Partnership & Co-Partnership Agreements, 1933-1981

This record series consists of partnership agreements and co-partnership agreements filed thorugh the Monmouth County Clerk’s Office from May 1933 until July 1981.

Partnership agreements have been filed with the County Clerk’s Office as early as 1850. These earlier agreements were haphazardly noted in ledger books, and no real formalized way of documenting these types of agreements was established until 1906. Co-partnership s were initially kept isolated from the standard partnership agreements and recorded in a separate ledger book. By the mid-1930s partnerships and co-partnership s were all recorded in the same manner within the County Clerk’s Office using the standard partnership ledgers. Deviations from this process exist, but they are minimal in quantity. This explains why this particular co-partnership collection extends until 1962.

In 1906, any individual or group of individuals forming a partnership or limited partnership became regulated by the New Jersey state legislature. “An Act to Regulate the Use of Business Names, approved May 17, 1906,” required such businesses to file a statement in the Office of the County Clerk in the County where the business transacted or conducted business. The statement had to include the full name of the business, the nature of the business, and the full names and residences of all partners. The County Clerk was required to keep an alphabetical index of each business recorded.

Partnership agreements from 1850 to 1933 can only be found in recordings within ledger books at the County Clerk’s Office. By late 1933, agreements were not only recorded in these ledger books, but copies of the actual agreements were also retained and filed by the County Clerk’s Office. In the 1980s, the State of New Jersey took over the responsibility of recording partnership agreements. This collection of partnership agreements reflects this changeover, as it only goes up until 1981.

Despite the State being responsible for the filing of all partnership agreements, the County Clerk’s Office continues to accept partnership agreements when necessary. In this case, the records are accordingly sent to the State for proper filing. This explains why the ledger books and partnerships’ index reflects partnership agreements up until 1996. In October of 1996, the County Clerk’s Office began using computer software to input this information. The data is minimal in this database because of the State’s main role in the partnership filing process.

According to Title 42:1A-2 of the New Jersey Statutes, “partnership agreement” means the agreement, whether written, oral, or implied, among the partners concerning the partnership, including amendments to the partnership agreement. These partnerships agreements were filed in accordance with the New Jersey Uniform Partnership Act or the New Jersey Limited Partnership Act depending on the structure of the given partnership.

Title 42:1A-15 explains what may be included in a typical partnership agreement: the name of the partnership; the street address of its chief executive office and of one office in this State, if there is one; the names and mailing addresses of all of the partners or of an agent appointed and maintained by the partnership; the names of the partners authorized to execute an instrument transferring real property held in the name of the partnership; and it may state the authority, or limitations on the authority, of some or all of the partners to enter into other transactions on behalf of the partnership and any other matter. These particular partnership agreements contain information of this nature.

This series consists of partnership agreements from 1933-1981. The bulk of the collection ranges from 1945-1981, with partnership agreements from the 1930s and early 1940s being very minimal and sporadic. The co-partnerships are contained within one separate folder with records beginning in 1933 and ending in 1962.

Most of the documents concern the establishment of the partnership. However, documents concerning dissolutions of previously formed partnerships are also included as well as amendments to agreements. These dissolutions are filed in the same manner, chronologically by the date the document was filed in the Clerk’s Office. The ledger books located in the Clerk’s Office contain cross-references to these dissolutions within the original partnership agreements to enable users to locate the various dissolutions in other books.

While the content and complexity varies in each individual partnership agreement, most of the statements include the full name of the business, the nature of the business, the full names and residences of all partners, the terms of the partnership, the capital of the partnership, and the dates the partnerships were formed.

The purposes of the formation of partnership agreements are diverse and fascinating. Partnership agreements from the 1930s are minimal which might relate to the fact that the country was experiencing the Great Depression; new business ventures were less likely during this time of hardship. Moreover, the population was only about 150,000, less than half of what it became by 1960, so the economy was limited. The partnerships that did form during this time were mostly agricultural in nature. Small businesses and shops also are typical of the agreements from this era. These earlier agreements contain many spelling and grammatical errors.

The early 1940s’ records also reflect the events that were impacting the nation at the time. These agreements are also small in quantity very likely due to World War II when those who might have started businesses were involved in the war effort. Some individuals did unite in partnerships to begin contracting companies or start businesses selling various products, or in the service industry. As the economy and population expanded in the post-war era, the 1950s heralded in a generation of people interested in buying land, personal properties, and commercial properties. Other partnerships formed to begin brokerage firms or financial consultation companies. The themes of real estate and investment ventures characterize the agreements even into the 1980s.

This collection is open to researchers.

