In previous notices much was said about the London Carpenters from the middle 1200s to the time of Richard Carpenter, father of Town Clerk John Carpenter. A very early group (1237-42) of Carpenters was seen in Middlesex. This group seemed to have been the earliest Carpenter group in the London area. A William Carpenter was seen at a slightly later date (C. 1260) in the St. Clement Danes’ neighborhood, who must have been the first in a series of Carpenters in that St.Clement Danes’ and Fleetstreet area. In particular was the wealthy merchant Edward Carpenter. We discovered Richard Carpenter, in the 1390s, with the same geographical spread of properties, and residing in the same general neighborhood as William and Edward had. However a gap existed for the early and middle 1300s. Material now found in the Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London (London, 1903), can now make up for this seeming break in the historical record. First, a fortuitous felony case provides another family member name for Fleetstreet for September 29, 1343. “Rodger de Norhamptone, “squyler”, taken at the suit of Pain de Mentriche, brewer, with the mainour of a cup of mazer, of the value of half a mark, feloniously thieved from the said Pain in the parish of St. Bride de Fletestreet on Wednesday after the feast of St. Michael, the year aforesaid, whereof the said Pain appeals him. Pledges for prosecution, viz., Reginald de Thorpe and John Walsheman, “cordewaner.” The said Rodger says he is not guilty, and puts himself upon the country. A jury comes by Alexander Fraunceys, John Truent, Richard Hert, Alan de Fisshbourne, John Walsheman, John de Pymeworth, Simon de Dordright, William de Abyndone, Adam de Oxon’, William de Hestone, “cordwaner,” Nicholas le Carpenter, and Richard le Sadelere, who say on oath that the said Rodger is guilty. Therefore [let him be] hanged. Chattels none.” A Nicholas le Carpenter had been seen in a 1329 document as the owner/captain of a merchant ship, ‘La Cogge Nostre Dame’ in the Southampton area, and as the son of a John le Carpenter in York in a 1327 Close Rolls notation. In 1308 we found him at the merchant’s fair in Boston with probable close relatives Walter and a Gilbert le Carpenter. Later, in 1380, a land case survived relating to Richard Carpenter, with the explanation that the land in question was, “The same land sometime of Gilbert Carpenter.” Richard Carpenter was certainly a relative of Gilbert and the other Carpenters of this merchant group with merchant activities and land holdings in many coastal areas at the time. In the interesting documents that described the salvage activities of a French ship in 1305, we were able to assemble the names of relatives of the wealthy Edward Carpenter. His wine merchant son Robert was the most notable, supplying wine to the royal household. Also however, were relatives Martin, William and John Carpenter. This John could easily have been the father of Nicholas, a wine merchant as was his likely uncle, Robert. Also the Jean le Carpenter “merchant”, who was granted a charter to export wool in 1273, could be the above John Carpenter as well. The William Carpenter that appears in the salvage disposition of 1305, seems to appear in many 1300s London documents. He is an interesting Carpenter merchant who belongs to the very influential “pepperer and spicer” guild. This organization was one of the major five merchant organizations and had a wide range of activity, including wine import and wool export. The community ranking of this William Carpenter can be seen from the fact that his opinion was officially sought in a citywide law case concerning legal membership in the merchant’s guild (Calendar of Letter Books, E, pp. 119-20). “Writ to the Mayor and Sheriffs for an inquiry to be held as to whether Herman Swart de Sussalt, Conred ate Broke de Grippeswold were merchants of the Hanse of Almaine in England at the time…” “The jury, viz., William de Flete, Reginald de Conduit, John Saleman, John de Pampesworth, Thomas de Donlee, William de Garton, William le Carpenter, spicer,…”. William’s community importance is underlined in a 1320 notation that records his involvement in a substantial loan (a favorite medieval Carpenter activity) to the king for a thousand pounds (see same above, pp. 126-9). A family connection of this wealthy and powerful merchant Carpenter to his contemporary Edward Carpenter of St. Clement Danes’ seems most probable. The above is suggestive of family connections between merchant Carpenters Gilbert, Edward and William, and the above three with a Richard Carpenter in the later 1300s (to be continued). Bruce E. Carpenter