Bunches of Barlows shows him to be married to ELIZABETH CARLTON, daughter of JOHN CARLTON and ELIZABETH WALLACE.

However: A. Maxim Coppage and Teri Freedman who have done much research on the family and show proof that her name was JANE whom he married around 1762 in Campbell Co Virginia.

In a letter written by Teri to David Sadler, she cites her sources:

I don't have my stuff in front of me now, obviously, but I am so steeped in this family after all the research I did that I know a lot of it by heart fairly reliably -- so I will try to give you "ballpark" answers, OK!

In the Nicholas Co Kentucky will, it does NOT list his wife as Elizabeth. His wife was JANE. He had a daughter, Elizabeth. How do I know that Thomas wife was Jane? In Campbell Co Virginia, he sold his property. .. several hundred acres on the Staunton River in what would now be Lynchburg ... about 1797. There is a paragraph towards the end of the will where the Clerk or JP states that they have "taken his wife Jean/Jane apart separately and asked her whether she agrees to sell her the property and relinquish her dower rights in it. Jane agreed and made her mark...she was illiterate. I have a photocopy of the will. I have also abstracted it.

Thomas bought this land about 1792 from the Talbot family, a very prominent family, for a "song" compared to what he later sold it for.

I have always wondered whether wife Jane might have been a Talbot relation, but so far no proof." Max and I both found the same Albemarle Co Thomas, wife Elizabeth Carlton, and I have always thought it possible that perhaps she was the first wife and mother of the oldest children, but that is just a theory ...since no marriage record for any Thomas & Jane can be found except the Northampton County. Thomas / Jane Holbrooke Mapp, who are an entirely separate couple who left only daughters and were dead well before our Thomas sold his Campbell Co land in 1797.

If there is a will mentioning a "wife Elizabeth", then perhaps it is a different Thomas? The Scott Co Kentucky Thomas's wife's name escapes me just now, but she was from the Yadkin Valley, NC, and her family was a neighboring family to our Eliphalet's so I am sure that I am correct that the Scott & Nicholas Co branches were from the same "tree". I would love to see this reference, because there is absolutely no wife Elizabeth in the Nicholas Co Kentucky Thomas will, that I recall ... and I could recite the thing in my sleep at one point ... the DAR is MOST rigorous in its proof standards, and I had a heckuva time establishing Thomas as a new patriot!

I have copies of the Bourbon Co Kentucky deeds and the Nicholas Co Ky deeds, and have worked out from the ones of our Thomas's son, William, that our Jane, wife of Thomas must've died about 1819, because that is when reference to her in the deeds stops.

In published abstracts of this Kentucky same will, it states that Eliphalet Barlow is the son of Thomas -- but he was not his son -- Eliphalet was the son of Rev. John Barlow of the Yadkin Valley, NC ... and yes, it is just an educated guess on my part, and that of Max Coppage, that Eliphilet was "bribed" to marry Millie because she is a bit older than he and also she was over 25 when they married, which was considered quite "long in the tooth" for a bride in those days -- AND, Thomas leaves Eliphalet "his house, per our agreement" -- WHAT agreement? It must've been a gentlemen's agreement, because I have every deed ...

Max and I were working on a theory that perhaps the Scott County Kentucky Henry Barlow was a brother o f our Thomas Barlow, and that perhaps their father was one of the Albemarle Co Virginia Barlow's who came to Virginia in the 1600's. Henry was the father of another Thomas Barlow, of Scott Co Kentucky, who was about 20 yrs younger than ours and was a Pvt in the Revolutionary War and had a daughter Milly who died unmarried and left a will in the 1840's.

Finally, for now -- how am I related to John and Lucy Barlow Sadler? If she is the one I thought was "Linsey" in the will, then she was a sister of my Millie Barlow, who married Eliphalet ... love that name! My children refer to him as Grandpa Elephant Barlow, son of the Yadkin Valley Baptist minister ... whose wife may have been a Dameron, making me a double-Dameron as well as a double-Barlow. It is very curious to me that the Barlow Methodist Church ... still standing in 1985 -- I had a very cordial invitation from them to come for supper, when visiting my husband's Ohio family... on the Barlow Pike in Kentucky should be on land provided by Eliphalet -- who was the son of a pioneering Baptist minister! Eliphalet also provided the land for the first schoolhouse, the church pastor wrote to me. The Barlows were very committed to education and the church, across the board -- no matter which branch of the family I have encountered. So I suppose I come by my profession as a high school English teacher "genetically"!

As for "not seeing a death/remarriage" taking place w/kids spaced every couple of years ..approximately.. -- it happened! I have several ancestors who replaced wives who died in childbirth within 6 months ...e.g., my gr3 grandfather William Coppage, cousin to George Washington, who went through 5 wives in producing 17 children who survived him. I descend from the "babe yet unborn" when his will was written!

