Sacer, i. 31, Cologne, 1608) took to refer to the famous Alexander of Hales; but the edition printed by Koberger at Nuremberg in 1496 states in the colophon that the 'Destructorium' was compiled 'a cuiusdam fabri lignarii filio,' and begun in 1429. A similar note, giving the same date, appears at the end of a copy of the book written in 1479, and belonging to the library of Balliol College, Oxford (cod. lxxxi.) A more modern entry in this manuscript adds that the author was fellow of Balliol College, an assertion which was also made by Gabriel Powel (Disputationes Theologicæ et Scholasticæ de Anti-christo, præf. p. 39, London, 1606), but was discredited by Anthony à Wood on the ground that no evidence was forthcoming in the college itself (Hist. et Antiqq, Univ, Oxon. ii. 75 a, Oxford, 1674). Recent researches in the muniments have not discovered any trace of Carpenter's connection with the college.
Powel and after him Bale (Script. Brit. Cat. vii. 77, p. 566) claim Carpenter as a follower of Wyclifie; they both refer to book vi. ch. xxx. of the 'Destructorium' in proof of his theological position; but the language he uses in condemnation of sundry abuses in the church is not stronger than was frequently employed by the most correct churchmen of the middle ages, and does not permit us to describe him as a Wycliffite without more distinct evidence. Bale adds that Carpenter was the author of certain 'Homiliæ eruditæ,' of which nothing further is known.
[See also Tanner's Bibl. Brit. p. 155.]
CARPENTER, GEORGE, Lord Carpenter (1667–1732), general, descended from the ancient family of Carpenter of Holme in Herefordshire, was born at Pitchers Ocul, Herefordshire, on 10 Feb. 1657. His father, a royalist soldier, was wounded at the battle of Naseby, and George, who was the youngest of seven children, commenced life as a page to the Earl of Montagu in his embassy to Paris in 1671. In the following year he rode as a private in the 3rd troop of guards, and shortly afterwards he was appointed quartermaster in Lord Peterborough's regiment of horse. In this regiment he served for seventeen years, and eventually became lieutenant-colonel, and with it he saw service both in the Irish campaign of 1690 and in Flanders. In 1693 he married the Honourable Alice Margetson, daughter of William, first viscount Charlemont, and widow of James Margetson, with a portion of whose dowry he purchased for 1,800 guineas the colonelcy of the King's dragoon guards. With this regiment he served in Flanders, and became famous for his conspicuous gallantry. In 1705 Carpenter was appointed a brigadier-general under Peterborough, and seems to have performed the double function of quartermaster-general and general of the cavalry in Spain. As a quartermaster-general he was said to have no equal, and as a general of cavalry he saved the baggage of the English army, and covered the retreat at the head of his dragoons after the defeat of Almanga. He was wounded at Almenara, and was severely wounded in the mouth and taken prisoner while desperately defending the breach at Brihuega. He was promoted lieutenant-general in 1710, and on his return to England was one of the general officers who were resolved at all hazards to maintain the protestant succession. When George I had been proclaimed, Stanhope nominated Carpenter to go as ambassador to Vienna, but on the outbreak of the rebellion of 1715 he was entrusted instead with supreme command over all the forces in the north of England. He prevented the rebels from seizing Newcastle, and when he heard that they had advanced into Lancashire, rapidly followed them; found them at Preston, where General Wills was blockading them in a half-hearted way, and forced the whole rebel army to capitulate. On reaching London he was challenged by General Wills in February 1716, and a duel was with difficulty prevented by the Dukes of Montagu and Marlborough. In return for his great services he was nominated governor of Minorca and commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland. In 1714 he was returned to parliament as M.P. for Whitchurch in Hampshire, and on 29 May 1719 he was created Lord Carpenter of Killaghy, co. Kilkenny, in the peerage of Ireland. In 1722 he was elected M.P. for Westminster, but did not seek re-election in 1729, and died at the age of seventy-five, on 10 Feb. 1732, and was buried at Ouselbury in Hampshire. His grandson was created Viscount Carlingford and Earl of Tyrconnel in the peerage of Ireland on 1 May 1761, but the earldom, viscounty, and barony became extinct on the death of the fourth earl, 26 Jan. 1853.
[Life of the late Right Honourable George, Lord Carpenter, London. Printed for Edward Curll, 1736, from which all other notices are borrowed; Lord Mahon's War of the Spanish Succession in Spain, for his services in Spain.]
CARPENTER, JAMES (1760–1845), admiral, entered the navy in 1776 on board the Foudroyant, then commanded by Captain Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vincent.