The records are available on microfilm and hard copy; researchers are directed to use the microfilm if possible. Records are stored in four record cartons.

The County Clerk’s Office currently holds the Partnership Agreement ledger books which consist of twenty-one books and a main index which serves as a means of looking up partnerships by partnership name. Once a partnership is identified within the index by name, the index provides the user with the book number and page number within that book by which the agreement can be viewed in its entirety.

The same system also pertains to the Co-partnership Agreement collection. There is one ledger book for co-partnerships. The same main Partnership Agreement index is utilized for these agreements. The ordering system for the co-partnerships differs slightly because of the considerably smaller size of the collection. The co-partnerships within this particular collection are in order by page number only, disregarding book number altogether. The co-partnerships are contained within 1 separate folder at the beginning of Box 1 with records beginning in 1933 and ending in 1962.

The collection is arranged chronologically by the date when the records were filed in the County Clerk’s Office. This chronological order also corresponds to the way in which these agreements were originally recorded by the County Clerk within ledger books. The book number and page number serve as another means of identifying the individual agreements.

Monmouth County Archives
125 Symmes Drive
Manalapan NJ 07726
Tel. (732) 308-3771

These records were transferred by M. Claire French, Monmouth County Clerk, to the Monmouth County Archives in 2001 under Accession 2001-05.

The certificates were microfilmed onto six reels on August 2, 2007. This finding aid was created by Alaina Dowd, Rutgers SCILS Intern, on May 3, 2007; updated May 3, 2017 by George Joynson. The handwritten Index to Partnerships A-Z Book was scanned July 1, 2016, with an Access database to follow.

See Archives finding aid for Corporations and Business Names.

Co-Partnerships Agreements

Box	Folder
1	1	Co-partnership Agreements, 40-83, November 18, 1933-November 8, 1962

Partnership Agreements

Box	Folder
1	1A	Partnership Agreements, 1-131—1-150, May 2, 1933-July 1, 1938
	2	Partnership Agreements, 1-151—1-180, November 1941, November 6, 1944
	3	Partnership Agreements, 1-181—1-193, January 9, 1945-December 26, 1945
	4	Partnership Agreements, 1-194—1-241, January 14, 1946-October 30, 1946
	5	Partnership Agreements, 1-242—1-262, February 20, 1947-December 2, 1947
	6	Partnership Agreements, 1-263—1-287, January 22, 1948-November 12, 1948
	7	Partnership Agreements, 1-288—1-304, January 11, 1949-December 2, 1949
	8	Partnership Agreements, 1-305—1-338, January 11, 1950-November 14, 1950
	9	Partnership Agreements, 1-339—1-370, January 2, 1951-December 22, 1951
	10	Partnership Agreements, 1-371—1-397, March 5, 1952-December 13, 1952
	11	Partnership Agreements, 1-398—1-417, January 30, 1953-December 31, 1953
	12	Partnership Agreements, 1-418—1-441, January 28, 1954-October 27, 1954
	13	Partnership Agreements, 1-442—1-471, February 5, 1955-December 29, 1955
	14	Partnership Agreements, 1-472—2-18, March 8, 1956-December 21, 1956
	15	Partnership Agreements, 2-19—­­­2-86, January 25, 1957-October 21, 1957
	16	Partnership Agreements, 2-87—2-180, January 2, 1958-December 16, 1958
	17	Partnership Agreements, 2-181—2-230, January 16, 1959-November 20, 1959
	18	Partnership Agreements, 2-231—2-290, February 2, 1960-January 17, 1960
	19	Partnership Agreements, 2-291—2-368, March 6, 1961-October 17, 1961
	20	Partnership Agreements, 2-369—2-404, January 22, 1962-October 11, 1962
	21	Partnership Agreements, 2-405—2-458, April 18, 1963-December 13, 1963
	22	Partnership Agreements, 2-459—2-572, January 24, 1964-November 23, 1964
	23	Partnership Agreements, 2-573—3-48, February 11, 1965-December 19, 1965
	24	Partnership Agreements, 3-49—3-148, January 17, 1966-November 30, 1966
	25	Partnership Agreements, 3-149—3-228, January 20, 1967-November 29, 1967
	26	Partnership Agreements, 3-229—3-346, January 4, 1968-December 18, 1968
	27	Partnership Agreements, 3-347—3-443, January 16, 1969-July 18, 1969

