Document A.48 · estate inventory · transcription: partial
Estate of William Cooper, docket 5781N, Morris Co. N.J. — inventory 1880, with a renunciation of administration whose reading is unsettled. FHC capture.
- repository
- New Jersey State Archives probate film, via LDS Family History Center
- identifier
- Docket 5781N, Morris Co.
- date
- 1880
What is transcribed: The cover verbatim; the inventory body, notes, receipts and real-estate pages descriptively only; the renunciation partially.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| William Cooper | deceased | William Cooper 1811–1880 probable | |
| Martha N[?] Cooper | spouse | Martha H. (Cross) Cooper 1823–1914 probable | |
| Joseph N. Thompson | administrator | ||
| Edwin H. Lyon[?] | appraiser | ||
| Henry Jackson[?] | appraiser |
What this document records
It is the answer to a32s null
THIS IS THE ESTATE [A.32]'s ANCESTRY SEARCH COULD NOT FIND. He died intestate, so the file is an inventory-only administration — a class the Ancestry wills database does not index. ⇒ the null was structural, and a direct NJSA request found the docket immediately.
The unsettled renunciation
F-624 ADMITS TWO READINGS AND THE DIFFERENCE MATTERS. (1) Martha N. Cooper, the widow, renounces her right to administer and asks that letters go to Joseph N. Thompson; or (2) *Martha, who is now married to Joseph N. Thompson, renounces* — i.e. she had remarried within months of William's 2 July 1880 death. Reading (2) would contradict [G.106], which has her as Martha H. (Cross) Cooper still under the Cooper surname at her 1914 death. Neither is adopted; the phrase "who is now married to one Joseph N. Thompson" appears in the transcription but the surrounding cursive is only partly legible. One crop settles it, and the task lives on Martha H. (Cross) Cooper as p.753#t1 — not here, because what it resolves is a contradiction about a person**, not a defect in this entry's record of the document.
Values not reliable
DO NOT CITE THE INVENTORY FIGURES. F-622's readings are explicitly uncertain — "Real Estate sound — $18.85" is flagged in the entry itself as "or similar", which for a real-estate line is not a plausible value. The whole body needs a proper pass.
Transcription and notes
Provenance, why [A.32]'s search missed this, the two readings of the renunciation, and the
unreliable inventory values are all in the source: and coverage: headers and are not repeated
here.
Image inventory + verbatim where legible
F-610 (inventory cover, verbatim)
- "SURROGATE'S OFFICE / Morris County, New Jersey"
- "INVENTORY"
- "of"
- "William Cooper [highlighted]" "deceased"
- "Inured [Filed?] Oct 22nd 1880"
- "RECORDED in Morris County Surrogate's Office, Liber [unclear] folio 27 of Inventories"
- Signature: "[Cox?/Wilcox? — Surrogate]"
- Docket number: "5781N"
F-611 through F-617 (inventory body, descriptive)
[desc]Approximately 7 pages of itemized household + farm property inventory in cursive. Categories visible: parlor / kitchen / barn / wagons / horses / carriages / farm implements / hay / grain.- Items include (sampled, verbatim where legible): "Lounge & cover", "Stove + Pipe", "Mahogany Bureau", "Old Bedstead", "Maple syrup spoon", "Pickled gravy spoon", "Old salt cellar in kitchen", "Stove and Pipe", "Light table in Kitchen", "Set of Hay in the Barn", "Harness on Horse".
- F-617 bottom shows brought-forward total figures (specific value not legible at current res).
F-621 (notes and receipts, descriptive)
[desc]Page of handwritten notes/receipts of money owed; multiple dates 1839, 1873, etc., with signatures. Names visible: "Daniel Russell", "S.B. Henry", "Howard E. Bourne", "James W. Hines", "Joseph M. Thompson". Total reading approximately $12,266 in upper-right corner.
F-622 (real estate inventory, partial verbatim)
- Header: "[unclear] Cooper, late of [William Cooper highlighted] deceased, from the [unclear] / [Edwin H. Lyon?] [unclear] Henry [Jackson?] [unclear] [appraisers?] / [date] 22 [October?] 1880(?)"
[desc]Body lists Real Estate + livestock + farm equipment + tools with $ values; "1 Sorrel [Horse?]", "1 Cow Ralph & Edwin", "Real Estate sound — $18.85" (or similar — values uncertain), etc. Detailed transcription deferred pending higher-res zoom.
F-624 (administration renunciation, partial verbatim)
- Top portion (cursive, partially legible): "[State of New Jersey?] [unclear text] / [signature line] Martha N[?] Cooper / [signature line] [unclear] / [date 25 November 1880(?)]"
- Bottom portion (cursive, partially legible): "Mart[h]a [N?] [Cooper?] my legal right to forego the administration / [unclear text] of the estate of the said William Cooper [highlighted] / [unclear] / who is now married to one Joseph N. Thompson / [signature] Martha N Cooper / [signature] Joseph N. Thompson / [Surrogate's signature] [unclear]"