The thin volume that William Carpenter began to document his origins, the movement of his family across London and the lives of his children is a wonderful gift to his descendants, offering up tantalising slices of the family history.

The importance of the volume and the documents that were kept with it can’t be over emphasised, since so many of the documents and places to which it refers no longer exist. The coroners records referred to in the book have not survived and the directions to Frederick’s grave probably ceased to be of use in the 1860s when the graveyard of Old St Pancras Church was re-arranged to accommodate the construction of St Pancras Station.

It is hard to know exactly when William started his book, although my initial thoughts would have been sometime in the 1830s. The watermark in the book gives some clue, reading GATER 1827. The book appears to have been used – either at work (perhaps more likely given the book number) or at home - since a number of pages already written on have been cut out at the back and glued together to enable the book to be used for a different purpose than it started out.

William may have wanted to preserve a record of his family but he may also have been aware that he was providing an alternative record to the births of all his children, which may have seemed all the more important to him since a record of his baptism could not be found when he looked at the records of St Martin in the Fields.

It seems likely that William’s last entry in the book recorded his son, Ernest Lionel, entering the Royal Navy in 1862. William Carpenter died in May 1863.

After this time, successive generations have carried on with the tradition until the last entry, made by Kathleen Yates in 1972.

Cover

Inside Cover

Includes a small portrait labelled Blue Posts and signed W. Carpenter, Holborn.

Page 1

Includes a few notes headed Paragreen [or Taragreen] v. Carpenter and makes reference to costs, a promissary strip and a lock-up house. A list of sums to the right of this are dated between December 1836 and January 1837. It is possible this refers to a dispute or court case but we have not been able to trace any reference to this so far.

Page 2

List of family homes 1835-1860.

Page 3

James and Sarah Carpenter, plus their children.

Page 4

Statement dated 28th August 1818 certifying that William Carpenter was born in 1809.

Page 5

Reverse of the statement with a further note to say that this document has been passed to William Carpenter by the rector of St Giles.

Page 6

William Carpenter's transcript of the document and his comments on the circumstances of its production and the evidence of his uncle regarding his baptism.

Page 7 

Page 8

Facing pages: children of William and Emily Carpenter

Page 9 

Page 10

Facing pages: children of William and Emily Carpenter

Page 11

Ernest Lionel Carpenter's acceptance into the navy, marriage and death.

Page 12 

Page 13

Facing pages: children of Alfred William and Mary Carpenter

The final few pages refer to living members of the family and have not been reproduced here.

The papers included with this book can be seen in the Carpenter Archive