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Note: N3844 Pawtuxet Village is unique in that its northern section is in the town of Cranston, while its southern section is in another town, Warwick.
1733: Thomas Carpenter was born to Silas and Christina Low Carpenter.
1754: Protest by Thomas Carpenter, master of the Snow “Elizabeth”. Jamaica, 27 June 1754. (6:64,65). Source: Rhode Island Roots, Warwick, Journals and Periodicals. Vol.14, page 110 (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.) He was called “Capt. Thomas Carpenter” in his daughter’s death record. See below.
1762, June: His brother, Anthony Carpenter, was admitted as a freeman in Cranston, “Possessed of two small lotts of Land….., and is the eldest son of Silas Carpenter who is possessed of a small lot of land in the Right of his wife in said Town of Cranston frunting fifty feet on the highway that Leadeth from Pawtucket bridg to Providence and Sixty feet back with a small dwelling house thereon standing.” (Rhode Island Roots, V. # missing, pp. 18-19, searchable at American Ancestors)
1768: Thomas’s future wife, Elizabeth (Betsey, perhaps his second wife) Dexter’s birthyear of 1768 is confirmed in the Dexter Genealogy, where she was listed as the 4th child of Jonathan and Alice Lowe Dexter.
1774 Census of Rhode Island: Cranston: Silas Carpenter, 2 males over 16 (Rhode Island Roots, article by Judith C. Harbold) Low Carpenter (Anthony, son of Silas) on same page, 1 male +16, 1 male -16, 1 female +16, 1 female -16
1777: Cranston, Providence Co., RI: p. 1, Rhode Island: Silas Carpenter, age 60+ (Many Arnolds on same page, plus a Stephen Dexter)
Is this our Thomas? 1779, late FEb.: Proceedings of the General Assembly, held for the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, at East Greenwich, on the last Monday in February, 1779. His Excellency William Greene, Governor. The Hon. Jabez Bowen, Deputy Governor. It is voted and resolved, that the sheriff of the county of Kings, or his deputy, immediately apprehend Waite Saunders, Thomas Carpenter and Peleg Hoxsie, who are charged with having carried on an illicit commerce with the inhabitants of New Shoreham (Block Island), and bring them before this Assembly to answer the said complaint. RCRI by Bartlett, V. 8, 1776-177, p. 500 “on infomation of illicit trade between the island and the main” from A History of Block Island:1514-1876 (Note: I found a later note stating that nothing further was found. Certainly, by 1782, our Thomas was a living in Cranston and paid taxes). Source lost. Feb. 1779: Just prior to the above: A committee had been appointed by the Rhode Island Assembly to investigate “an illicit commerce, said to have been carried on from the main to Block Island and Rhode Island. They had made their report and a resolution was then passed to apprehend and commit such persons for trial. (Source: Records of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol 8, p. 516) Feb. 1779: Bills Ordered to be Paid. William Arnold, for expenses of inquiring into the illicit commerce carried on with Block Island…….4 lbs., 19 s. (Irony: this William Arnold would have been a cousin to Thomas Carpenter)
1780: Thomas’s first cousin, Mary Carpenter, married Capt. Daniel Spelman, a ship captain. They settled in Providence and Daniel and his sons eventually had a line of packets from Providence to Albany, New York. At that time grain and produce from New York were brought to southern New England by way of the Hudson River. Daniel’s parents and siblings lived in Granville, Massachusetts where Thomas Carpenter’s son Amos, my great-great grandfather grew up. (He was born in Albany/Rensselaer Co., New York). The Spelmans of Massachusetts were extremely close with the Rose family, whose daughter my Amos married. I believe it is possible that Thomas Carpenter may have been a part of all this). (Packet trade generally refers to any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship)
1782: Cranston, Providence Co., RI: Thomas Carpenter, tax list Rhode Island Census, 1740-1890 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com
1782 Cranston, RI Heads of Families: Thomas Carpenter, 2 . . . 1 .1 . . . . . total 4 (That would be 2 males under 16, 1 male 22-50,1 female 22-50.) This would have been a first wife, because Betsey Dexter, the 2nd wife, would have been just 14 in this record. These 2 sons would have been born after 1766. Rhode Island Census of 1782 NEHGS Register, Vol. 128, p. 54
1785-1790: During this period, Thomas and Betsy Dexter married. Thet were 1st cousins,1R, through their Low sides. Betsy’s mother, Alice Dexter, was a Low, as was Thomas’s mother, Christina. Christina was Alice’s aunt.
1787: His son, Amos (my gg-grandfather) was born in Albany/Rensselear Co., New York. At an early age, he moved (or was moved) to Granville, Massachusetts where Daniel Spellman’s family lived and he grew up there. Could he have perhaps been placed as a child in one of the Spelman families, at the request of Daniel and Mary Carpenter Spelman?
1790 census, Cranston, Providence Co., RI: Thomas Carpenter 1 male over 16, 3 males under 16, 2 females. All the 3 males would have been born after 1775. Listed on same page as many of his mother Christina’s Rhode’s cousins.