Box	Folder
2	1	Partnership Agreements, 3-444—3-506, July 22, 1969-December 31, 1969
	2	Partnership Agreements, 3-507—3-562, January 6, 1970-July 11, 1970
	3	Partnership Agreements, 3-563—3-595, July 20, 1971-October 29, 1971
	4	Partnership Agreements, 3-596—3-685, January 26, 1971-October 15, 1971
	5	Partnership Agreements, 3-686—3-764, October 21, 1971-December 30, 1971
	6	Partnership Agreements, 4-1—4-56, January 26, 1972-May 26, 1972
	7	Partnership Agreements, 4-57—4-134, June 6, 1972-December 29, 1972
	8	Partnership Agreements, 4-135—4-202, January 10, 1973-April 23, 1973
	9	Partnership Agreements, 4-203—4-268, May 7, 1973-October 30, 1973
	10	Partnership Agreements, 4-269—4-352, November 4, 1973-December 25, 1973
	11	Partnership Agreements, 4-353—4-419, January 2, 1974-February 27, 1974
	12	Partnership Agreements, 4-220—4-488, March 18, 1974-June 24, 1974
	13	Partnership Agreements, 4-489—4-589, June 26, 1974-December 31, 1974
	14	Partnership Agreements, 4-597—4-694, January 21, 1975-August 19, 1975
	15	Partnership Agreements, 4-695—5-29, August 21, 1975-October 15, 1975
	16	Partnership Agreements, 5-30—5-101, October 20, 1975-December 31, 1975

Box	Folder
3	1	Partnership Agreements, 5-102—5-184, January 2, 1976-May 19, 1976
	2	Partnership Agreements, 5-185—5-288, May 19, 1976-July 1, 1976
	3	Partnership Agreements, 5-289—5-387, July 6, 1976-November 1, 1976
	4	Partnership Agreements, 5-388—5-450, November 1, 1976-December 30, 1976
	5	Partnership Agreements, 5-451—5-558, January 7, 1977-March 16, 1977
	6	Partnership Agreements, 5-559—5-675, March 17, 1977-May 25, 1977
	7	Partnership Agreements, 5-676—5-755, June 2, 1977-September 7, 1977
	8	Partnership Agreements, 5-756—6-90, September 28, 1977-December 29, 1977
	9	Partnership Agreements, 6-91—6-234, January 17, 1978-March 1, 1978
	10	Partnership Agreements, 6-235—6-374, March 3, 1978-April 18, 1978
	11	Partnership Agreements, 6-375—6-606, April 21, 1978-June 16, 1978
	12	Partnership Agreements, 6-607—6-726, June 29, 1978-August 25, 1978
	13	Partnership Agreements, 6-727—6-754, August 28, 1978-October 10, 1978
	14	Partnership Agreements, 7-1—7-130, October 23, 1978-November 21, 1978
	15	Partnership Agreements, 7-131—7-247, November 22, 1978-December 29, 1978
	16	Partnership Agreements, 7-248—7-360, January 2, 1979-April 12, 1979
	17	Partnership Agreements, 7-361—7-483, April 12, 1979-July 3, 1979

Box	Folder
4	1	Partnership Agreements, 7-484—7-619, July 5, 1979-August 29, 1979
	2	Partnership Agreements, 7-620—7-730, August 29, 1979-October 22, 1979
	3	Partnership Agreements, 7-731—8-25, October 22, 1979-December 14, 1979
	4	Partnership Agreements, 8-26—8-159, December 20, 1979-December 31, 1979
	5	Partnership Agreements, 8-160—8-218, January 2, 1980-January 24, 1980
	6	Partnership Agreements, 8-219—8-340, March 15, 1980-April 2, 1980
	7	Partnership Agreements, 8-341—8-436, April 3, 1980-May 13, 1980
	8	Partnership Agreements, 8-437—8-555, May 21, 1980-July 23, 1980
	9	Partnership Agreements, 8-556—9-71, July 23, 1980-September 17, 1980
	10	Partnership Agreements, 9-72—9-246, December 17, 1980-October 9, 1980
	11	Partnership Agreements, 9-247—9-367, October 15, 1980-November 24, 1980
	12	Partnership Agreements, 9-368—9-504, November 25, 1980-December 18, 1980
	13	Partnership Agreements, 9-505—9-658, December 18, 1980-December 20, 1980
	14	Partnership Agreements, 9-659—9-781, January 2, 1981-January 28, 1981
	15	Partnership Agreements, 9-782—10-112, February 2, 1981-February 9, 1981
	16	Partnership Agreements, 10-113—10-202, February 25, 1981-May 1, 1981
	17	Partnership Agreements, 10-203—10-281, May 9, 1981-June 9, 1981
	18	Partnership Agreements, 10-282—10-387, June 9, 1981-July 16, 1981