NOTE

These papers were given to the Society in 1961 by Frank Tyler Carlton, 1904-1969, who inherited them from his mother, Mary Blanche Whitlock, 1868-1943. She had been born in Bellaire, Ohio. In 1893, in Huntington, Indiana, she married his father Frank Carlton, 1865-1920, who had been born in Andover. Mary Blanche's parents were Edward Morrell Whitlock, 1825-1892 and Mary Sophia Sowers, 1839-1917. Some of the Carlton family portraits and other material was also given to the Society.

Lydia Zanpe Whitlock was probably the grandmother of Edward Morrell Whitlock. Since these are financial papers, with only two letters, it is somewhat difficult to sort out family members. The first paper may be an undated inventory of William Whitlock (sic) of Freehold, New Jersey. In 1739/40 this John, then of Perth Amboy and his brother, Thomas a farrier of Freehold, acted together. In 1760, they were joined by their brother William. By 1760 two sons, John, a bricklayer, and James, of the second John, lived in Freehold. In 1771, these brothers acted together to buy land and build a double house in which they settled down. John married Lydia Zanpe and they seem to have had six children. All was well until John died in 1779 during the Revolution, while James, by now a Captain, was held prisoner on Long Island. The widow, Lydia, tried to contact him by letter. She was left with the estate unsettled, struggling to pay off her husband's debts, some of which he had inherited, with the depreciated currency of the period. She was not able to come to a satisfactory arrangement with her brother-in-law, and relations became so bad that in 1794, he sued her as administrator of her husband's estate. Meanwhile, her son, another John, was growing up and acting in his own capacity. Perhaps he was able to help his mother, as in her old age she was able to afford expensive teas and other luxuries. The papers end in 1826, when she was an aged woman.

The consist mostly of bills and receipts with a few deeds and two letters, one undated by Lydia Zanpe to her aunt and one Lydia to her brother-in-law James Whitlock. They have been divided into groups by family member, with correspondence before bills and receipts.

Processed by Mary F. Morgan, November 1982.