Hunterdon Co. Inferior Court of Common Pleas, loose case papers — Philip C[?]ck v. Benjamin Cooper, trespass on the case, £28: summons and docket, returnable May Term 1775. FamilySearch Other Records / Miscellaneous Records / Loan Books / Court Records 1713–1860, IGN 008351225 (case files no. 25674–26064), imgs 80–81.

What this document records

🎯 the writ

Summons (img 81):

Hunterdon Co[unty — torn] … the third, by the Grace of God, of [Great] Britain, France, & Ireland > King, Defender of the [Faith &c.] To our Sheriff of our County of Hunterdon Greeting: [We] command > you, that you summon Benjamin Cooper personally [to] appear before the Judges of our Inferior > Court of Common Pleas [to be] held at Trenton, in and for our said County of Hunterdon, on the > [?] Tuesday in May next, to answer unto Philip C[?]ck in a Plea of Trespass on the Case to the > Damage of the said Philip twenty eight Pounds current Money of the Province of New Jersey at > Eight Shill[ings per ounce] as 'tis said; and have you then and there this Precept. Witness > [illegible]…mas, Esq[r] Judge of our said Court, at Trenton afores[ai]d the ninth [?] day of > [F]ebruary, in the fift[een?]th Year of our Reign. > P[?]t[?]rson Att[orne]y · [illegible] Clk The plaintiff's surname: the writ reads most naturally as Cock at 4×; the docket's first letter is faded and could be read S. The machine transcript's "Philip P___" is not supported by either. Recorded as C[?]ck.

🎯 the docket

Docket (img 80), read at 2–4×: "Hunterdon Pleas. Philip [?]ck ag[ain]st Benjamin Cooper — Sum[mon]s Case £28. P[a]t[e]rson Att[orne]y. Ret. to May Term 1775. Note dated 2[?] May 1774 for £[?] payable 1st Dec[embe]r 1774. Money at 8/ the Oz. Summoned. J. De[?] Sh[eri]ff." · case-file number cut off at the edge (257…). ⇒ The action is on a promissory note, due 1 December 1774, and the sheriff's return is Summoned — i.e. unlike [A.181]'s defendant, Benjamin Cooper was found and served.

⚠️ the date

The docket's "May Term 1775" and "1774" are clearly written; the writ's regnal year is not. The fifteenth year of George III would fit a February teste for May Term 1775, but the catalog does not write that as a reading.