"<< Even if [William Carpenter] had been able to write, he was but one of three men who took Thomas Wiseman's estate inventory. Either of the other two or someone else entirely could just as easily have prepared the inventory's final draft. >> Sorry, the last sentence is a misstatement. I had momentarily forgotten that William Peerson, one of three men who took Thomas Wiseman's estate inventory and the only witness to his will, appears to be the one who wrote the latter document; its handwriting differs significantly from that of the former. This, however, scarcely improves the odds that the inventory was prepared by William Carpenter "ye elder," let alone William Jr., who, as Rehoboth town and proprietors' clerk from 1643 to 1649, wrote in a discernibly different hand. Gene Z." Gene: First you doubt that William could write at all and then you tell me below that you have examples of his handwriting and he was Town Clerk. Then you mention the third person in the inventory who appears to have been Wiseman's "wife." She certainly didn't pen the document. If people like Pearson were perfectly capable of scripting a will, why coult't they script an inventory? Why does there have to be someone else? Again, the problem of who composes inventories and related problems is still unclear. And yes, of course, someone else could have penned the inventory. But whu didn't someone else pen the will? However your implied point that the calligrapher might have been William Carpenter Sr. is well taken. BC