Abigail Briant

Biography

Abigail Briant was baptized at Shalbourne, a village on the historic Berkshire–Wiltshire boundary in southern England, on May 27, 1604. She married William Carpenter there on April 28, 1625 and travelled with him and their children to Massachusetts on the Bevis in 1638. Their family became established at Weymouth, south of Boston, and then Rehoboth, at that time a larger settlement spanning parts of today’s southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island.

William's death in 1658/9 left Abigail with both an inheritance and responsibility for distributing his estate. He made her executrix. The will specified where she could live: the room he had occupied and the chamber above it, with access to the fire for her household needs. It also provided land, animals, bedding, cooking vessels and pewter. Some of her rights depended on whether she remained a widow.

The arrangements extended beyond possessions. Samuel was to break up land for her use, while Abigail and Samuel were to help Abiah build his house. Cloth already in the household was assigned toward clothing Abigail and the children still with her. Her discretion mattered too: she was to select a suit of better clothes for Joseph, and the remainder after the named legacies was to be distributed among the children with the overseers' assistance.

Abigail also received books, including a Bible and works of religious instruction. These stood in the same document as the kettle, skillet, livestock and land, part of the household provision William intended her to retain. She survived him for about twenty-eight years. The Rehoboth record gives her burial as February 22, 1686/7.

Their son William was baptized at Shalbourne in 1631.

The burial listing associates Abigail Briant with Newman Cemetery, East Providence, Providence County, Rhode Island, United States.