Caleb Carr I
Privacy Level: Open (White)

Caleb Carr I (bef. 1623 - 1695)

Governor Caleb Carr I
Born before in Maidstone, Kent, Englandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Brother of
Husband of — married 21 Mar 1653 in Allington, Kent, Englandmap
Husband of — married 21 Dec 1675 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died after age 72 in Newport, Rhode Islandmap
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Puritan Great Migration Project WikiTree private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 19 Sep 2010
This page has been accessed 8,998 times.
The Puritan Great Migration.
Caleb Carr I migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Great Migration (Series 2), by R. C. Anderson, vol. 2, p. 11)
Join: Puritan Great Migration Project
Discuss: pgm

Contents

Disputed Origins

Many attempts have been made to link Robert and Caleb to various high born Scottish lineages. They were not born 4 Oct 1614 and 9 Dec 1616 to Benjamin, son of Sir William Kerr[1]

Biography

Birth

Caleb Carr, son of Nicholas Carr, was baptized 23 Nov 1623, in Maidstone, Kent, England. His mother, the wife of Nicholas was Margaret (Carr) (Nelman) Carr.[2]
Other dates are now over-ridden.
  • 9 December 1616. From The Carr Family Records: There is an old bible come down to the current generation (1894), printed in London in 1585. On the first blank page written in a woman's hand. "My maiden name was Susan Rothchild. I was born .... I married William Carr ... My husband has a brother Benjamin Carr ... I am acquainted with him and his family. He has four sons, Robert Carr, born Oct. 4, 1614; Caleb Carr, born Dec 9, 1616; Richard Carr, born Jan 5, 1621; Andrew Carr, born Dec 5, 1622. ..."[3]
    • Caleb's Find-A-Grave entry uses this date.[4]
  • About 1624. Sailed on the Elizabeth and Ann bound for New England. Boarded ship 9 May 1635. Robert Carr, 21, A Tayler; Calebb Carr, 11[5] This would make Robert born 1614, but Caleb b. about 1624. The Carr Family Record makes the claim he was 19 at the time of sailing. Was Caleb's age at migration perhaps a transcription error?
  • 9 Dec 1624. This comes from The Carr Book (1947)[6] and looks like the date from the earlier Carr Family Records with the year from Hotten's Lists of Persons to reconcile the difference between the two.
  • Even his tombstone inscription has not clarified his birth. It read "Here lieth interred the body of Caleb Carr, governor of this colony, who departed this life ye 17th day of December, 1695, in ye 73rd (79) year of his age."[3] 1695-72=1623. 1695-79=1616. Was the Carr Family Records author trying to correct the age, adding (79) so it agreed with their bible birth, 1616. Or perhaps the stone was unclear.
  • Anderson in his Great Migration profile about Caleb uses born about 1624.[7]

Migration

He immigrated on the ship Elizabeth and Anne, Roger Cooper, Master. She sailed about the middle of May and arrived in Boston in midsummer, with one hundred and two passengers (6 May 1635), Robert Carr age 21 Tailor, Caleb Carr age 11. [8] [9][10]

Life in New England

He settled first in Bristol, then in Newport, R. I., with his brother Robert about 1640. He held many offices of public trust and honor during his lifetime, and accumulated considerable property. He was general treasurer from May 21, 1661, to May 22, 1662. In 1687-8, he was justice of the General Quarterly Session and Inferior Court of Common Pleas. He was governor of the colony in 1695, which last office he held till his death, which occurred on the 17th day of December, of the same year. He was drowned. In religious belief he was a Friend or Quaker.

Will[11]

The will of Caleb Carr of Newport, Seignor, is dated 8 March 1693/4 and was proved 6 January 1695. It mentions:
  • wife Sarah Carr
  • daughters Sarah Carr and Elizabeth Carr
  • an enslaved black woman named Hannah and boy named Jo and an enslaved Indian boy named Tom
  • sons John Carr, Nicholas Carr, Caleb Carr, Edward Carr, Francis Carr, and James Carr
  • brother Robert Carr
  • daughter Marcy/Mercy Paine and her husband Thomas Paine
  • grandson Job Carr, son of his son Samuel Carr

Executors were sons Nicholas and Caleb. The will states that Nicholas, Caleb, John, Edward, and Samuell all had one mother, while Frances, James, Sarah, and Elizabeth were children of his current wife Sarah.

Burial

Carr Cemetery, Newport, RI[12]
Buried on the family burying ground on Mill Street, besides his first wife.
Governor Carr Lot, Jamestown, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA
Plot: GPS: N 41 31.234 W 071 21.974[13]

Family[14]

Married (1) Mercy Roby 21 March 1652/3 in Allington, Kent. Mercy was the daughter of Caleb's stepmother.[2] She died before 21 Sep 1675
Married (2) Sarah (Clark) Pinner d/o Jeremiah 21 Dec 1675
Children by first wife
  1. Nicholas b. 22 Oct 1654
  2. Mercy b. 3 Apr 1656; died soon
  3. Caleb b. 23 Aug 1657
  4. Samuel b. 15 Dec 1658
  5. Mercy b. 7 Jan 1661
  6. John b. say 1663; m. by about 1686 Wait Easton daughter of Peter and Ann (Coggeshall) Easton, and granddaughter of Nicholas Easton.
  7. Edward b. say 1665
  8. son b. say 1667 n.f.r
  9. Son b. say 1669 n.f.r
Children by 2nd wife
  1. Francis b. 16 Dec 1676
  2. James b. 21 Oct 1678
  3. Sarah b. 1680
  4. Elizabeth b. 22 Dec 1682

