In a message dated 3/4/2005 3:00:15 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, John Chandler writes: In any case, I feel sure that William was indeed chosen for the General Court, since Savage is seldom wrong about such things. Colony records confirm it: Massachusetts Bay Colony records list William Carpenter among the deputies to the General Court at Boston in 1641 and 1643. Plymouth Colony records for 1645 don't provide an explicit list of deputies but do list William Carpenter as being admitted a freeman at the beginning of the court session (4 June 1645). That he was a deputy from Rehoboth (along with Stephen Payne) is nevertheless implied in the minutes immediately following the list of freemen: "It was ordered by the Court, that a committee should be elected & authorized for the p[re]paring of some p[re]sent lawes for redresse of some p[re]sent abuses, and for p[re]venting of future, whereupon these p[er]sons following were elected and nominated, viz: Mr Will[ia]m Collyer, Mr John Browne, Mr John Alden, Mr Will[ia]m Paddy, Nathaniel Souther, Jonathan Brewster, Josias Winslow, Edward Case, Edmond Eddenden, Anthony Annable, Richard Burne, Mr Anthony Thacher, Steeven Payne, and Will[ia]m Carpenter." (Note that Carpenter is not among those whose names are preceded by "Mr," a term of respect designating a gentleman [as distinct from a husbandman or yeoman]. Neither is he called "captain.") Quoting almost certainly from Rehoboth town-meeting records, Seversmith says that in May 1645 William Carpenter and Stephen Payne were sent as deputies to the General Court, "to certify the town's minds." Gene Z.