Dear Bruce, The following Carpenter line may apply to your Robert Le Carpentier in the 1311 records. It is the Gloucester Carpenter line. Jehan was a brother to Jean or John Le Carpentier. Thomas CARPENTER-44820 B: Abt 1355 of,Lydney,Gloucester,England M: --15883 D: Abt 1420 Bristol,Gloucester,England +++++Godefroy d'Avesnes I CARPENTIER Count de Avesnes, Du Nord, France ++++Jehan Le CARPENTIER - b. abt. 1250, Lord of Daniel, Du Nord, France +++Rob. CARPENTIER - b. abt 1275 in Du Nord, France ++Robert CARPENTER - b. abt 1303 in Gloucester, England +1 CARPENTER - name not known Thomas CARPENTER - subject above _________________ Bruce E. Carpenter wrote: > > While the chief export item from medieval England was wool, an extremely > important import item was wine from Poitou and Flanders. Indeed, wool was > sold and the profits used to import important wares the other way. The > Carpenters in medieval London were naturally directly involved with this > important trade. As you will see they sold their wines to the royal > household itself. But first in order to appreciate the importance of this > commodity trade and the implications it had for the politics of the city of > London specifically, allow me to quote from Longman’s The Life and Times of > Edward lll, London, 1869, vol. 1, p. 4. > > “Merchants became so rich, and were held in such high esteem, that in the > year 1363, one Picard, Mayor of London, entertained Edward the Third, the > Black Prince, and the King of France, Scotland and Cyprus, with many > nobility, in London at his house in the Vintry, where the foreign wine > merchants carried on the their business.” > > The most conspicuous Carpenter wine merchants were the previously mentioned > Edward Carpenter and a son Robert, probably one of the wealthiest families > in London of the 1300s. > In the following 1311 Fine Rolls document we can glimpse the scale of > Carpenter wine transactions. > > “Grant to the following merchant vintners of the issue of the custom of > wools and woolfells in the port of Boston. Robert le Carpenter of 58 l. for > 14 tuns.” > > The connection with the royal household can be appreciated in this next > Patent Rolls quotation from 1311. > > “Indemnity for the mayor, aldermen and communality of the city of London > against William Arnaldi of Portan, Gerald de Cannet, Robert le Carpenter, > Peter Bernadi of Bauet (or Garnet), Raymond de Maas, Peter de Cabaus, Peter > Arnaldi of Tesse, Bernard de la Mote, John Hereman, Peter Blaunke and > Bernard de la Denise, to whom they have given a bond for 870 L. 5s. 10d. for > 205 casks and one pipe of wine purchased for the king’s use.”