New Jersey Archives, First Series, Vol. XXXIII (Calendar of Wills, Vol. IV, 1761-1770), book p. 52 - the intestate estate of Daniel Bouttenhouse of Morris Co., with the widow's renunciation of 7 May 1763, the inventory of 11 May 1763 made by Daniel Cooper and Peter Layton, and the administrator's account of 31 Dec. 1765; Morris County file 179N.

What this document records

The abstract verbatim

"Bouttenhouse, Daniel, of Morris Co. Int. Adm'r - John Carl, largest creditor. Fellowbondsman - Peter Layton; both of said Co. Witness - Sarah Nuttman. 1763, May 7. Renunciation by Saphira Bouttenhouse, his widow. Witness - Peter Layton. 1763, May 11. Inventory, £44.0.10, made by Daniel Cooper and Peter Layton. *1765, Dec. 31. Account by Adm'r. File No. 179N*."

Why this short abstract matters

[desc] It puts DANIEL COOPER and PETER LAYTON side by side, acting together, in Morris County on 11 May 1763 - and this catalog established the relationship between those two families only on 2 November 2026, from an entirely different kind of source. [G.720] and Anne (Runyon) Layton: Capt. Peter Layton's stone is one of the seven in [G.4]'s Cooper Family Burying Ground at Long Hill, and he "has sat unexplained among [G.4]'s seven since April" until [G.720] identified his mother Anne (Runyon) Layton as the sister of Grace (Runyon) Cooper Grace Runyon Cooper - probate-grade, from "Ann Layton" beside "Grace Cooper" in Peter Runyon's 1755 will ([A.77]). ⇒ Peter Layton is Grace's nephew, and so Daniel Cooper Sr's nephew by marriage. Here the two men appraise an estate together. That is an ordinary neighbourly act and it is not a kinship record - but it is an independent documentary tie between the two families, in the right county and the right decade, found in a corpus that owes nothing to a gravestone. It corroborates from the probate side what the burying ground and a 1755 will established from theirs.

Which daniel cooper is not settled here

[desc] The abstract gives him no residence, no occupation and no age - only the county, and that by implication from the estate. Daniel Cooper Sr Daniel Cooper Sr would be 68 in May 1763, which is old for an appraiser but by no means impossible for a man who lived to 1795 and signed a will in 1791. Daniel Cooper Jr Daniel Cooper Jr (1729-1787) would be 34, which fits an appraiser better. Daniel Cooper and Daniel Cooper are further candidates the catalog already distinguishes. ⇒ no p: row is written for him, and the Peter Layton pairing - which points at the Long Hill family rather than at any other Cooper - is the reason the entry exists, not a reason to name the man.

And the method is the other finding

[desc] This page was reached through the volume's own INDEX OF NAMES, not by reading the volume. The Cooper block at PDF p. 518 lists "Abigail, 229 · Arent, 261 · Barbery, 89 · Benjamin 90, 120, 248, 289 · Caleb, 334 · Daniel, 52 · John, 89, 265, 285 · Joseph, 89, 90, 326 · Lydia, 90 · Marmaduke, 89, 90 · Mary, 251 · Moses, 86 · Nathan Jr., 379 · Philip, 89, 294 · Robert, 148, 234 · Samuel, 90 · Thomas, 170, 347, 392, 393 · William, 89, 90, 104, 116, 332". ⇒ about twenty lines in place of the fifty-six pages a full-text Cooper search returns for this volume, and the given names let a reader skip the Gloucester/Camden clusters at a glance - note how many entries pile up at pages 89-91, which is the signature of one family group rather than of our counties. This is the practical route for the 537-hit, 338-page sweep of Vols I-IV that the three-county item now names as its next corpus. OCR caution: the index is set in narrow columns and the extractor interleaves it with the adjacent Corwin and Cory blocks, so a page number read from it must be confirmed on the page itself - as this one was.

