Benjamin Carpenter ★

1720s–1760s

Born 17 May 1725 in Swansea (or Rehoboth), Massachusetts. Married in Providence, Rhode Island, in October 1745. Had no formal education, but by 1764 was a magistrate in Rhode Island.

1770s

Moved to Guilford, in what became Vermont, around 1770. Chaired Cumberland County's committee of safety in 1776, went to the Westminster Convention, and in 1777 helped draft Vermont's first constitution.

1780s

Lieutenant governor of the independent Vermont republic from 1779 to 1781, then sat on its councils. Opponents who wanted Vermont annexed to New York seized him as a prisoner in December 1783.

1790s–1800s

A Baptist deacon who sometimes preached, he joined the “New Lights” Baptist church around 1792. Died in Guilford on 29 March 1804 and was buried in West Guilford's Carpenter Cemetery.

A Vermont Founder

Benjamin Carpenter was born May 17, 1725, in Swansea (or Rehoboth), Massachusetts, and had no formal education, but by 1764 was serving as a magistrate in Rhode Island. He moved to Guilford, in what would become Vermont, around 1770, and when revolutionary tensions escalated became chairman of Cumberland County's committee of safety in 1776, nominated as lieutenant colonel of its militia. That year Guilford sent him as its representative to the Westminster Convention, and Benjamin attended Vermont's first constitutional convention and spoke publicly at a Dorset meeting in favor of Vermont's independence — a cause his own son Asaph opposed. In 1777 he walked to the Bennington legislature carrying three days' provisions to help plan the fledgling republic's defense, and helped draft Vermont's first constitution.

Lieutenant Governor of an Independent Republic

Benjamin served as Vermont's lieutenant governor from 1779 to 1781 during its years as a fully independent republic, and continued serving the new state on councils overseeing confiscated property, militia payroll, and grievances through the early 1780s. His advocacy made him a target: in December 1783, opponents who wanted Vermont annexed to New York seized him as a prisoner, and on another occasion around seventy armed New Yorkers attempted to kidnap Benjamin and a state supreme court member to trade for a captured ally, though the plot failed. He turned down land grants the Vermont legislature wanted to award him and his fellow officials, believing public service should be given freely. A devout Baptist, whose gravestone calls him "a firm professor of Christianity in the Baptist church 50 years," he served as a deacon who occasionally preached, and around 1792 joined the Baptist church known locally as the “New Lights” for their support of Vermont's statehood. He died in Guilford on March 29, 1804, and was buried in West Guilford's Carpenter Cemetery.