Honeyman, Calendar of NJ Wills Vol. II (NJ Archives 1st Series Vol. XXX) — the abstract of John Cooper of Middletown, Monmouth Co., intestate 17 April 1733, with the £18.18.6 inventory. Lib. B, p. 421.

What this document records

It names no heir

AN INTESTATE ABSTRACT NAMES NO HEIRS, AND THAT IS STRUCTURAL, NOT AN OMISSION. Distribution was settled separately — administrator's bond, final accounting, petitions of distribution — in loose-paper files at NJSA. ⇒ this abstract cannot test any parentage hypothesis, and the file behind Lib. B p. 421 is what would.

What it does show about him

HE KEPT TWO ACCOUNT BOOKS, AND THEY DESCRIBE A LIVELIHOOD: "his Credits in two several books set down, the one in his Tavern Book and the other in his freight book" ⇒ a tavern-keeper who was also in freight or cartage. The estate is £18.18.6 — small; for scale, Elias Van Court's 1750 inventory ([A.16]) was £258.16.1.

The administrator is a stranger

ADMINISTRATION WENT TO ROELOFF SCHENCK, A BREWER — NOT TO A WIDOW OR A SON. Colonial NJ practice granted administration to spouse or eldest son first, and to a third party only when those were unavailable, absent or refused. Suggestive of a man without near kin at hand — and the abstract says nothing about why, so it is recorded as an observation, not a finding. The inventory was taken at Schenck's own house, which implies the effects were moved there.

Daniel sr parentage test

HE IS CANDIDATE #2 IN THE POST-[A.24] SEARCH FOR DANIEL SR'S FATHER, and the test is argued on Daniel Cooper Sr, not here. In short: chronology and geography both fit; the family tradition ([I.36]) has a John Cooper dying in New York City c. 1700-1715, which contradicts a 1733 Middletown death; and the decisive evidence — who inherited — is not in this document.