1793: Barrington Town Tax, 1793, Thomas Carpenter (Town tax assessments on the estates & poles of the inhabitants in Barrington, AD 1793, The History of Barrington, p. 306). Apparently, Thomas and family moved to Barrington by 1793. (His mother’s ancestors, the Lows, first settled in this town).
1798 Barrington: Road work: Thomas Carpenter and Daniel Horn (his sister’s son), two hands & team. To work on the highways on Monday, the 25 of June, 1798. The History of Barrington, p. 450 Rhode Island by Thomas Williams Bicknell Note: Thomas’s sister Mary married a John Horn and this Daniel was their son..
1800 census, Barrington, Bristol, Rhode Island, United States: Thomas Carpintor: 1 male 45+, 1 female 10-16 Anthony Carpintor: 1 male -10, 1 male 26-45, 1 female -10, 1 female 26-45 (His brother Anthony’s son.) Also in Barrington census at this time: John Low, probably Thomas’s uncle, and Mary Horn (Thomas’s sister). It definitely appeaars that close members of Thomas’s family were living here at the time. His father, Silas, father of Thomas and Mary, and grandfather of Anthony, had moved to Barrington also.
1801: His father, Silas, “formerly of Cranston, died at Barrington, RI on May 23 1801 in 92nd year”. Gazette posting. Arnold Rhode Island VR v.13 , p. 250
Thomas and family returned to Cranston by 1810. 1810 census, Cranston, Prov. RI, Thomas Carpenter, 1 male 45 and over, 1 female, 16-26, 1 female 26-45 (His first cousin, Joseph Carpenter, was listed in the same census in Cranston as well. He named a son Amos, b. near the same time as my gg-gf, son of Thomas, was born. The name was repeated in others of that generation of cousins.)
1810: Betsey Carpenter, daughter of Capt. Thomas Carpenter, at Pawtuxet, in 20th year, Nov. 14, 1810, death; Providence, Prov. Co., RI Rhode Island Vital Records, 1636–1850. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002), by James N. Arnold. Nov. 1810: Betsey Carpenter, 1791c-14 Nov. 1810, Warwick, Cemetery, Arnold Lot, Warwick. Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Database Index (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2003)
1733-1812: Thomas Carpenter’s tombstone inscription at Warwick, RI, Cem. Arnold Lot apears to indicate that he died in “his 79th year”, which supports the 1733-1812 birthdates in most genealogies. Source: ancestry.com, Public Member Trees, Carpenter Family Tree, Thomas Carpenter http://person.ancestry.com/tree/29090717/person/12181691526/facts
The inscription on his tombstone, as read by me from a photo of the marker: in Memory of Thomas Carpenter Who departed this life June 6th 1812 in the 79th Year of his Age
1813: Betsey Carpenter (Thomas’s widow) of Cranston m. Joseph Arnold of Warwick, Dec. 30, 1813, Warwick, Kent, RI. Rhode Island Vital Records
1818: Betsey Carpenter Arnold died 24 Dec 1818 and is buried in the Arnold Lot, Warwick, RI (as is Thomas Carpenter)
December, 2015: From John R. Carpenter, Administrator of the Carpenter Cousins website, supporting my conclusion that Thomas Carpenter was the father of Amos Carpenter, October 14, 2015: When we do not have x document to prove x then we need to build a circumstantial case to present our case. I believe that you have done that and that most people will come to the same conclusion. I would like to say ... Good Job! Circumstantial evidence put together can become a preponderance of the evidence. The following comes from a class I teach about basic genealogical research called KISS Genealogy! See attached. 2) Proof can be a preponderance of the evidence that any reasonable person looks at and comes to the same conclusion. This can be from primary and secondary documents that together or combined presents the case beyond a reasonable belief to the majority of people. I stand by my statement that I believe you have built a case where the majority of people will agree with you.
Providence in 1770 had a flourishing maritime trade, a merchant aristocracy, a few industries, a body of skilled artisans, a newspaper, a stagecoach line, and several public buildings. Fortunes of many of the merchants and ship owners had been built on the shipping of tea and sugar and molasses, rum, and slaves, as well as whaling. Tea, sugar, molasses and rum were examples of items which the English tried to tax and the Providence merchants preferred to import without paying the tax. The Joseph Bucklin Society: A National History Centre for the 1722 Gaspee Affair: Some Facts Regarding Providence at the Start of the Revolutionary War: http://bucklinsociety.net/colonial-history/providence-facts/
During the later part of the eighteenth century, Pawtuxet became one of the very active and significant ports in Narragansett Bay. The mouth of the Pawtuxet River was a strategic location to settle, and gave boats a safe harbor and the village considerable importance in the triangular trade of the day, and shipyards for the coastal and West Indies trade were located here. Slaves were introduced at this time. Ironically, the colony later prospered under the slave trade, by distilling rum to sell in Africa as part of a profitable triangular trade in slaves and sugar between Africa, America and the /Caribbean. Pawtuxet Cove: Pawtuxet Village http://www.pawtuxetcove.com
An additional source: Carpenter Family Tree, by Donald Kozlowski , Rootsweb/WorldConnect. 2005-12-19
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