William Boyd Carpenter - Ancestry

Ancestry

"In the British Museum, London, is a "Life of Lord George Carpenter," published in 1736, five years before his death. It is therein stated of him that he was a son of Warncomb Carpenter, the sixth son of Thomas Carpenter, esq., of the Holme in the parish of Dilwyn, Herefordshire, England where the family have been possessed of considerable estate for over 400 years. So we have another proof of the family being there by 1300.

The family bore Arms, which in heraldic parlance reads as follows: "Paly of six, argent and gules, on a chevron azure, 3 cross crosslets or." Motto "Per acuta belli" (through the asperities of war). The 3 cross crosslets denote an ancestor had been in the Crusades or who was a Crusader. What more distinguished one could they have than William de Melun?"

In a letter dated 7 August 1907, from Rev. William Boyd Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon, Yorkshire, afterwards a Canon of Westminster and chaplain to the reigning sovereign of England, the writer was informed that he, the Bishop, bore the Hereford Arms, and that Sir Noel Paton (See: Joseph Noel Paton) explained to him that originally the crest was a round-handled sword, which in drawing became shortened, until nothing but the cross and globe are left beneath it. These arms were used by John Carpenter, town clerk of London, who died in 1442 …" This John Carpenter was also known as John Carpenter, the younger (abt. 1372 – 1442) and was the noted Town Clerk of London during the reigns of King Henry V & King Henry VI.

There is no direct male to male Carpenter descent connecting Lord George Carpenter & Sir William Boyd Carpenter. The family connection is by marriage through the females in the family.

The Hereford Coat of Arms should not be confused with the Arms of Bishop Richard Carpenter (c1450s?-1503) presented in the "Visitations of the County of Oxford taken in 1566, 1574, and 1634, published in 1871, which describe the arms displayed in the buildings at the University in Oxford - "In the Lyberarye of Baliall College." - as recorded by the officials performing the visitations in those years. The Visitations describe the arms of Richard Carpenter (theologian) as: "Paly of nine Gu. and Az. on a chevron Arg. surmounted by a mitre Or, three cross crosslets of—nine pales alternating red and blue, with a silver chevron bearing three gold cross-crosslets.