Document A.205 · probate inventory · transcription: partial
Sussex County, N.J., Surrogate's Office — Inventories vols. D–F, 1819–1840 (film 960535, DGS 005679636, item 2, 268 images), book pages 116 and 118, images 79 and 80: two openings of the appraised inventory and schedule of notes, judgments and book debts of the estate of ABRAHAM SHAVER Esq., late of Johnsonburg in the Township of Hardwick, taken between the 16th and 30th days of August 1824.
- repository
- FamilySearch (free, signed in) — Sussex County Surrogate's Office probate records
- collection
- Inventories, Sussex county, Surrogate's office: Sussex, New Jersey. Probate Records 1817-1823
- identifier
- DGS 005679636, item 2 · book p. 116 = image 79, ark 3:1:3QSQ-G93Q-T4S5 · book p. 118 = image 80, ark 3:1:3QS7-L93Q-TWQP · the estate's heading at book p. 113 = image 77, ark 3:1:3QS7-893Q-T716
- date
- 1824-08
What is transcribed: Two openings out of a long multi-page schedule of the debts owed to the Shaver estate, divided into notes "considered good and Solvent" and those "Considered doubtfull".
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Israel Cooper Senr | debtor | Israel Cooper 1750 candidate | |
| Samuel Cooper | debtor | Samuel Cooper 1795–1871 candidate | |
| Israel Cooper Junr | debtor | Israel Cooper 1799 candidate | |
| Joseph Cooper | debtor | Joseph Cooper 1785–1852 candidate | |
| Robert Cooper | debtor | Robert Cooper 1783–1863 candidate |
What this document records
What it says
TWO DIFFERENT ISRAEL COOPERS ARE LISTED AS DEBTORS TO ONE ESTATE, DISTINGUISHED BY THE CLERK AS Junr AND Senr. Both appear among the notes considered good and solvent.
What it does not say
It states no relationship between them — not father and son, not any kinship at all. Senr/Junr in this period distinguishes two living men of the same name in one community and is usually father and son, but it is not a statement of descent, and the catalog does not read one into it here. No residence, age, occupation or township is given for either Cooper — the schedule gives only name and amount. Neither man is identified with any catalog person by this document; see Israel Cooper for that argument, graded there.
Transcription and notes
The two readings, verbatim, each confirmed at 5×
Book page 116 (image 79), among the notes "considered good and Solvent":
Israel Cooper Junr 14..88
Book page 118 (image 80), on the same solvent schedule, four lines above its foot:
Israel Cooper Senr 50 Cts(the next line:
Amount Carried up —— $ 1168..97)
The two suffixes are written by the same clerk in the same hand with the same superscript-r
form, which is what makes the pair readable as a deliberate distinction rather than as two
careless spellings.
Whose estate — transcript-tier, not read on a plate
Flagged, because it is the one substantive fact here that was NOT read off a downloaded image. From the FamilySearch viewer's own machine transcript of book page 113 (image 77):
"A True and perfect Inventory of all and Singular the goods Chattles rights and Credits of Abraham Shaver Esqr late of Johnsonburg in the Township of Hardwick in the County of Sussex deceased made by us whose names are hereunto Subscribed between the Sixteenth and thirtieth day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight Hundred and twenty four 1824"
The same transcript gives the estate's first appraised items — "His purse and Apparel $175.98 … Horses & furniture $150 … Horn Cattle $6.50 … Swine $49.75 … Corn and potatoes growing at the time of his death 119.25" — and a "Carding Machine" and "property at fall Mills", so Shaver was a man of substantial estate.
The 1817–1823 title is the catalogued volume label and the contents run past it. The
collection is titled Probate Records 1817-1823, but this estate is inventoried in August
1824, and the catalog's own reel map gives DGS 5679636 as Inventories vols. D–F, 1819–1840
(films/film.5679637.yaml). ⇒ trust the reel map and the document's own date, not the
collection title.
One further Cooper, OCR-tier and NOT confirmed
The viewer's transcript of image 80 also reads Aaron Cooper 1.47 in the "Considered
doubtfull" list on the facing page. This was NOT located on the plate — two crops of the
right-hand page found the solvent list still running, and the doubtful section lies lower than
the bands read. Treat it as unconfirmed: the same page carries Aaron Hankinson
twice, and Aaron Cooper is exactly the sort of token an OCR could manufacture from it.
See todo t1 — it matters because [pr.17] is a project about Aaron Cooper Sr's parentage.
Cross-references
- [A.141] — the Cooper null over Sussex Inventories vols. A–C, 1803–1819 (DGS 005679635). This entry is the NEXT REEL in the same series, vols. D–F, which that sweep never covered. The two do not conflict.
- p.2052 — where the identification is argued and graded.