New Jersey recorded wills, Libers E-F 1747-1758 (viewer title "New Jersey. Wills 1747-1751, 1751-1758") - the volume's own alphabetical index at images 325-330, and the probate entry at book page 304 read to test whether the series holds signed originals. DGS 7600570, 628 images.

What this document records

Record

Two index openings from the volume's own alphabetical finding aid, plus one probate entry read as a structural test.

Index entries as written: note

W. = will, Ad. = administration; the number is the BOOK PAGE.

Index entries as written: coopers

{'name': 'Cooper John', 'type': 'W.', 'page': '193'}, {'name': 'Cooper Benjamin', 'type': 'W.', 'page': '315'}, {'name': 'Cooper Hannah', 'type': 'W.', 'page': '516'}

Index entries as written: westbrook

{'name': 'Westbrook Dirk', 'type': 'W.', 'page': '475'}

Index entries as written: other lines read for context

Vanlourt Thomas W. 303; Van Corst Cornelius W. 128; Vandeventer Jacob W. 334.

Book page 304 as written: note

The probate block following the will of Thomas VanCourt. Read because it is the clearest structural test on the frames captured.

Book page 304 as written: text

Be it Remembered that on the Tenth day of December 1755 Brice Riley personally came before me Thomas Bartow duly authorized and being Sworn on the holy Evangelists doth Depose that he Saw Thomas VanCourt Sign and Seal the within Will and heard him Publish and Declare it to be his last Will and Testament and that at the doing thereof he was of Sound mind and memory to the best of the Deponents Knowledge & as he verily believes and that at the same time Daniel Sayre & William Leddel were present and Signed as Witnesses with him the Deponent in the Testators Presence. / Tho: Bartow Be it also Remembered that at the same Samuel VanCourt came before me and was qualified for the Execution of the within Will by taking the usual Oath of an Executor. / Tho: Bartow Probate Granted by Gov[r] Belcher in the Usual form Dated as above

Reading notes: this series is clerks register copies not signed originals

THE QUESTION THE TRIP WAS SENT TO ANSWER, and the answer is negative. On book page 304 the body text, the deposition, the executor's oath and BOTH "Tho: Bartow" subscriptions are in ONE HAND. Read at 6x, the two Bartow subscriptions are near-identical to each other and indistinguishable in pen, ink and letterform from the surrounding body text - the same raised abbreviation mark after "Tho", the same terminal flourish on "Bartow". Two genuine signatures written minutes apart would vary from each other; neither would match the clerk's running hand. The probate itself is recorded as a SUMMARY - "Probate Granted by Gov[r] Belcher in the Usual form Dated as above" - rather than as an executed act. And the volume is continuously paginated and alphabetically indexed, which is what a register is. SO THERE ARE NO ORIGINAL SIGNATURES TO FIND IN THIS SERIES. "Record of wills" implies copies, as the catalog's own note suspected, and the page bears it out. SCOPE: this is ONE page of ONE volume of a 27-reel collection. It is strong and it matches the collection's description, but it has not been tested on another liber. Recorded as a finding about THIS volume, with the wider inference flagged rather than asserted.

Reading notes: why that matters beyond this reel

The trip prep states that "the whole Daniel Sr signature-hunt premise for this 27-reel collection rests on the answer" and that it had never been checked. If the lettered series is register copies throughout, then no amount of pulling these reels will produce a Daniel Cooper autograph, and the signature hunt should be redirected to instruments that survive as executed originals - deeds with the signer's own subscription, bonds, loose probate files.

Reading notes: three cooper wills are indexed in this volume

Cooper John at page 193, Cooper Benjamin at page 315 and Cooper Hannah at page 516, all marked "W." for will rather than "Ad." for administration. None of the three pages was captured on this trip and none has been read. NOTE ON THE BENJAMIN: this volume covers 1747-1758, so it CANNOT be Benjamin Cooper Benjamin Cooper of Long Hill, who died in 1794. It is a different and earlier Benjamin Cooper, and the catalog should not file it to Benjamin Cooper on the strength of the name. CORRECTED 2026-10-22: THE SENTENCE BELOW SAID THESE WERE "the first Cooper wills this catalog has located in the East Jersey lettered series". THAT WAS WRONG, and it was wrong because the index was read without checking it against the catalog. ALL THREE have been held as published abstracts since [A.78] (NJ Archives Wills III 1751-1760), which cites the very same pages: row 2g = Cooper, John of Elizabeth Borough, tailor, "Lib. F p. 193"; row 2b = Cooper, Benjamin of Middletown, Monmouth Co., yeoman, wife Hester, "Lib. F p. 315"; row 2e = Cooper, Hannah of Newark, "being aged", whose children are SERGEANTS, "Lib. F p. 516". WHAT THE INDEX ACTUALLY ADDED was therefore not three new names but three confirmed page numbers and the knowledge that the manuscripts exist on a reel we can reach - which is what let [A.78a] be found by interpolation the same day. The lesson is the standing one: grep the catalog before calling anything new.

Reading notes: and the westbrook anchor is confirmed

"Westbrook Dirk - W. 475" is in the index exactly where [A.215] and the trip prep expected it, spelled WESTBROOK rather than Westbroek. The will page itself was not identified among the frames captured; see the todo.

What this document does not say

The index gives names, a will-or-administration mark and a page number, and nothing else - no dates, no residences, no relationships. The page-304 entry concerns the VanCourt family and says nothing about any Cooper.