MEMORIAL SKETCH. 



I. 



William Benjamin Carpenter was born at Exeter, on 

 October 29, 18 13. His father, Dr. Lant Carpenter, was 

 then one of the pastors of George's Meeting ; but the 

 removal of the family from Exeter to Bristol, in 18 17, when 

 William was only in his fourth year, made the latter city 

 the true home of his early life. It was there that the Rev. 

 Dr. Carpenter's labours, which were to leave so deep an 

 impress on all his children, bore their ripest fruit. Schools 

 were created in connection with the congregation of 

 Lewin's Mead ; he took a prominent share in the founda- 

 tion of the Literary and Philosophical Institution ; he was 

 an ardent promoter of Catholic Emancipation and Reform. 

 This was, indeed, only the outer fringe of his home activities. 

 To the work of his ministry he added the long and patient 

 toil of the student, and the ceaseless diligence of the teacher. 

 And the qualities which shone conspicuously through all 

 these phases of his energy, his strong affections, his deep 

 religious earnestness, his commanding sense of duty, his 

 eager zeal for the public good, and especially for education, 

 appeared in one after another of his family. William was 

 his fourth child, and eldest son. Hardly less did the boy 

 owe to his mother, a woman of unusual endowments of 

 mind and heart, who fully shared the austere and high view 

 of life characteristic of her Puritan ancestry. With few 

 advantages of education, her native abilities had been, 

 nevertheless, carefully cultivated ; she had a vigorous and 

 independent mind, which often made it a pleasure for the 

 trained scientific investigator to ask her opinion of his most 

 advanced speculations ; and in the wisdom of her judgment, 

 springing from the clear insight of a pure and tender heart, 

 her children found again and again in their perplexities a 

 secure repose. 



