Document A.215 · Probate · transcription: verbatim
New Jersey Archives, First Series Vol. 32 = Calendar of New Jersey Wills Vol. III, 1751-1760 - abstract of the will of Dirk Westbroek of Namenock, Wallpeck Township, Sussex Co.; made 12 Sep 1755, proved 8 Dec 1757; Lib. F, p. 475.
- repository
- New Jersey Archives, First Series, Vol. 32 (Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Vol. III, 1751-1760)
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Westbroek, Dirk | deceased | Dirk Westbroek ?–1755 | residence: Namenock, Wallpeck Township, Sussex Co., New Jersey occupation: yeoman |
| Janneke | spouse | Janneke (Westbrook) Cooper |
What this document records
Record
Published calendar abstract of a Sussex Co., N.J. will
Date
will 12 September 1755; proved 8 December 1757
Reads
Names his wife as Janneke and eight children, one of them Terck van Keuren Westbroek. He holds land in both New Jersey and New York, consistent with a Minisink-region family straddling the colonial boundary. The four sons are executors; the wife is not named as one. What this does and does not establish about Janneke (Westbrook) Cooper Janneke's identity is argued there.
Transcription and notes
Where "Lib. F, p. 475" actually is - located 2026-10-21, and it is a centre-only reel
This entry is a published ABSTRACT. The recorded will it abstracts has now been pinned to a specific reel, and the route to it turned on a convention the catalog had recorded backwards.
A letter liber and a number liber are DIFFERENT SERIES. The citing volume's own front note (NJA First Series Vol. 32, PDF p. 4, read at 2x) says so, verbatim:
NOTE.-The books cited as Libers 1, 2, 3, etc., are of West Jersey wills. Those cited as Libers A, B, C, etc., are of East Jersey wills.
Sussex is East Jersey, so Lib. F is the lettered series - not volume 6. That matters because volume 6 closed in 1750 and this probate is December 1757, so the obvious reading sends you to a reel that cannot hold it. The catalog's own citations confirm the rule from both sides: [A.18], [A.183] (Hunterdon) and [A.26] (Gloucester) are all "Lib. 6" - West Jersey. Full note: guidance/reference_nj_colonial_will_libers.md.
=> Lib. F is on FamilySearch film 522737 / DGS 7600570 ("Record of wills in New Jersey, 1705-1804", Vols. E-F 1747-1758 - the range brackets the probate). Reel record: films/film.7600570.yaml.
It is centre-only. The catalog badge reads, verbatim: "This item is viewable with additional restrictions. This item is viewable at a FamilySearch Center." No "Log in" route is offered, so this is a limit on WHERE, not a custodian block and not something to pay for. Full-Text search on the reel is centre-gated too, so it cannot be swept from home by either route. Queued on fhc-trip-prep.md as item 5 - and the same reel carries [A.12]'s source manuscript at Lib. E p. 449, which makes it the highest-value reel in that 27-reel series.
A null, scoped: Dirk is NOT in Aitkin's Index of Wills
Aitkin's NJ State Index of Wills, Inventories, etc. prior to 1901, Vol. III (1913) - the finding aid to the original loose papers in the Secretary of State's county envelopes, and the same volume the catalog reads at [A.126] - has no Dirk, Derrick or Theodorus Westbroek in its Sussex section (book page 1340, PDF p. 329, read at 2x).
What was actually searched, so the null is worth its scope: the whole Westbrook block, which runs
a four-entry variant cluster - Westbrock, Benjamin 88S · Westbrock, Solomon 16S · B. G, p. 36 ·
W. 1759 · Westbroeck, Jacob 316S · B. M, p. 76 · W. 1781 · Westbrock, Anthony 30S · B. G,
p. 34 · W. 1759 - and then the main Westbrook run from Abraham through Wilhelmus. A D-name
would fall between Cornelius P. and Elizabeth; it is not there. Nor is any Wesbroek spelling
between Welsh and West. Control: the same PDF returns 111 Cooper hits, so the text layer is
live and this is a real absence rather than a dead search.
What that does and does not mean. The index lists estates that have a county FILE number
(the S suffix = Sussex). Dirk has a recorded will but apparently no Sussex file. Sussex Co. was
erected in 1753 and the lowest Westbrook file numbers here are 16S and 29S (1759-1760), so a
December 1757 probate sits right at the start of the county series - but why he is absent is not
established, and the possibilities (proved provincially without a county file; papers lost; filed
under a spelling not in this index) are not ranked by anything yet. Recorded as an open question,
not a conclusion.
Data from the document [verbatim]
1755, Sept. 12. Westbroek, Dirk, of Namenock, Wallpeck Township, Sussex Co., yeoman; will of. Wife, Janneke. Children - Joseph, Abraham, Johannes, Terck van Keuren, Marya (wife of Johannes C. Westbroek), Sarah (wife of Jacob Gunsalis), Elizabeth and Lidea. Land in New Jersey and in New York. Personal property. Executors - the four sons. Witnesses - Cornelis Westbroek, Philipp Windematt (Wintermute), William Ennes. Proved Dec. 8, 1757. Lib. F, p. 475.
Notes on the reading
- The calendar's own text layer renders "New York" as "New Pork" and "Terck" is printed thus; both were checked on the image.
- "Wallpeck" is the volume's spelling of Walpack - the same parish whose register is transcribed in [M.14].
Nulls recorded in the same pass
- New Jersey Archives Vol. 22, Marriages 1665-1800, searched for Wesbroek / Westbroek / Westbrook: only two Sussex Westbrook marriages are calendared (Ann x Charles Baxter, 11 May 1755; Catherine x Nicholas Emons, 8 Mar 1765). The 3 July 1757 Cooper marriage licence from Governor Belcher, recited in [M.14], is NOT in that calendar.