Sources

  1. Carr, Edson I. The Carr Family Records Embacing [sic] the record of the first families who settled in America and their descendants, with many branches who came to this country at a later date (Rockton, Ill., Herald printing house, 1894) link to book at Archive p. 13
  2. 2.0 2.1 Robert Battle, "The English Origin of Robert Carr and Caleb Carr of Rhode Island" Rhode Island Roots, 48 (2022): 58-75.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Carr, Edson I., The Carr family records : embracing [sic] the record of the first families who settled in America and their descendants, with many branches who came to this country at a later date, Rockton, Ill.: Herald Print. House, 1894. pp, 8, 9, tombstone inscr. p. 16.
  4. Find A Grave: Memorial #43349523; Caleb “Governor” Carr, born December 9,1616, Greater London, England; died December 17, 1695, (aged 79), at Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA Wilbur-403 12:12, 8 November 2018 (UTC)
  5. Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. London: John Camden Hotten, 1874 p. 77
  6. Carr, Arthur A., The Carr book : sketches of the lives of many of the descendants of Robert and Caleb Carr, whose arrival on this continent in 1635 began the American story of our family, Ticonderoga, N.Y.: A.A. Carr, 1947. p. 7
  7. Great Migration 1634-1635, C-F. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C-F, by Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001. [https://www.americanancestors.org/DB115/i/7373/11/235156001 link at American Ancestors ($)
  8. Robert Carr and Caleb Carr arrival, in Charles Edward Banks, The Planters of the commonwealth and the ships that brought them 1820-1640, #67 of 787 numbered copies. Page 154pp 154, 155, 156, 157; page 157
  9. Carr, Arthur A.. The Carr book : sketches of the lives of many of the descendants of Robert and Caleb Carr, whose arrival on this continent in 1635 began the American story of our family.. Ticonderoga, N.Y.: A.A. Carr, 1947. p. 7
  10. Hotten, John Camden (editor). The Original Lists of Persons of Quality: Emigrants, Religious Exiles, Political Rebels, Serving Men Sold for a Term of Years, Apprentices, Children Stolen, Maidens Pressed, and Others, who Went from Great Britain to the American Plantations, 1600-1700. London: John Camden Hotten, 1874. (p. 77)
  11. Fiske: Item 12
  12. Representative Men of Rhode Island
  13. Find A Grave: Memorial #43349523; Caleb “Governor” Carr, born December 9,1616, Greater London, England; died December 17, 1695, (aged 79), at Newport, Newport County, Rhode Island, USA Wilbur-403 12:12, 8 November 2018 (UTC): "Governor" Caleb Carr was elected Governor of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in May, 1695. He died in Newport, Rhode Island on December 17, 1695, having served for just seven months. Carr was born in London, England, on December 9, 1616 and emigrated to North America in 1635, with his older brother, Robert Carr. He served the Colony as general treasurer. In 1687-88 he was justice of the General Quarter Session and Inferior Court of Common Pleas. Caleb Carr was twice married. He was buried in a small family burying ground in Newport, but on 8 September 1900, the bodies of Caleb and his second wife Mercy were disinterred and moved to the small private family cemetery family on the island of Jamestown. The graves are marked with the stones that marked their graves in Newport.
  14. Great Migration 1634-1635, C-F. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume II, C-F, by Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001. [https://www.americanancestors.org/DB115/i/7373/11/235156001 link at American Ancestors ($)

See also:





Sponsored Search by Ancestry.com

DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Caleb by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. Y-chromosome DNA test-takers in his direct paternal line on WikiTree: It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Caleb:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.



Comments: 16

Leave a message for others who see this profile.
There are no comments yet.
Login to post a comment.
I have an article on the ancestry of Caleb and Robert Carr and the former's wife Mercy appearing in the current issue of Rhode Island Roots. I'll try to update this more fully once I get my copy of the journal, unless someone else with access to the digital version (or a sooner-mailed print version) gets to it first.
posted by Robert Battle
Look Into " Davol-Willits Genealogy" book, Herbert Davol And his wife Phebe Downing Willits Genealogy page 49 has much infomation on Benjamin, Robert and Caleb. Their parents and spouses.
posted by Mike Chin
Somehow during previous discussions Caleb never got attached as son of the Unknown Carr we created to attach him to his brother Robert. I am going to remedy this now. Disconnect the unproven Benjamin and attach Carr-10120
posted by Anne B
If the documentation supports a brother Robert with whom Caleb traveled to America, I find it curious that there is no brother Robert listed here. There is an unsourced profile for Robert Carr (Carr-710) where someone has indicated that it is the son of Benjamin and Martha Hardington Carr but I don't see that referenced here.
posted by Marjorie (Fish) Luce
I would think at least the 1st wife's surname could be fixed.

Anderson says her surname was unknown. "The claim that Mercy's surname was Vaughan is most likely an invention, derived from confusion with the fact that the stepfather of Caleb's second wife was William Vaughan."

I agree, the parents should be detached with appropriate notations and links on all profiles involved. If in the future, new research finds the relationship correct, they can certainly be reattached.

Not all siblings have been add.
posted by [Living Porter]
Where's the brother Robert?
posted by Jillaine Smith
Bristol, Plymouth Colony does not exist until 1681, it says he settled there first but elsewhere it say he arrived in 1624.
posted by Michael Stills
It is one thing if the evidence for or against was vague. In this case, the evidence has been looked at and demonstrated to be lacking. Unless there is better evidence suggestion the relationship, the parents should be removed with the ususal notation about the unproven connection.
posted by Michael Stills
He didn't but perhaps he would like to respond.
posted by Anne B
What source did the person objecting cite for keeping the parents?
posted by Jillaine Smith
One of the manager's objected to this disconnection, so I'm marking as uncertain.

I really think this is not a good plan. If we leave unproven parents attached, no one will ever look for proof that these exist or look for other parents.

posted by Anne B