Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carpenter, John (d.1621)

by William Prideaux Courtney

CARPENTER, JOHN (d. 1621), divine, was born in Cornwall, it is believed at Launceston, and entered as a batler at Exeter College about 1570, but after a residence of four years left without taking a degree and became rector of Northleigh, near Honiton, in Devonshire. Here he continued throughout his life, and here he died in March 1621, when he was buried in the chancel of his church. He was father of Nathanael Carpenter [q. v.] He wrote:

1. ‘A Sorrowful Song for Sinful Souls, composed upon the Strange and Wonderful Shaking, 6 April 1580,’ London, 1580.
2. ‘Remember Lot's Wife,’ two sermons, 1588, dedicated to Mary, wife of Bishop Woolton.
3. ‘A Preparative to Contentation,’ 1597.
4. ‘The Song of the Beloved concerning His Vineyard,’ 1599.
5. ‘Contemplation for the Instruction of Children in the Christian Religion.’
6. ‘Schelomonocham, or King Solomon, his solace,’ 1606.
7. ‘The Plaine Man's Spiritual Plough,’ dedicated to Bishop Cotton.

[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 287–8; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. pp. 63, 1115; Arber's Stationers' Registers, iii. 193, 235.]

W. P. C.