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Joseph Carpenter

Generation 12 back

Descent: Meghan Jane Leineweber ← Catherine Raye Lobb ← Patricia Jane Loomis ← Edward Byron Loomis ← Isaac Hayes Loomis ← Juliette Cordelia Hayes ← Nelson Hayes ← Rhoda Slaughter ← Lois Carpenter ← Benjamin Carpenter ← Edward Carpenter ← Benjamin Carpenter ← Joseph Carpenter

Born

Abt. 1634 in England

Died

May 1675, in Swansea, Plymouth Colony (Massachusetts, USA)

Married

November 25, 1655, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts

Migration

May 2, 1638: Joseph and his family as well as his grandfather William Carpenter were at sea having left from Southampton, England aboard the ship Bevis

Family

Father

Mother

Child in this line

Spouse

Children

Joseph Carpenter
b. August 15, 1656, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts · d. February 26, 1717/1718 in Swansea, Massachusetts
m. Mary ____, February 23, 1681
Abigail Carpenter
b. March 15, 1659, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts · d. February 1, 1683
Esther Carpenter
b. March 10, 1661, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts · d. December 20, 1730, in Norton, Massachusetts
m. Samuel Brentnall/Brintnell, March 19, 1687, in Swansea, Massachusetts
____ Carpenter
John Carpenter
b. Abt. 1667, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts · d. August 25, 1753, in East Greenwich, Rhode Island
m. ____ Grinnell; Elizabeth ____; Abigail ____
Hannah Carpenter
b. March 21, 1671/1672, in Swansea, Massachusetts
m. Thomas Skinner
Solomon Carpenter
b. April 27, 1673, in Swansea, Massachusetts · d. October 25, 1674, in Swansea, Massachusetts
Margaret Carpenter
b. May 4, 1675, in Swansea, Massachusetts · d. May 6, 1751, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts
m. Thomas Chaffee, June 4, 1695

Siblings

John Carpenter
b. Abt. October 1626 near Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire/Berkshire, England · d. May 23, 1695, in Jamaica, Long Island, New York
m. Hannah ____
Abigail Carpenter
b. Abt. May 1629 near Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire/Berkshire, England. 2, 3/April 9, 1643, in Weymouth, Massachusetts
m. John Titus in 16492/1659; Jonah Palmer, November 9, 1692, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts
William Carpenter
b. Abt. December 1631 near Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire/Berkshire, England · d. January 26, 1703, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts
m. Priscilla Bennett, October 5, 1651, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts; Miriam Searles/Sale, February 10, 1663[1664], in Rehoboth, Massachusetts
Samuel Carpenter
b. Abt. March 1636[1637] near Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire/Berkshire, England · d. Abt. April 1637 near Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire/Berkshire, England
Hannah Carpenter
b. April 3, 1640, in Weymouth, Massachusetts
m. Joseph Carpenter
Abiah Carpenter
b. April 9, 1643, in Weymouth, Massachusetts · d. Pawtuxet, Rhode Island
m. Mary Redway sister of Sarah Redway (15544)

In brief

Born Abt in England. May 2, 1638: Joseph and his family as well as his grandfather William Carpenter were at sea having left from Southampton, England aboard the ship Bevis. He married November 25, 1655, in Rehoboth, Massachusetts and worked as house carpenter/joiner. He died May 1675, in Swansea, Plymouth Colony (Massachusetts, USA).

Life story

A Founder of Swansea's Baptist Church

Joseph Carpenter, baptized April 6, 1634, in Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire, England, crossed the Atlantic as a child in 1638 with his father, William Carpenter, and grandfather, also William, aboard the ship Bevis, settling eventually in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. He worked as a house carpenter, served as Rehoboth and later Swansea's way warden and grand juror, and in 1663 joined a small Baptist congregation gathered by the Reverend John Myles — a decision Massachusetts authorities punished with a five-pound fine and a month-long ban from worship, since Baptists dissented from the colony's established Puritan church. Joseph was undeterred: in 1666 he was one of seven founders of what became the Swansea Baptist Church, moved there from Rehoboth the following year.

A Widow's Pregnancy

In his May 1675 will, written as death approached, Joseph divided his land among his sons Joseph, Benjamin, and John, along with his tools (all but an axe and hoe reserved for his wife), and noted that his wife was then pregnant with another child; his funeral was held just days after that child, a daughter named Margaret, was born. His movable goods were appraised at over 137 pounds. Joseph's death in May 1675 came at the start of King Philip's War, which would devastate Swansea within weeks of his passing.

At a glance

Work

House carpenter/joiner

Lived

Shalbourne Parish, Wiltshire, England · Swansea, Massachusetts

Sources (4)

Amos B. Carpenter, A Genealogical History of the Rehoboth Branch of the Carpenter Family in America (Amherst, Massachusetts: Press of Carpenter & Morehouse, 1898).
Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, “The Family of William Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts,” The American Genealogist 70 (October 1995): 193-204; image copy, American Ancestors, (https://www.americanancestors.org/DB283/i/13130/193/234370203 : accessed 6 August 2026).
Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, “William Carpenter of Rehoboth, Massachusetts,” Carpenter Cousins, 22 March 2023 (https://www.carpentercousins.com/Wm2_Rehoboth.pdf : accessed 7 August 2026).
Eugene Cole Zubrinsky, “Joseph Caprenter of Rehoboth and Swansea, Massachusetts,” Carpenter Cousins, 16 February 2018 (https://www.carpentercousins.com/Joseph3_Rehoboth&Swansea.pdf : accessed 7 August 2026).