Dear Carpenter Researchers, Tony Carpenter in the UK gave permission to have the following article posted to this forum. Thanks Tony! John R. Carpenter La Mesa, CA USA A scenario of the roots of Carpenter Family history - Part 1 A scenario of the roots of Carpenter Family history using the general history of France and England starting in the medieval period. We the Carpenters are a Military Family and have been involved in warfare from early mediaeval times to the present day. Generations of us have been involved and have the knack, if you can call it that, of surviving. I will include in the pages that follow information on campaigns that have involved our ancestors. Being a military family in medieval times put the family in a position of power. The formation of the "power base" started in the crusades when family members fought as Knights through to the Norman Conquest and beyond. The first recorded reference to the Carpenter's coat of Arms are shown in a 13th Century document of the third Crusade. Those Knights with whom the Carpenters fought became confidants and friends, and in the medieval age such friendship and patronage was essential for survival, progress, position, and riches. The King had the power over life or death of his subjects, upset him and you could be castrated, disembowelled and hung out for view, not a pleasant end, so it would be essential to be on good terms with him. As Norman Knights we had this favoured connection. However, to make sure of our survival, we made sure we had God on our side in the form of Religion, with influential contacts within the Church. The most Powerful man in the family was John the Bishop of Worcester and Westbury. He became Clerk and Chaplain to the King between 1430 and 1441, a very powerful position of state. He held many positions of influence, and became a very wealthy man. I will show his Biography later. The other Carpenter of note during the same period was John the Younger nephew of the Bishop who was the Town Clerk of the City of London. They both had "the King's ear" and it must have help the family position in the early times. London and Bristol were the most important towns of that time. As ports they were situated on important rivers, had estuaries and tributaries of the main rivers that went far inland. They became centres of commerce, trade and transportation. John the Bishop in Bristol and his Nephew John the younger in London kept the family in contact with what was going on. A clever ploy, and essential for family survival. An early example of nepotism. The Carpenter families had manor houses close to the rivers, access to water was their means of travel. It would be easy for the Hereford Carpenters to travel to France or London by sea, or, for that matter, the French side of the family the Meluns to travel to England from the town of Melun by way of the river Seine. I will show this later on a map. Remember, we are looking at the start of our family roots in a very turgid time. I have included an extract from a book on Warfare, which I believe portrays the typical early Carpenter Men. KNIGHTS AND MERCENARIES. The military structure of mediaeval Europe was dominated by the castle and the heavily armoured mounted man-at-arms. These two could be probably be described, in the terms we use today, as the two principal elements in one integral weapons system. It was essentially defensive. The Feudal military service was highly regulated. The obligation to serve was to a person, under a contract clearly understood on both sides. A benefit was conferred (tenancy of land was by far the most common form of it) in return for which military service was required. The time to be served and the distance from home a man might have to travel on service were both small. In consequence extensive aggression was difficult to sustain. In the hundred years War England was only able to conquer a large part of France because the English king had feudal claims there. Crusading expeditions to the Near East demanded the invocation of quite exceptional sanctions. The castle represented a heavy investment in labour and capital, but so, in other ways, did the knight. The arms and equipment (including the horse) of an armoured mounted soldier in twelfth-century France or England might represent the entire income for several years of a little rural community. The military resources of a mediaeval monarch were determined by his Position as a land-holder. The forces he could summon, even for the limited time in any year permitted by feudal custom were often exceeded by those available to men who were his subjects, as for example the forces of the early Capet kings, in France were outnumbered by those of the Dukes of Normandy. The permanent forces upon which a king could count were rarely more than modest. The feudal mounted man-at-arms followed his calling primarily for the maintenance or improvement of the economic and social position of his family as, a land-holding unit. Military service was one of the only two ways which were in practice open to him (the other being holy orders) for the acquisition of further wealth and prestige. For anyone not in holy orders, rank, dignity, administrative responsibility and the rewards thereof were all closely related to the extent of land held in fief. More extensive benefices could be expected to accrue to the distinguished performer in battle. Plunder and ransom could also be expected to come the way of the mediaeval man-at-arms The advantages, finally, of physical strength and skill at arms in the time public security which followed the collapse of the Roman institutions need no emphasis. The son of a knightly family held land in return for military service, he was naturally brought up in the use of weapons and in hunting and robust physical sports more or less closely related to the practice of war. It would be less usual for him to learn to read and write. His principal weapons were the horse the lance and a heavy sword (sometimes two handed) with a choice of a variety of other minor cutting and stabbing weapons, and of bruising and crushing weapons such as club or mace. Extract from "The Profession of Arms", by General Sir John Hackett Published 1983 by Sidgewick and Jackson Ltd. in Gt. Britain. As you can see, the survival of a family comes down to Power and Power can take many forms, Fear, Financial insecurity, Ignorance. Fear, as portrayed in medieval times, and more recently under communist regimes, fear of the state or ecclesiastical police. Ignorance, as the old Chinese educational system which decreed that only the ruling classes could be educated. Financial fears as the capitalist state of today the Margaret Thatcher principle, controlling the people by debts, through the banking system, creating a rich and poor society, the "have and have not syndrome". But as we know history shows that none of these work for ever. They are short term controls. So how has the Carpenter family survived the last 1000 years? Let us see if we can find the answer in our family tree, do not expect it to be explained in the form of a tree consisting of only dates, we need to know what happen to the people involved, why genetically we are who we are. I noticed when I was living in Florida USA that every time we put the lights on in the apartment where we were living, and as soon as it got dark the tree frogs who lived in the grounds started to climb up our windows. They knew that the insects that they feed on were attracted to the light, an instant supper table for them. But how did they know? How long did it take them to work out that food source? So have the Carpenters found out a way to carry on, regardless of their situation, are we as quick to adapt to our circumstances as the tree frogs? I think so. The first thing we must understand is that deep down we have the instinct to survive and that instinct came directly from our earliest ancestors. It starts from the strong bond of the Family unit,-------------- John R., As I stated before, all our information has been researched over the last 15 years by my late brother in his retirement [he, by the way, was a research engineer attached to Aldermaston the atomic research station of the UK] and my self. We have a, what we call, hand book of over 100 pages with information on the UK Carpenters, complete with authenticated reference sources. The Carpenter connection of the two Johns can be found in Thomas Brewers life of "John Carpenter Town Clerk of London " [1856] and I suggest that further reading, Calender of the Pat Rolls. H. VI 1429-1436 p466. Prov. & Fellows of Oriel College [1922] p24, by G. C. Richards & Shadwell . Hartlebury Castle by Earnest Henry Pearce. Bishop of Worcester, 1926, published by McMillan. And futher suggest that the reading of the history of Bristol would be of interest to some of our researchers. I don't want to upset the eminent historians in the Carpenter Family, or those who are diligently researching our family roots, but I would like to point out that Genealogy and History are not what one would term an exact science, so much is open to interpretation. An engineer has to rely on physics and other exact sciences to formulate his theories! I therefore maintain that an engineer is quite capable of arriving at conclusions from data which is available through public record. I must point out that some you don't really know the British mentality, the thought that we might wish to claim kinship with nobility is not within our remit, far from it. I think the living in the USA has given you the wrong impression of your Cousins in the UK. The Earl of Tryconnels line died out at his death in 1833. There is a further point which Gill, my wife, wishes to make. Gill is an abbreviation of Gillian, she is a Carpenter by marriage [40 years of it] and her roots are Cornish through and through, with not a coronet to be seen, all her ancestors were miners, fishermen and smugglers, and she's PROUD of it! Maybe we now can get on with the project of telling the story of the Carpenters which I intend to do. Tony to be continued ...