>From 1485 to 1603 is the Tudor period in English history. We should appropriately refer to Carpenters of the period as Tudor Carpenters; and today I wish to introduce some extremely interesting documents relevant to that fascinating of Tudor Carpenters, Richard, who was Vicar General to the Bishop of Salisbury and other church offices. In fact there is so much material relating to other Carpenters in church matters, in the same geographic area, that it would be deserving of a special study in itself. The dates of these documents conflicts with other death dates (b. 1470 and d. 1503) of Richard. However Richard had so many ecclesiastic offices that it is difficult to accept he lived a mere thirty-three years. The documents here are retrospective, but seemingly referring to the early 1500s, still well after his traditional death date. The Salisbury Cathedral document below leaves us with no doubt who we are dealing with. The document, which I identified with William of Homme, does not seem possible to identify with the John and William that were the sons of William of Homme. It would be difficult to imagine a knighted cleric at such a young age. Here my motive is to provide some social history of this family group. Happily in the previous Tudor Carpenter document introduced, relating to William of Homme, there were records of family land and economic holdings in Coventry with the hint these were cloth manufacture related. The following testimonials connected to Richard Carpenter will illuminate these matters much more brightly. First a record of Richard Carpenter’s holding of Salisbury Cathedral lands, from Patent Rolls, March 6, 1549, well after the death of Richard. “The house and capital mansion of the chantry called Robert Hungerforde’s Chauntrie with Salisbury Cathedral and a garden adjacent to it within the Cathedral Close, and belonging to that Chantry, and lately in occupation of the late chantry priest or incumbent; the messuages with stables, shops, yards, orchards, etc, in the several tenures of Nicholas Lewes……Richard Carpenter……in Salisbury which belonged to the late chantry called Beauchamp’ s Chauntry in Salisbury Cathedral and all other possessions of that chantry in Salisbury.” In another Patent Rolls for 1552 we can discover Richard’s connections to the Mercer’s Guild. The Holy Trinity Guild of clothmakers centered in Bristol has a special place in English history. The cloth they made and traded all over Europe was called “Coventry blue” (see Carus-Wilson, Medieval Merchant Venturers, p. 5). Some of the best wool produced for the manufacture of this cloth was produced in Leominister, an area just adjacent to Dilwyn in Herefordshire. Again, in this record, the writer is looking back at landholders of the past, and indeed the Holy Trinity Guild itself seems disbanded by this 1552 date, at this Coventry location, in the depression that finally restructured the whole of the English economy away from wool and cloth making. From the material below we can safely assume Carpenter connections to Coventry cloth making and trade well back through the 1400s or earlier. “Also grant of the several yearly rents extending to 35s. 2d. and the service which belonged to the late guild or fraternity of Holy Trinity in the parish of St. Michael Coventry and severally issuing from the lands in Coventry of Henry Over, William Cotton and the Mystery of Mercers of Coventry…..the lands in the several tenures of……Richard Carpenter…….in the city and suburbs of Coventry and elsewhere which belonged to the foresaid guild of Holy Trinity.” In an additional Patent Rolls, April 24, 1553 disposition a Richard Carpenter is found renting land from a Worcester “clothyer” Hugh Wylde and his “gentleman” relative of Worcester Thomas Wylde. Here we can see a familiar pattern of the land owning Thomas with his probable sheep and a relative in down in the related retail side of the venture. Richard and his relatives were very much a part of this world. From the Wylde family Richard took twenty-five acres of land, the majority of it meadow and pasture. Sheep? And lastly another document from 1548 concerning James Carpenter. “And James Carpenter, the messuage called le Chauntry House and a dove house (domum columbarum) annexed and cottage called le Hernage in Eldersfeld and the arable lands (26 ac.) in the field of Pendoke, Worcester.” James I suspect is Richard’s brother. Here ‘arable lands’ might rule out sheep. Nevertheless we have a better economic picture of this family group, regardless of what generation these individuals are assigned. Bruce E. Carpenter