Hi Janan,
Re: Peter & Joan of Potton.
Concur there are a series of plausible stepping stones back to these people for the Wrestlingworth Carvers, alas without the definitive proof, as yet. For what it's worth, for a long time I was inclined to believe that although some of the links might eventually prove false, I tended to the view that all Bedfordshire Carver roads led back to Potton, the 1550s and Peter Carver, albeit in a possibly more circuitous/devious route and that the Cambridgeshire bunch derived in some way from the Bedfordshire Carvers. I am now less inclined to believe this scenario and more inclined to believe that the Cambridgeshire Carvers were the centre of the Carver Universe and that the Bedfordshire Carvers are a satellite of them and what link there is between them goes even futher back.
I, of course, have no definitive proof of this - it is more of a gut feel backed up by the following pontifications. Apologies if its a little woolly and high-falutin' in parts...
Social mobility (good modern phrase!). The two Carver strands seem almost chalk and cheese, right down the centuries.
The Cambridgeshire Carvers by the 18th and 19th centuries are the pillars of South Cambridgeshire society, becoming doctors, surgeons, lawyers, adminstrators. Carvers here are marrying into the top strata of Melbourn society in the Fordhams (owners of the local Bank) and the Beaumonts (landed gentry who owned most of Whaddon) and the Danseys (reported in
Gentleman's Magazine). This doesn't happen overnight in these times, it usually takes many generations to achieve such social status.
The Bedfordshire Carvers on the other hand, are typically agricultural labourers, straw plaiters or tradesmen, such as our wheelwrighters. Us lot, (I'm almost tugging my forelock as I speak here), we end up in the workhouse or the asylum and not in the Society Gossip columns of the day. When we look through the Carvers of the 16th-19th centuries, there is an infinitesimally small amount of social mobility going on here (the glorious exception here being the Cambridgeshire one who 'opted' for Australia). I just can't see how the Cambridgeshire Carvers established themselves from the Bedfordshire Carvers and rose so completely in one or two generations. I feel it far more likely to be the other way round. In which case - what 'happened' to the Bedfordshire Carvers...?
The evidence is mounting that the Carvers gained their foothold in society in the Melbourn area through the development of dissenter/non-conformist religion. Then, through the Rev. William Carver and William Crole Carver, they become part of the religious/educational establishment, and I am inclined to believe that the success/profitability of this religious movement coupled with the desire to spread the word, led to the move into Bedfordshire, perhaps via Northants and Hertfordshire, through the likes of Thomas Carver-Bromidge, of the religion/church and perhaps swept up/generated the Carvers there. It would be only natural to do this through the extended family but the further you get from the centre (Melbourn), the less profitable and riskier an enterprise this becomes and the greater the probability of denudation of wealth, prestige and influence which in the long run manifests itself in descending the social ladder.
We have as long ago as the 1590s, a Thomas Carver in Melbourn who was the 'Clerk Curate'. This suggests two things to me, firstly that the Carvers in Melbourn were members of a religious order way before the Rev. William Carver came along. Secondly, I assume a clerk of any description must be able to read and write, which in the 1590s would place this individual in a very small, well-educated minority - suggesting even then that the Carvers here were already well-established in society. Surely, it would make more sense that the Melbourn Carvers of the 18th century were direct descendants of the earlier Melbourn Carvers, rather than of any Bedfordshire derivation.
It is fascinating how just when you think you might have a grip on the Carvers in this geographical area, it seems to slip away again. We are fortunate though that we may have the answer available to us. I know it was mooted earlier on these pages (I think by Chris) that DNA profiling amongst us
might establish a link between the two Carver family strands. I don't know the ins and outs of this process, but it might well be the only way we are now going to settle this...did anything become of this suggestion, Chris?
Cheers all,
Neil.
