Cricket wrote: << I've decided to do a OOAK or "One of a Kind" sculpture of William De Melun the Carpenter. Embarrassingly enough.. I'm not even sure I have the name spelt right. :O( Also, was it The Carpenter at the time or The Carpentier?? << I would like all information if possible on him in order to research authentic clothing, colors, looks etc etc... >> She subsequently wrote: << Well, so far the input from Bruce has been absolutely boring. << Does anyone have any information for me that has to do with what I asked for help on this piece of artwork? I shouldn't have to say this, but Bruce, please don't respond. ;) << Thanks everyone else! >> While I seldom find myself in agreement with Bruce, he's correct in saying that the ancient English and French ancestry claimed for the Rehoboth and Providence Carpenters is completely unsubstantiated. Not only is it highly dubious on its face, but it has been positively nullified down to Rev. Richard Carpenter (d. 1503) by the discovery that he had no surviving children. A careful review of his will, said to name sons Robert and Peter, has revealed that they were not sons but servants. That there is no evidence of Rev. Richard's ever having married should not be surprising: the Church of England only began to accept married clergy after its break with the Roman Catholic Church, in 1532. Although the discredited lineage has taken on a life of its own, the facts are these: The earliest known ancestor of the Rehoboth Carpenters is William1 (b. ca. 1576), who appears on the passenger list of the _Bevis_ in 1638 (with his namesake son and the latter's family) and for whom there is no further record; they had come from Shalbourne, Wiltshire, by way of Wherwell, Hampshire. The earliest known ancestor of the Providence Carpenters is Richard Carpenter of Amesbury, Wiltshire, the father of William1 of Providence. (The latter man, incidentally, did NOT arrive from England with his wife and her family in 1635, as is often stated, but came as a single man, probably about 1636 or 1637; he married about the latter year, probably at Providence.) Gene Z.