Where the cooper index blocks are in the other volumes

[desc] Located 2026-11-02 so t2 is an errand rather than a search. Each volume's personal-name index holds a Cooper block; the way to find it is to run a full-text search for Cooper and take the HIGHEST page numbers, which are the index. - Vol. XXXIII (1761-1770) - block at PDF p. 518-519, transcribed above. - Vol. XXXII (1751-1760) - block at PDF p. 461, and it begins mid-entry: "Cooper, 275, 367 · David, 366 · Ebenezer, 366 · Elihu, 219 · Elizabeth, 367 · Enos, 116 · Esther, 366 · Hannah, 366, 367 · Isaac, 284, 340, 366 · James, 54, 366 · Jesse, 366 · John, 203, 259, 366, 367 · Jonathan, 367 · Josiah, 260 · Lydia, 366 · Mary, 366 · Mathias, 367 · Merriad, 366 · Michael, 219 · Nathaniel, 35 · Phebe, 314, 366 ..." The A-C part of the block is on the preceding page and is not yet read. - Vol. XXIII (1670-1730) - index not yet opened; the highest Cooper pages are 748, 736, 730, one of which will be it. - Vol. XXX (1730-1750) - PDF p. 701 is the PLACE-name index, not the personal one ("Cooper's Creek, 92, 102, 109, 191 ... Cooper's Point, 109"), so the person block is elsewhere; try the 530s-540s, where the full-text search also reports hits. AND THE CLUSTERING IS ITSELF THE FILTER. In Vol. XXXII the Coopers pile up at pages 366-367 exactly as Vol. XXXIII's pile up at 89-91 - the signature of one family group being abstracted together, almost certainly the Gloucester/Camden Quaker Coopers of [fam.3]. ⇒ a reader can discount a whole cluster at a glance, which is what makes the index route tractable where a 338-page full-text sweep is not.

Correction the unswept corpus is half the size i claimed

[desc] CORRECTED WITHIN THE HOUR, AND THE ERROR IS MINE AND REPEATED. I recorded on [A.226], in the report and on todo.md that Vols I-IV (1670-1770) are an unswept corpus of 537 Cooper hits over 338 pages. Two of those four volumes were swept months ago:

| volume | years | state | |---|---|---| | Vol. XXIII (I) | 1670-1730 | UNSWEPT - one entry in the whole catalog cites it ([I.115]). 107 pages, 158 hits | | Vol. XXX (II) | 1730-1750 | UNSWEPT as a sweep - several entries cite individual wills from it ([A.16], [A.18], [A.24], [A.25], [A.183], [A.225]) but there is no sweep entry. 123 pages, 209 hits | | Vol. XXXII (III) | 1751-1760 | SWEPT - [A.78] "Coryell and Cooper estates NJA Wills III 1751-1760 sweep", with [A.77] | | Vol. XXXIII (IV) | 1761-1770 | SWEPT - [A.83] "a Cooper / Runyon / Coriell sweep of the WHOLE VOLUME", 2026-06-10 | | Vols V-XIII | 1771-1817 | SWEPT - [A.201], nine volumes |

⇒ the genuinely unworked corpus is Vols I and II: 230 pages and 367 hits, 1670-1750 - which is still the colonial window that matters, and is still worth doing, but it is half what I claimed. AND THE BENJAMIN COOPER REFERENCES THAT PROMPTED THIS ENTRY'S t3 ARE ALREADY IN THE CATALOG. Book p. 289's "1762, June 16. Miller, William, of Newton, Sussex Co., collier. Int. ... Fellowbondsman - Benjamin Cooper, Yeoman, of said Co. ... Renunciation by Charity Miller, widow ... Witness - Benjamin Cooper" is transcribed on Benjamin Cooper at its June 1762 entry, and p. 120's "To Benjamin Cooper, the books I hold with him in partnership" is discussed there too. [A.83] had already swept this volume. t3 is withdrawn. THE PATTERN, SINCE IT IS NOW THREE TIMES IN ONE AFTERNOON. I re-ran Asher Cooper's 1924 obituary search that [G.718] t6 had already recorded; I declared a 'no administration for Bryan Lefferty' null over two volumes of a fourteen-volume series; and I have now called a swept corpus unswept. Each time the catalog already held the answer and I searched before grepping. That is precisely what guidance/feedback_grep_catalog_before_recommending.md and feedback_check_disk_before_external_search.md exist to prevent.

