Another point to keep in mind re. the Shalbourne problem is the Alice Carpenter who died there right before the Carpenter move to Massachusetts. Gene Zubrinsky rightly concluded their departure and her demise should have been related. What Gene failed to notice, and I am not trying to be mean here, is that the only Alice Carpenter in the area lived in the next town of Hungerford. Hungerford and Shalbourne are basically city and suburb. Alice’s husband was a Hungerford businessman. The pair had no children. The Hungerford parish registers are very detailed. There is no mention of any Carpenter children and no mention of an Alice Carpenter death. Alice’s husband dies c. 1625/6, the same time as the Carpenter wedding in Shalbourne. Possibly William jr. may have arrived to settle down in the area and likewise take care of AUNT Alice. Alice was the wife of an important town business leader. If she died in town there would have been a record. Alice Carpenter and her husband Thomas were likewise late comers to Hungerford. He was not born there and surely arrived in town for business. Actually he was a cloth dyer which should not be understood too literally. Thomas should have had a finger in all aspects of the local cloth production. An important point is that the local farm people were the sheep raisers and the weavers. A few were full time weavers. The name William Carpenter appears in one of the Wilshire wills with a Great Bedwyn weaver who owed him money. There was a business connection for sure. It would seem to me that William Carpenter the elder went from town to town and gathered woven cloth for finishing in Hungerford with his uncle and associates. That might not be all he did. He might have farmed a bit and had another trade. Remember the “carpenter” note on the Bevis manifest? Even a few facts may tell all. BC