joshua Carpenter. He was therefore the son of Abraham Carpenter's niece, or what is now termed a grand-nephew.
A legacy to his cousin, Sarah Fishbourn, when 21 or married. (Sarah Fishbourn was probably the daughter of William Fishbourn, who married Hannah, daughter of Samuel Carpenter, Sen' r, and the same relationship appears a grand-niece, and evidently this is the case, because all of these cousins are minors.)
A legacy to Samuel, son of his brother Joshua.
A legacy to Samuel and John, sons of his brother Samuel.
A legacy to his brother Joshua.
A legacy to Hannah Hardiman. (She was probably a daughter of Benjamin Hardiman, brother of Hannah Hardman, who married Samuel Carpenter, Sen'r.
A legacy. to his sister-in-law Elizabeth, wife of his brother Joshua.
A legacy to Hannah, wife of his brother, Samuel Carpenter, Sen'r.
His negro woman, Hagar, to live with his brother Samuel and his wife, and her son Ishmael shall live with her; gives Ishmael to his brother Samuel; appoints his brother Samuel and his brother Samuel's son, Samuel, Executors. Dated March 27, 1708. Registered Philadelphia Will Book, C, p. 87. Proved April 14, 1708.
You will observe that the relationship is proved in every particular, the names of brothers, brothers' wives and children correspond exactly, and the names of Hardiman, Fishbourn and Story, make it impossible that he could belong to any other family than our own: but having started this rich mine of information, I was curious to follow the clue, and so searched for and found the Will of Joshua Carpenter.
It is called the Will of Joshua Carpenter, Brewer, and makes the following provisions:
A legacy to his grandson, Robert Story, the son of his daughter Sarah, to be paid him at twenty-one years of age.
A legacy to his grand-daughter, Patience Story, daughter of his daughter Sarah, -to be paid her at eighteen, or at her marriage.
A legacy of one shilling to his son-in-law, Enoch Story.
A legacy to each of his sisters Mary and Damaris, near London, in Great Britain, to be remitted to them, if they then be living.
A legacy to his cousin, Anne Busnl, and to her children, William, Mary, Mercy and Joshua Busfil, each to be paid when sons are 21, and daughters 18, or married.
A legacy to his cousins Abraham and Thomas Mitchell, and residue to his wife, Flizabeth.
Dated Aug. 27, 1720. Proved Aug. 2, 1722. Registered at Philadelphia in Book of Wills, D, p. 325.
You have probably seen the Will of Samuel Carpenter, the elder. It mentions his brother Joshua, but makes no mention of Abraham, who died before him. In fact, his entire estate being divided: among his widow and children, he makes no mention whatever of his collateral relatives, and only mentions his brother Joshua's name as owning a lot adjoining his property, in describing the boundaries of the property devised.
Yours very truly, (Signed) J. R CARPENTER.
Listed in the IGI as a child, but not in other records. See step brother by same name.
AF has name as Dorothy Jupp Carpenter, born abt 1660.
Per the 1912 book on page 35, she was deceased in 1708 had had daughters named
Jupp. Jupp was her married name.