Capt. Anthony Wheelock 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment – Admiralty

Here is my May Blog a bit late but nevertheless got it out. Spending the summer digitising all my work and stop any new research to avoid duplication. Without further ado here we go.

A direct descendant of Abraham Wheelock was a Civil Servant working to the Admiralty. He left a treasure throve of letters of over 300 pages in the national archives.

Anthony was the eldest of four children who were born to Bryan Wheelock and his wife Frances Whitney.

Anthony was born 31 December 1716, and christened 13 January 1716 (Old style, Affusion ??), at St. James, Westminster, Middlesex, London. He had a sister, Frances, born 04 February 1719, a brother John, born 17 February 1720, and a brother Bryan, born 01 August 1722, but as Bryan is not mentioned in a codicil to his father’s will drawn in 1734, that names of the others, I suspect he died young.

Anthony’s father, Bryan Wheelock, was Secretary to the Board of Trade and Plantations until his death in 1735, and Anthony himself began his career there, being appointed Clerk of the Markets in Jamaica on April 30, 1735, just after his father’s death. (The post’s name is a little misleading, as he was not actually sent to Jamaica — he remained in London).

As to how he got to New York in the colonies– Eventually he became a Captain in His Majesty’s 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot, which was sent to North America on May , 1756, during the French and Indian War.

On September 7, 1759, after the British had won a victory over the French at the battles of Fort Niagara and La Belle Famille, and had captured a few hundred prisoners, Captain Wheelock received a special commission from (then General) Jeffery Amherst, then at Crown Point, who sent him down to New York City to serve as Commissary for the prisoners of war.

Captain Wheelock was in charge of making sure the prisoners and their officers (who were placed in private homes on their parole of honour) were properly housed, paid, and kept track of, and it was also his responsibility to coordinate the prisoner exchanges arranged between the French and British.

For the next couple of years he was in close and continual contact with the captured French officers and their men. He spoke French himself, and appears to have earned the respect of both the prisoners and his own British army superiors. I have read a number of his letters and they show him to be a good and honourable man.

It took some time for all the prisoners to be finally sent back to France at the end of the war, which is why he was still in New York at the end of 1761.

Afterwards, he served as the Crown Agent for his Majesty’s province of East Florida from 1770-1772, and by January 30, 1779, was back in London writing his will, in which he states he is of New Palace Yard in the Parish of St. Margaret of Westminster.

In his will he leaves “to my dear wife Jane Delorest Wheelock the sum of twelve hundred pounds to purchase an Annuity for her life or to be otherwise disposed of as she pleases together with all my household furniture, plate, jewels, and every thing now in the house except my Latin and Greek books which I leave to my only son Jeffrey Wheelock.” Jeffrey also gets what Anthony hopes will be an “overplus of more than two thousand pounds” after his wife gets her share, along with any and all real and personal estate. Anthony adds that, as most of his fortune consists of money due to him “from the Estates of persons dead at Jamaica and my brother John Wheelock’s (deceased) fortune is nearly in the same situation, I fear there will be considerable deficiencies in the payment of both which makes me afraid to leave Legacies to my friends where there may be no assets to pay.”

His will was proved at London on 10 May 1781.

A  letter from Anthony Wheelock to the Admiralty, dated 1730, are enclosed (ADM 106/1053/283). In addition, class WO 34/98, contains copies of correspondence between Jeffrey Amherst,  Commander-in-Chief, North America and Anthony Wheelock over the period 1758 to 1762 (The French and Indian War (1754–1763) pitted the colonies of British America against those of New France) and relate to accounts and expenses of the Army, including prisoners of war and other matters.

These letters cover some 150 folios (i.e., 300 pages!) and hence it is not really feasible to copy to copy all of them. However, what it shows beyond genealogical research is day to day lives of 18^th Century Including his will in 1781.

For Better reading I have added them as PDF documents.

Will

1781 Anthony Wheelock of London PROB11-1078

Letters

Correspondence Anthony Wheelock to Admiralty – 1730 ADM 106-1053-283