Carpenter was the only son of George Carpenter, 1st Baron Carpenter, by Alice of Ocle Pychard, Herefordshire. He was born at Livers Ocle in Ocle Pychard, 7 miles north-east of Hereford.
Career
Carpenter gained the rank of Cornet in 1704 in the service of the 1st Regiment of Horse Guards. He became Captain in 1712 and Lieutenant Colonel of the Regiment in 1715. He was Member of Parliament for Morpeth from 1717 to 1727 as a Whig and for Weobley between 1741 and 1747. He was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society on 5 June 1729. He succeeded his father in the barony on 10 February 1731. This was an Irish peerage which allowed him to remain a member of the House of Commons. On 23 May 1733 he inherited the estate of The Homme in Dilwyn, Herefordshire from his second cousin, Thomas Carpenter.
Private life
He died 12 July 1749 at Grosvenor Square, London and was buried in family vault at Owlesbury Church. His will, dated 31 December 1748, was probated on 24 July 1749. His only surviving son George succeeded in the barony and was later elevated to Earl of Tyrconnell. On 26 August 1722 at Leyton, Essex he married Elizabeth Petty, the only daughter of David Petty and Mary Crokes of Wanstead. They had two children:
George Carpenter, later 3rd Baron Carpenter, who was made Earl of Tyrconnell and Viscount of Carlingford in 1761.
Carpenter Street in Brunswick, Georgia is named after George Carpenter, 2nd Baron Carpenter, in honour of his role as one of the original trustees of the Colony of Georgia.
Coat of arms
Lord Carpenter's Arms appear to be of French or Norman origin, "Paly of six, argent and gules, on a chevron azure, 3 cross crosslets or." Crest, on a wreath a globe in a frame all or. Supporters, two horses, party-perfess, embattled argent and gules. Motto: "Per Acuta Belli". These arms descend from John Carpenter, the younger who was the noted Town Clerk of London during the reigns of King Henry V & King Henry VI. These arms are often referred to as the Hereford arms, named for the later ancestral home of the Carpenter Family in Hereford, England. The Crest, supporters and motto apparently have changed several times over the centuries. Sir William Boyd Carpenter, an English clergyman of the Established church of England, Bishop of Ripon, afterwards a Canon of Westminster and Chaplain to the reigning sovereign of England, wrote in a letter dated 7 August 1907 that his family bore the Hereford Arms. Sir Noel Paton, upon painting the family arms, informed him that the supporters were originally a round-handled sword, which in drawing over time became shortened, until nothing but the cross and globe were left beneath it. Those Hereford Arms were used by "John Carpenter, town clerk of London, who died 1442 A. D." His grandson John Boyd-Carpenter, Baron Boyd-Carpenter, continued the arms into the new century by passing it down to his son, Thomas Boyd-Carpenter, who was himself knighted after a military career as a Lieutenant-General and for public service. There is no direct male-to-male Carpenter descent connecting Lord Carpenter and Sir William Boyd Carpenter. The connection is by marriage through the females in the family.
