The traditional history of the Carpenter family from a John Carpenter who served in parliament for Leskard in Cornwall in the year 1323 began with Amos Bugsbee Carpenter in the late 1800s. In the late 1800s English historical records were still in manuscript and impossible to access. The script they were written in was difficult to read. They were unindexed etc., etc. The 1323 John Carpenter was just a named fished out the pile. Now the great number of documents unavailable to Amos Carpenter are now fully accessible to us, and while respecting the efforts of Amos Carpenter, we can gain a much clearer understanding of 14th century Carpenter history. Previous I had shown that Town Clerk John’s family was too powerful economically to have come from a candle-maker’s family. There must have been another, and a richer, Richard Carpenter in London. I discovered another Richard in the prosperous neighborhood of Fleetstreet. This Richard naturally had no trade associated with his name. Likewise I found a Robert Carpenter in nearby Surrey, on the Thames River, with a suspicious proximity to ships and trade. This Robert was a ‘clerk’ like the Town Clerk John himself. Clearly there was a Carpenter family of wealth and influence existing in and around London in the later half of the 14th century. What about the early 14th century? In the early 14th century documents I discovered two quite remarkable Carpenter groups. One was centered about a Sir John Carpenter, a knight. Sir John had extensive land holdings, and most of the documents I discovered relating to him were will-related, after his demise. The exact residence of Sir John was never revealed, although it was clear he had good property in Berks, Herts and probably Oxfordshire and Wilts. He probably lived in all those places. It is very tempting to equate this Sir John with the traditional Leskard, Cornwall John. They are exactly contemporaneous. The problem with with a Leskard, Cornwall John Carpenter as a progenitor of the London Carpenters, was that Cornwall was so far from London, literally the sticks. Who was this Cornwall Sir John Carpenter? I could find no reference to him, while I found many references to a Sir John Carpenter with land next to London. In addition this newly discovered John had no son Richard at the time of his death, which was before and around 1339. Perhaps the two Johns were identical and a son Richard died well before his father. Later researchers appointed him as father of Town Clerk John. It is certain from the documents that Sir John Carpenter had no male heirs at the time of his death, all his worldly holdings passing to related women or his brother. Could there have been two Sir John Carpenters in parliament in the early 1300s? Doubtful I think. Can anyone find a real reference to a Sir John Carpenter with a son Richard, a reference that is not just hearsay or IGI mythology? If not, let us be rid of this venerable, but quite annoying myth. Sincerely, Bruce E. Carpenter