Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

:
commenced immediately to go to work
to secure it ; and there is no doubt but
that William Carpenter, of Weymouth,
had as much or more to do in settling a
colony there than any one of the proprie-
tors. He was in the colony only three years
when he was elected to the General Court
of Plymouth, and no doubt for the pur-
pose of obtaining permission to make a
purchase of this territory. In 1641 he
was representative of Weymouth to the
General Court, and through his influence
the permission was granted. The court
conceded all that he asked, as appears
from an abstract from the Proprietors
Record
Whereas, The Court of Plymouth was pleased
in the year 1641 (thereabouts) to grant unto the
inhabitants of Seekonk (alias Rehoboth) liberty to
take up a tract of land for their comfortable sub-
sistence containing a quantity of eight miles square
and the Court was pleased to appoint Mr. John
Brown and Mr. Edward Winslow to purchase the
aforesaid tract of land of Asamcum, the chief
sachem and owner thereof, which accordingly hath
been effected, and the purchase paid for by the
aforesaid inhabitants according to the Court order.
This was the same tract of land selected
by Roger Williams when driven out of
the Massachusetts Colony for settlement,
but when it was found to be in the limits
of Massachusetts, he removed to Prov-
idence, Rhode Island. At a meeting of
the proprietors held in Weymouth before
the emigration to Rehoboth, the latter
part of the year 1643, William Carpenter
was chosen proprietor's clerk. At a second
meeting in Weymouth the same year,
it was voted to divide the real estate of
Rehoboth according to the person and
value of each settler.
The town records of Rehoboth commenced
in 1643. The territory of the
town included what is now called Attleboro,
Seekonk, a part of Cumberland,
Swansey, and East Providence. Many
;
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
of the Carpenter residents of these towns
are treated as being residents of the old
town of Rehoboth, though they may reside
in some one of the other towns. The
estate of William Carpenter was valued
at two hundred and fifty-four pounds and
ten shillings. He served as proprietor's
and town clerk from 1643 until 1649.
William Carpenter, of Weymouth, wit-
nessed and seems to have drawn the deed
of a tract of land from the Indians to
John Tower the elder. His autograph on
the instrument to which it is attached is
a most excellent specimen of the chirography
of that age. The legal business of the
town or colony was done principally by
he was accurate in all his business
73
him ;
transactions. He paid at one time eight
pounds and seventeen shillings and three
pence towards the expenses of King Phil-
ip's War. He was one of the committee
to lay out a road from Rehoboth to Dedham,
at an early day.
In 1645, William Carpenter with others
was chosen to look after the interests of
the town, and again in the same year Wil-
liam Carpenter was chosen with others to
hear and decide on grievances in regard
to the division of land by lots ; in the same
year he was chosen by the town to repre-
sent them in the court at Plymouth. In
1647 he was chosen as one of the directors
of the town ; also again in 1655. The year
1653 was the first that his name was written
William Carpenter, Sr. His son Wil-
liam would be twenty-one at this date,
and was a resident of the town.
The first settlement of the colony of
Rehoboth consisted of fifty-eight mem-
bers from Weymouth, Massachusetts,
who drew lots on the division of lands,
June 31, 1644. William Carpenter's name
in that division stands as No. 10. By a
previous vote of the proprietors in 1643,
there was a mutual agreement that each