The Coopers of Long Hill

Document A.21 · probate register · transcription: partial

New York County Surrogate's Court, Wills Liber 3 & 4 (1684–1694) — the bound volume browsed for early Cooper testators. Negative, and one earlier Cooper "hit" retracted.

repository
New York County Surrogate's Court
collection
FamilySearch, New York, Probate Records, 1629-1971
identifier
"Wills 1684-1687 vol 3-4" and "Wills 1684-1694 vol 3-4" — twin FamilySearch scans of the same bound volume.
Cite this page "New York County Surrogate's Court, Wills Liber 3 & 4 (1684–1694) — the bound volume browsed for early Cooper testators. Negative, and one earlier Cooper "hit" retracted.", document A.21, The Coopers of Long Hill, njcoopers.com/e/A.21/

People named

As writtenRoleIdentified asWhat this document says
Cuyler, Henry referenced refuted

What this document records

The retraction

A COOPER "HIT" IN THIS VOLUME WAS WITHDRAWN ON 2026-05-06, AND IT IS THE ENTRY'S MOST USEFUL CONTENT. The internal index card was first read as "Cooper, Henry — Liber 3 internal index p. 108". A high-resolution re-zoom showed the actual entry is "Cuyler Henry — Will, p. 185" — a different surname and a different page. ⇒ there are NO Cooper-surname entries in this volume's index. A textbook RULE ZERO-B case, caught before it propagated — and a reminder that Cuyler is a live confusable for Cooper in New York cursive, alongside Cuyper and Kuyper.

The master index mismatch

A master-index citation pointing at "Liber 4 page 64/107" did not resolve: page 64 (image 167) and page 107 (image 188, mid-inventory) carry neither the expected decedent nor a Cooper. Recorded as a mismatch between finding aid and volume, unexplained — possibly a liber-numbering shift between the index and the bound volume.

Transcription and notes

Provenance, the retracted "Cooper, Henry" reading and the master-index mismatch are in the source: and coverage: headers and are not repeated here.

Internal alphabetical index card (Image 2, right side)

The bound volume includes a hand-written alphabetical index card at the front, listing decedents by surname with page numbers. The card has top + bottom sub-cards (possibly Liber 3 vs Liber 4 separately), with C-section entries:

Initial reading (2026-05-06 first-pass) — RETRACTED v188 mid-session:

Bowne Joseph at... 522/[?]
Cor[___]r Charles ...
Cor [Wil]liam ... 100
Cooper Henry ... 108     ← MISREAD
Cock Thomas ... 109
Cock William ... 192

Corrected reading (2026-05-06 v188 mid-session, from user-shared high-resolution C-section close-crop):

Clausen Derick — Adm[in] on his Estate ... 50, 52
Conner Charles — Do Do Do ... 67
Cox William — Will ... 161
Cuyler Henry — Do (= Will) ... 185
Cook Thomas — Do (= Will) ... 189
Cook William — Do (= Will) ... 192

Correction details:

There are no Cooper-surname entries in this volume's internal index card C-section.

This corrected reading agrees with the master 1662-1910 index (A.20) which has no Cooper Henry pre-1900. And agrees with NYHS Vol I 1665-1707 (M.20) which has no Cooper Henry in its testator index. Three-source consilience: no Cooper Henry in NY County wills 1665-1707.

Pull no longer needed — Cooper Henry doesn't exist in this collection. The Cuyler Henry p. 185 entry is a separate Dutch family (not Cooper-line); cataloged for completeness but not pursued.

Master-index "Liber 4 page 64/107" — verification of mismatch

Per A.20 the master 1662–1910 wills index cites Cooper, Simon — June 4, 1691, Liber 4, p. 64/107. We verified both pages in this bound volume:

Page 64 (Image 167, left side)

Top of page: "In the Name of the Lord, Amen." Body begins:

Know all men by these present whom it may Concern, That undersigned Bayard [Couwersen / Coursen] / [I, Bayard ___] Considering the frugality, mortality of men, Certainty of Death, and y uncertainty of time and times therof... [I] have thought fit, [...] following [...] doe make my will and Testament... my body to a decent burial in expectation of a Blessed Resurrection / Secondly I make and dispose of all worne wills and Testaments made before / Thirdly I make and dispose to my Sonn Hans Bayar Coursen the Sume of Eight hundred Currant money to be Followed [...] him within his Coming of age... Fourthly I make and Invest my Wife by name Christian (?) Stoffel after my Decease, into y[e] [?] of all of my Estate with full Authority to pay receive my Debts, to dispose of Houses and Lands...

Marginal entry date: "Entred y[e] [?] 16/8 day of [?]anuary 1688[/9]" = January 1688/9.

Will continues to page 65, ending on page 66 (Image 168 left) with witnesses Jno. Crooke + Rob. Crooke + Tobias Ten Eyck + P. La Cou-.

Decedent = Bayard Couwersen (or Coursen). NOT Simon Cooper.

Page 107 (Image 188 — middle of a multi-page inventory)

Pages 105–114 (Images 187–191) contain a continuous itemized inventory of the estate of William Pearce, late of New York, Merchant. The inventory runs ~10 pages with hundreds of itemized line entries (clothing, household goods, ship voyages, bills receivable, debts due to the estate). Concludes ~page 113 with:

Sworne in open [Court] [...] [date] 1693 [...] [Mayor's signature]

Pages 113–114+ continue with "A list of voyages and Bills [of] [debt] due to ye Estate of Wm. Pearce dec'd Marchant..." cataloging international trading voyages and outstanding amounts.

Decedent of inventory = William Pearce (Merchant, ~1693). NOT Simon Cooper.

Conclusion on the master-index citation

The master 1662–1910 index page-citation "Liber 4 p. 64/107" for Cooper Simon is wrong in this bound volume. Per M.20 NYHS Abstracts of Wills Vol I (1665–1707), the actual page references for Simon Cooper of Oyster Bay's will are pp. 224 + 271 + 272 + 274 of Liber 3-4. The master-index citation must be a transcription error or refers to a different Liber-numbering scheme.

Other decedents identified in this volume during the browse

Verbatim transcriptions / closely paraphrased page identifications (these are background; not Daniel-Sr-line):