Francis Robinson states objections / opinions

I would point out here that I strongly disagree with some of the logic used in the listing of Thomas Barlow's wife as "Jane" instead of Elizabeth on this page. I believe Freedman and Coppage skidded off of the road in looking at this for the following reasons.

1. Lewis Carlton is listed as a brother-in-law.

2. There is a daughter named "Elizabeth Jane" Barlow. Why on earth would you try to extrapolate that it was two daughters named "Elizabeth" and "Jane"? Why would you not think that she was named after a mother "Elizabeth Jane" after finding both names mentioned as Thomas' wife?

3. I have buckets full of ancestors that did not use their own name but were known generally by a pet name that their husband gave them early on. My own first name is Francis but there thousands of people (including all of my family) that have only known me as "Jim".

4. Thomas Barlow's wife signed with an "X". She would have no idea what name the lawyer had written on the paper. He may have never heard the name Elizabeth used. I think that listing a "Jane" as the second wife or indeed the only wife and excluding Elizabeth as some have tried is pretty much of a reach... It is hard to exclude her when a Carlton is listed as a brother-in-law to Thomas.

I just like to keep pointing this out as the (IMHO) weak "Jane" theory is so often accepted just because it was published. Books are full of errors...

BTW, My ggg-grandmother Nancy Gosnell (who married Jesse Barlow) had a brother Benjamin.   The Gosnell's and the Barlow's migrated together and married back and forth a number of times. especially in Thomas Barlows' children.

Another note: The origin of this line is generally unknown but I would like to point out that Milton Barlow (of the William Henry Harrison Barlow line) said in the History of Kentucky that his family were originally French Huguenots...

As stated in Teri's letter, pubished abstracts are not always correct, as this abstract of Thomas will does not even mention a wife, and only mentions a few of his children:

Nicholas Co Kentucky     1800 - 1816     Will Book A, pages 127-129 BARLOW THOMAS     September 10, 1808 ~ November 1808 Sons: William, Jesse      Daughters: Elizabeth Jane, Mary Epison, Edith King, Liency Saddler, Milly Executor: William Barlow,Jesse Baskett Note: Perhaps Elizabeth Jane should be Elizabeth and Jane, and why is Edith a King? Was that her middle name? Did she remarry? Maybe her mother was a King .... and maybe this transcription is in error.

Headquarters Kentucky, January 11, 1875 / Contributed by Carolyn Walls, Paris Kentucky

IN MEMORIAM        MRS. ELIZABETH BARLOW

Died, on the morning of the 10th inst., at her residence, near Headquarters, Kentucky, Mrs. Elizabeth Barlow, who was ninety-four years and nine days old.

Mrs. Barlow's maiden name was Taylor. She was born in Montgomery County, Maryland, January 01, 1781. Her parents emigrated to this State in 1797 and located in the Irish station where William McMiller now lives, where she was married to John Barlow in 1799. After her marriage she lived about one year on Cedar creek, near Kentontown & in November, 1800, her husband bought the farm where she died and removed to it, and there they lived an uneventful life up to the death of her husband, which occurred March 21, 1845. She was the mother of thirteen children -- all of whom she raised to be men and women with one exception -- seven boys and six girls, of which number there are but five that have survived her -- two men and three women --- four of them living with her at the time of her death and unmarried.

The oldest being sixty- six years old and her youngest fifty-four. She was in many respects a remarkable woman. Being very healthy, she was very industrious. She was religiously opposed to visiting or going much away from home. She never visited Carlisle but once during her life which was in 1815 - -- just after the county seat was removed there. She never saw the Maysville and Lexington turnpike road ... cut off .... within less than two miles of it -- had not been to Headquarters for more than twenty-five years, although she continued to be active and lively on foot up to within a short time of her death. She was a woman of fine natural sense, yet did not, to my knowledge entertain or express any religious belief whatever and never attended any religious service of any kind.

She was a kind and considerate neighbor obliging and attentive to the wants and necessities of her friends. She retained her eyesight to a remarkable degree, being able, a month before her death, to thread a needle and do sewing. Her mind was well stored with historical facts and events of the early pioneers of the "bloody ground."

She was the oldest child of nine -- five boys and four girls -- and has survived all but four, three brothers and one sister, all of whom, if now living, are citizens of Robertson county, Ky., and drawing close to five-score years. Her mother (who will be remembered by many readers in Robertson County), lived to the age of ninety-seven and died near Kentontown. Her father was one of the veterans of the Revolutionary War, and served his country with credit during that long and eventful struggle. We can find but very few among us now who are old enough to even remember having heard their friends talk of that glorious struggle for freedom.

We have one other left in our midst whose years are numbering up close to a hundred -- old mother Basket, -- (Note that on the will of Thomas Barlow, one of the executors is 'Jesse Baskett') and one week ago there were three, including old granny Haller, all of whom belonged to the immediate vicinity of Headquarters.

We cannot live long enough to be forgotten by death.     J.G.B.