Lant Carpenter (2 September 1780 – 5 or 6 April 1840) was an English educator and Unitarian minister.

Early life

Lant Carpenter was born in Kidderminster, the third son of George Carpenter and his wife Mary (Hooke). He was christened on 2 September 1780 in Kidderminster. His parents separated after his father's business failed, and Nicholas Pearsall, his mother's guardian and a Unitarian, saw to his education. For two years from age 13 he was at Stourbridge, taught by his uncle the Rev. Benjamin Carpenter, then returned to Kidderminster where he was at a school founded by Pearsall, and was taught by William Blake. After some months at Northampton Academy under John Horsey, Carpenter transferred to the University of Glasgow and then joined the ministry. After a short time as assistant master at a Unitarian school near Birmingham, in 1802 he was appointed librarian at the Liverpool Athenaeum.

Minister

In 1805 Carpenter became pastor of a chapel in Exeter. He moved to Bristol in 1817, to take up a post as minister at the Unitarian chapel in Lewin's Mead. At both Bristol and Exeter he was also engaged in school work, among his Bristol pupils being Harriet and James Martineau, Samuel Greg, and the Westminster Review's John Bowring. Lant Carpenter did much to broaden the spirit of English Unitarianism. He believed in the essential lawfulness of the creation. This meant that natural causes were the explanation of the world as we find it. The rite of baptism seemed to him a superstition and he substituted for it a form of infant dedication.

Last years

Carpenter's health broke down in 1839 and he was ordered to travel. He drowned on 5 or 6 April 1840, having been washed overboard from the steamer in which he was travelling from Livorno to Marseille. His body washed ashore about two months later near the Porto d'Anzio and was buried on the beach.

Works

In 1820, Carpenter authored An Examination of the Charges Made Against Unitarians and Unitarianism. A collection of his sermons were published in 1840 as Sermons on Practical Subjects. For Rees's Cyclopædia he contributed the articles on Education, Vol 12, (1809); Language, Vol 20, (1812); and Mental & Moral Philosophy, Vol 23, (1812/13). Bibliography

Family

Lant Carpenter married Anna or Hannah Penn, daughter of John Penn and Mary, in 1806 in Worcester. Anna was christened on 11 May 1787 in Bromsgrove, Worcester. Their marriage had the following issue:

Misquotations

"The wise and active conquer difficulties By daring to attempt them. Sloth and Folly shiver and shrink at the sight of toil and danger, And make the impossibilities they fear." Lant Carpenter, about 1800, from page 14, Memoirs of the Life of Rev. Lant Carpenter, LL.D. Note: This quotation has been incorrectly attributed as by Lant Carpenter, but from the source shown above it states that it was said to Lant Carpenter by a friend. The quotation is originally from a play written in 1700 by Nicholas Rowe and called "The Ambitious Step-mother" and is from Act 1, Scene 1.