The calendars are alphabetical by testator and that changes the job

[desc] A structural fact that halves the task again, found 2026-11-02 by looking for Vol. XXX's index and landing in its abstracts instead. The Calendar of Wills volumes are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the DECEASED, not chronologically. ⇒ every Cooper ESTATE in a volume sits in one block, in the C's - for Vol. XXX that is PDF pp. 107-108 - and the hundreds of scattered full-text hits are Coopers appearing in other people's estates as witnesses, bondsmen, appraisers and neighbours. So the 367-hit figure for Vols I-II is two jobs, not one: reading one page of Cooper estates, which is trivial; and reading two hundred pages for incidental Coopers, which is where [A.227] itself came from - Daniel Cooper appraising a Bouttenhouse inventory is exactly such an incidental hit, filed under B.

And vol xxxs cooper estate block is already held where it matters

[desc] Read 2026-11-02, PDF pp. 107-108. Five Cooper estates, and the catalog already holds both of the ones in counties it works:

| estate | county | held? | |---|---|---| | 1730, Sept. 20. Cooper, John, of Deptford, Gloucester Co., yeoman; will of. Wife Ann. Children - James, John, David, Mary, Ann, Sarah, Hannah; an expected child. Plantation at Alloway's Creek. Executors - wife, brother John Mickle, cousin Joseph Cooper Jr., brother Benjamin Clark Jr. Inventory £623.1.3 | Gloucester | no - [fam.3] territory | | 1732, Nov. 16. Cooper, John, of Newark, Essex Co.; will of. Son-in-law John Sergeant, under age. Brother Samuel Cooper. Children of sister Sarah Woodruff, dec'd; of sister Mary Ward; eldest daughter of sister Elizabeth Frayley, dec'd. Sons-in-law Thomas and Daniel Sergeant. Executors - wife Hannah and son-in-law Jonathan Sergeant | Essex | yes - [A.24] | | 1733, April 17. Cooper, John, of Middletown, Monmouth Co. Int. Adm'r, Roelof Skank. Lib. B, p. 421 + the 4 Aug 1733 inventory at Roeloffe Schenck's house, £18.18.6, with his "Tavern Book" and "freight book" | Monmouth | yes - [A.25], which already records that administration went to a brewer and not to a widow or son | | 1744, Oct. 11. Cooper, James, of Evesham, Burlington Co., weaver. Int. Adm'r Thomas Coles of Waterford, Gloucester Co.; Richard Cannon of Evesham, gent., fellow bondsman. Inventory £2.15.0 | Burlington | no - [fam.3] | | 1746, Sept. 20. Cooper, James, of Coles Town, Gloucester Co. Int. Inventory £35.2.1 | Gloucester | no - [fam.3] |

⇒ the three unheld estates are precisely the out-of-scope Camden/Gloucester/Burlington Quaker Coopers, and the two in-scope ones were catalogued long ago. For TESTATORS, Vol. XXX is effectively already worked. The transcriptions above are given so nobody opens the page again to find that out. AND I CAUGHT THIS ONE BEFORE WRITING IT UP, BY GREPPING FIRST - unlike the three cases recorded above. The 1733 Middletown administration looked like a new lead on Joseph Cooper Joseph Cooper of Middletown, whose own parentage is tree-tier ([L.84]); a grep found [A.25] holding it in full. That is the discipline working, and it is the fourth near-miss of the afternoon.

Vol xxiiis cooper block located but not read and why

[desc] Attempted 2026-11-02 and stopped short, with the position recorded so the next attempt starts where this one left off. Vol. XXIII (1670-1730) is the one volume of the series the catalog has barely touched - one entry in the whole catalog cites it - and by the alphabetical-by-testator rule its Cooper estates should sit in a single block in the C's. WHERE IT IS: the surrounding testator surnames put it at about PDF pp. 199-204. p. 206 and p. 211 are already into Cranmer, Craven, Crawford, Cullyer, Cumfort, Cundict, Curlett; p. 201 and p. 204 run Coulton, Cowman, Conover, Craft, Craine, Crandal, Crane; pp. 199-200 hold no Cooper at all. ⇒ the block, if the volume has one, is on or immediately around p. 201. WHY IT WAS NOT READ: the OCR in this volume's C section is materially worse than elsewhere in the series - it renders Coulton as "Conlton", Cowman as "Covman", Conover as "Comnover" and Proved-1729 as "1~29". A regex for the testator pattern . Cooper, X, of returns nothing on those pages although the full-text search reports Cooper hits there, which means the hits are either witnesses or a damaged spelling of the surname. ⇒ this page needs eyes, not a pattern, and that is a five-minute job for whoever opens it next. AND A CONFOUND SPECIFIC TO THIS VOLUME, worth carrying into any sweep of it: "cooper" is an OCCUPATION as well as a surname, and this volume uses it freely - "James Wills, cooper, of Burlington", "Nathaniel Tylee, cooper", "Dawson, Thomas, of Northampton, Burlington Co., cooper". A case-insensitive surname count of this volume is therefore inflated by an unknown number of barrel-makers, and the 158 hits figure reported for it should be read with that in mind.

