1621, when he was buried in the chancel of his church. He was father of Nathanael Carpenter [q. v.] He wrote:
- ‘A Sorrowful Song for Sinful Souls, composed upon the Strange and Wonderful Shaking, 6 April 1580,’ London, 1580.
- ‘Remember Lot's Wife,’ two sermons, 1588, dedicated to Mary, wife of Bishop Woolton.
- ‘A Preparative to Contentation,’ 1597.
- ‘The Song of the Beloved concerning His Vineyard,’ 1599.
- ‘Contemplation for the Instruction of Children in the Christian Religion.’
- ‘Schelomonocham, or King Solomon, his solace,’ 1606.
- ‘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.]
CARPENTER, LANT, LL.D. (1780–1840), unitarian divine, born at Kidderminster on 2 Sept. 1780, was the third son of George Carpenter (d. 12 Feb. 1839, aged ninety-one), carpet manufacturer, by his wife, Mary Hooke (d. 21 March 1835, aged eighty-three). Ann Lant was the maiden name of George Carpenter's mother. George Carpenter failed in business, and removed from Kidderminster, but Lant was left behind with his mother's guardian, Nicholas Pearsall, who adopted him, with a view to his becoming a minister. Pearsall was a strong unitarian, of much benevolence. He sent him to school, first under Benjamin Carpenter at Stourbridge, and then under William Blake (1730–1799) [q. v.] at the school of Pearsall's own founding in Kidderminster. In 1797 Carpenter entered the dissenting academy at Northampton under John Horsey, and was ranked in the second year of the five years' course. The Northampton academy was the immediate successor of that at Daventry, from which Belsham had retired on adopting unitarian views. Horsey was moderately orthodox, the classical tutor was a polemical Calvinist from Scotland. The arrangement did not work, the minds of the students became unsettled, and the trustees in 1798 abruptly closed the academy. In October of that year Carpenter with two fellow-students entered Glasgow College as exhibitioners under Dr. Williams's trust. His studies there, interrupted at the outset by an attack of rheumatic fever, lasted till 1801. He took the arts course (but did not graduate), adding chemistry and anatomy, for he had a scientific turn, and at one time thought of combining the duties of a physician and a dissenting minister. Divinity he studied for himself, especially during the vacations. Circumstances prevented his continuing at Glasgow for the divinity course. He now thought of schoolkeeping as an adjunct to the ministry (he had already entered the pulpit), and in September 1801 he became assistant in the school of his connection Rev. John Corrie, at Birch's Green, near Birmingham. Next year he supplied for a time the pulpit of the New meeting, Birmingham, vacant by the resignation of John Edwards, but soon accepted the offer of a librarianship at the Liverpool Athenæum. This situation he held from the end of 1802 till March 1805, conducting at the same time advanced classes for young ladies, and occasionally preaching. He declined overtures from congregations at Ipswich, Bury St. Edmunds, Ormskirk, and Dudley, and an invitation (in 1803) to become literary tutor at Manchester College, York (this invitation was renewed in 1807, and again declined). On 9 Jan. 1805 he accepted a co-pastorate at George's meeting, Exeter, as colleague with James Manning, in succession to Timothy Kenrick. Manning was an Arian; Kenrick had been a humanitarian, and this was now Carpenter's standpoint. In philosophy he was a determinist, and an especial admirer of Hartley. At Exeter (where he soon married) Carpenter undertook an extensive pastorate and the cares of a boarding school with an unfailing fervour, method, and success, which were marvellous, considering his far from robust health. He brought out in 1806 a popular manual of New Testament geography. Applying to Glasgow in 1806 for the degree of M.A. by special grace, he was at once made LL.D. In August 1807 the temporary loss of his voice led him to send in his resignation; his congregation in reply gave him a year's freedom from pulpit work, and his colleague undertook the double duty. He employed his leisure in founding and managing a public library. His return to the pulpit in 1808 was followed by a controversy, in which his chief opponent was Daniel Veysie, B.D. In 1810 the congregation of the Mint meeting amalgamated with that of George's meeting; the Mint meeting trustees in 1812 wanted to place an organ in George's meeting, and this was done, not without considerable opposition. In 1813 Carpenter declined a pressing invitation to become colleague with John Yates at Paradise Street Chapel, Liverpool (overtures from the same congregation were made to him in 1823). Another doctrinal controversy in which he had a share in 1814 was summed up in an epigram by Caleb Colton (‘Lacon,’ 1822, ii. 720). He remained at Exeter till 1817, taking an increasing part in public questions, especially
