344 T. C. ELLIOTT
be offered for this apparent ignorance by his friends in Eng- land.
The scholarly research by Dr. Browning has brought to light other genealogical facts of interest. The great grandfather of Jonathan Carver was Robert Carver, a brother of Governor John Carver, of Plymouth, and a settler at Marsh field, Massa- chusetts, about 1638. And it may be remarked by way of digression that at Marshfield in later years lived Daniel Webster, who had so much influence in the diplomatic settle- ment of sovereignty over the Oregon Country. The father of our traveler was Ensign David Carver, who was a man of prominence and of property both at Weymouth and at Canter- bury. Ensign Carver held various offices in the town govern- ments, and, at the time of his death in Canterbury in 1727, left no small amount of personal and real property to his widow and children. An uncle of the traveler, on his mother's side, was Colonel John Dyer, "prominent in the affairs of Connecticut." A cousin was "Hon. Eliphalet Dyer, LL. D., a member of the continental congress, and later chief justice of the state of Connecticut." Another maternal uncle was Solomon Pain, "widely known as a leader and organizer of the Separatist Church movement in Connecticut, perhaps the greatest religious schism that has ever stirred the old state." Dr. Browning sums up his findings as follows : "Carver came of able stock on both sides. His family had means. He enjoyed the best advantages the time and place afforded. His nearest older relatives were men of influence and standing, large factors in the life and activities of a wide region."
In this same connection Dr. Browning- mentions some of the opportunities open to Jonathan Carver to acquire skill as an artisan in the making of shoes or some knowledge of the prac- tice of medicine, but offers no evidence that he ever hammered a last or prescribed a powder. This remark is injected because the late Edward Gaylord Bourne, of Yale University, char- acterized Carver as "an unlettered shoemaker," incapable of producing such a book as his Travels, etc. ; and Dr. Lettsom