Vol xxiiis block read and it too is already held

[desc] Read 2026-11-02 by RENDERING the page rather than pattern-matching it - the block is at PDF p. 197 = book p. 108, not p. 201 as estimated above (p. 201 is already into Cotter, Cottrill, Coulton). The OCR was too damaged for a regex; pdf.py render at 250 dpi plus a 2x crop read it in one pass. The whole Cooper block of Vol. XXIII is GLOUCESTER AND SALEM, verbatim:

"... father-in-law Edward Bradaway, 500 a. there, bought of John Test; personal estate. Executors - father William Cooper and father-in-law Edward Bradway. Witnesses - Sam'l Spicer and Henry Wood. Recorded December 23, 1692. Lib. A, p. 85 ... 1691 May 11. Inventory ... £236.19, incl. a Bible and other books 10s. ... a bond in the hands of Wm. Cooper of Pine Point £30 ... 1691 Aug. 20. Administration of the estate granted to the widow Mary Cooper. Lib. A, p. 55"

"1709-10 March 7. Cooper, William, of Newton Township, Gloucester Co., yeoman; will of. Sons - Joseph and Daniel Cooper; grandsons - John Cooper and Jonathan Woolstone; daughter Hannah Scirket; Ipsebath, daughter of Thomas Thackera dec'd. Owns land for his third dividend on 1/8 and 1-20 share of the Province, personal property. Executors - son Daniel and grandson John Cooper. Witnesses - Thomas Thakera, Elizabeth Newby, William Grow and John Kaighin. Proved March 28, 1710. Lib. 1, p. 260, and Gloucester Wills. 1710 March 27. Inventory ... £710.10.6, incl. £631.11.10 in bonds and mortgages and £18.11.4 in cash and plate; made by John Dole and John Kay."

AND THE CATALOG ALREADY HOLDS IT. [fam.3] records "William Cooper FOUNDER OF CAMDEN (b. ~1632 - d. 11 Mar 1709/10 at a Waterford Twp plantation; corrected 2026-10-20 per [I.231] + the [I.115] will dates)" - and [I.115] is the single entry that cites Vol. XXIII. It is this block. The catalog corrected his death date from it twelve days ago. ⇒ this is the Camden Quaker family, [fam.3] - "of all non-related Cooper branches, the Camden line is the most important to keep distinct from our Daniel-Sr line" - and the Daniel Cooper named as a son here is the look-alike, already filed as Daniel Cooper Daniel Cooper of Newton Twp Gloucester.

So the testator blocks are worked across the whole series

[desc] The honest final state of this thread, after five checks. Taking the series volume by volume: Vols V-XIII swept by [A.201]; Vol. XXXIII swept by [A.83]; Vol. XXXII swept by [A.78]/[A.77]; Vol. XXX's Cooper block read 2026-11-02, both in-scope estates already held ([A.24], [A.25]); Vol. XXIII's Cooper block read 2026-11-02 and already held via [I.115] and [fam.3]. ⇒ for COOPER TESTATORS the printed calendars are worked from 1670 to 1817, and there is no unswept corpus of Cooper estates. WHAT GENUINELY REMAINS IS THE HARDER AND LOWER-YIELD HALF: Coopers appearing in other people's estates, scattered through Vols I-II under every other surname, which no index of the deceased will surface. [A.227] is exactly such a find - Daniel Cooper appraising a Bouttenhouse inventory, filed under B. That is the job, and it is about two hundred pages, with the Vol. XXIII caution that "cooper" is also an occupation there. AND THE REPEATED LESSON OF THE AFTERNOON STANDS: three times I asserted a corpus was unworked and was wrong, twice more I caught it by grepping first. The catalog's own record was adequate every single time.