Priscilla (Carpenter) Cooper (bef. 1598 - 1689)

Born before 3 Sep 1598 in Wrington, Somerset, England

Wife of William Wright — married after 1627 in Plymouth Colony

Wife of John Cooper — married 27 Nov 1634 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

Died 28 Dec 1689 after age 91 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

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Priscilla (Carpenter) Cooper migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See Great Migration Begins, by R. C. Anderson, Vol. 1, p. 313) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Priscilla Carpenter was the daughter of Alexander Carpenter and his wife whose identity is unknown. (Priscilla Dillen was not the wife of Alexander Carpenter and her profile has been preserved separately with a discussion about her uncertain existence).

Priscilla was the eighth and youngest recorded child of Alexander Carpenter. She was baptized on 3 September 1598 at the parish church of All Saints in Wrington, Somerset, England. There are two surviving versions of the register from this period - the original paper register and a copy register made in 1599. The version from the original is given first with the copy register entry following in brackets:

Priscilla Carpender the daughter of Elisander Carpender baptised the 3 daye of September [1598] ^[1] (Precylla the D. of Ellesander Carpenter, Septend. 3 1598) ^[2]

Priscilla is sometimes said to have immigrated with her father to Amsterdam in 1600, this likely untrue. Alexander Carpenter can be placed in Amsterdam as early as 16 December 1600 when he was witness to a marriage.^[3] However, he can also be shown to be in Wrington as late as 1610 so he was likely traveling back and forth between Holland and England between 1600 and 1610. By 1611, Alexander Carpenter had moved his family to Leiden and this is likely when Priscilla also immigrated.

Priscilla married as a her first husband William Wright between 1629 and 1633. They are sometimes said to have married in Leiden, but no records have been found to support this and is countered by records in Plymouth. William Wright was a passenger on the Fortune in 1621, though it appears he traveled alone. He was single in the land division in 1623, and again in the cattle division in 1627. This would indicate that Priscilla did not travel to New England until the remnants of the Leiden congregation immigrated in 1629-1630. They were certainly married by the time William Wright wrote his will in 1633. They had no children. William Wright died shortly before 3 November 1633 when the inventory of his estate was taken.

Priscilla married her second husband John Cooper on 27 Nov 1634 in Plymouth, Plymouth Colony.^[4] They had no children as shown by the will of John Cooper. They are sometimes found on the internet as the parents of Lydia (Cooper) Morgan, however, this is the sister of John Cooper.

A Richard Wright married Hester Cooke. Some sources feel that he was a son of William and Priscilla. This is impossible as Priscilla would have been only 10 years old when Richard was born. He was born about 1608 (based on age at death).^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Baptism of Priscilla Carpender in: original parish register of Wrington, Somerset, England. Somerset Heritage Service; Taunton, Somerset, England; Somerset Parish Records, 1538-1914; Reference Number: D\P\wri/2/1/1 Free Ancestry sharing image - second entry on the page Accessed 10 March 2021
2. ↑ Baptism of Precylla Carpenter in: copy register of Wrington, Somerset, England made 1599. Somerset Heritage Service; Taunton, Somerset, England; Somerset Parish Records, 1538-1914; Reference Number: D\P\wri/2/1/2 Free Ancestry sharing image Accessed 10 March 2021
3. ↑ J. de Hoop Scheffer. History of the Free Churchmen Called the Brownists, Pilgrim Fathers and Baptists in the Dutch Republic, 1581-1701. (Ithaca, NY, 1922): page 186.
4. ↑ “Plymouth Colony records, court orders, 1633-1690”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3S3-4QXX-D  : 3 April 2023), FHL microfilm 008492483, image 51, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Vol 1-3, 166-1640, Page 72.
5. ↑ Mayflower Families Vol 12 p. 55-56.

• see also for baptisms at Wrington: "Addenda to MD 1988:190. "Errata and Addenda,", submitted by Myrtle S. Hyde, The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Boston) Vol 39 (1989), Pages 182 AmericanAncestors.org (by subscription)
• Bartley, Scott Andrew. John Cooper of Barnstable: Newphew of Sabin Staresmore, The Mayflower Descendant (Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, Boston, 2014) Vol. 63, Page 166
• BRADFORD OF PLYMOUTH by Bradford Smith 1951, p.268: "William Wright and his wife Priscilla Carpenter had come over on the FORTUNE in 1621. Both Wright and Sam Fuller were carried off in the epidemic of 1633..."
• Robert Charles Anderson, "William Wright",The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, Vol III, Boston, New England Historic Genelogical Society 1995. p. 2075 - 2076.
• Anderson, Sandborn and Sandborn, "John Cooper",The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England 1634-1635, Vol II, Boston, New England Historic Genelogical Society 2001. p. 200 - 205.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jrcrin001/Carpenter_sisters
• ANCESTRAL LINES,compiled by Carl Boyer,3rd, p99.
• Bradford, William. History of Plymouth Plantation (Massachusetts Historical Society, 1856)
• Willison, George F., Saints and Strangers, The Cornwall Press, Cornwall, NY, 1943, Third Printing (and other editions)
• http://mayflowerhistory.com/ - includes the Plymouth Division of Cattle.
• Wood, Ralph V., Jr., Mayflower Families through Five Generations Volume 12, Rockland, Maine: Picton Press, Revised Edition, 2011
• Find A Grave: Memorial #30842190
• William Wright
• John Cooper

• , Clarence Almon. Torrey’s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, 1985)
• Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet. Records of The Colony of New Plymouth, in New England (William White, Bostons, 1855) Vol. 1: Court Orders 1633-1640, Page 32
• J. de Hoop Scheffer. History of the Free Churchmen Called the Brownists, Pilgrim Fathers and Baptists in the Dutch Republic, 1581-1701. (Ithaca, NY, 1922): page 186.