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(page 415)
The Carpenter family of Philadelphia and Salem County, N. J., trace their origin in this country to a period about the close of the seventeenth century. The Philadelphia branch are descended from Samuel Carpenter and the New Jersey family from Joshua, the brother of Samuel. Watson�s "Annals" informs us that Samuel Carpenter was one of the greatest improvers and builders in Philadelphia, and with the exception of his associate, William Penn, was at one time the wealthiest man in the province. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and on of Penn�s commissioners of property. His brother Joshua was also a prominent early resident of Philadelphia and an engraving of his elegant residence, which occupied a portion of the site of the Arcade building, is to be seen on page 376 of Watson�s "Annals."
Joshua Carpenter subsequently removed to the State of Delaware, where he ended his days. His grandson William married Mary, daughter of Jeremiah and Jane Powell, and had four children, viz,: Mary, Powell, William and Abigail. Of these, William married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Ware, born March 2, 1763, and a few years after that event rented a large farm in Elinsboro Township, Salem Co., of Samuel Nicholson, Sr. There he passed the remainder of his life. His children were seven in number, viz,: Samuel, Mary (whom married Thomas Hancock, of Elinsboro), Abigail (who became the wife of John Goodwin, of Elinsboro), William (the subject of this memoir), Elizabeth (who married William Thompson), Powell and Sarah Carpenter.
William Carpenter, to whom these lines are dedicated, was born in Elinsboro Township, April 4, 1792, and died May 13, 1866. He received only a common school education, and was thrown upon his own resources early in life by the sudden death of his father. After experiencing the trials and privations incident to a life of hard labor and close attention to the arduous calling of a tenant farmer in those days, he finally located on the Thomas Mason property in Elinsboro, and resided thereon for the long period of twenty-one years. He then purchased, in 1846, the Samuel Brick farm, in the same township, now occupied by his son, William B. Carpenter, and lived there until his removal later in life to Salem, where he closed his days. He was a man of decided convictions, plain in his tastes and habits, straightforward in his dealings, of strict integrity and held in general respect throughout a long and busy life. He was a regular attendant upon the meeting of the Society of Friends. He married Mary, daughter of Abner and Mary Beasley, and had children, - Elizabeth W. (wife of Joseph P. Thompson), Powell (deceased), Anna M. (deceased), William B., Morris H., and John M. Carpenter.
