Document A.81 · court execution · transcription: verbatim
Hunterdon Co. Court of Common Pleas, August Term 1783 — the levy entry in Daniel Cooper v. Benjamin Cooper, a writ of fieri facias de bonis et terris in Debt, itemising what was seized. Minutes Vol. 13.
- repository
- Hunterdon County Clerk's Office, N.J.
- collection
- "Minutes, Common Pleas, 1782-1788, [Vol.] 13, Hunterdon County" — the August Term Minutes 1783.
- date
- 1783-08
What is transcribed: The single Daniel Cooper agst Benj.n Cooper entry on the August 1783 minute page, plus the writ and return from the separately-located file. The other cases on the same minute page — Jos. Little, Oliver Barnet, Nichs French, Philip Wisler, John Wools v. Christian Mulick, Mark Thompson v. Potts & Downing — are out of scope and untranscribed.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Cooper | plaintiff | Daniel Cooper Sr 1695–1795 probable | |
| Benj.n Cooper | defendant | Benjamin Cooper 1741–1794 | residence: 1783, Lebanon Twp., Hunterdon Co., New Jersey |
| [unnamed] | enslaved | ||
| Joseph Reading | official | ||
| [John] Anderson | official |
What this document records
The sum and where it came from
THE DEBT IS £2,236, AND IT ORIGINATES IN A BOND OF 1 MARCH 1773 AT 8%. The levy page alone does not give the figure; the writ (img 380) does — "the sum of Two Thousand two hundred and thirty six pounds lawful Money … which Daniel Cooper … recovered against him of Debt, as also four pounds six Shillings … for his Damages" — and the return (img 379) ties the judgment to the 1773 bond. The chronology is therefore complete: 1773 bond → judgment and writ 9 May 1783 → levy August 1783 → sheriff's sale 21 April 1784 ([J.9]).
It is a writ against goods and lands
Fieri facias de bonis et terris — execution against both goods and lands, which is why the levy takes the livestock, the standing crops and the plantation. A writ de bonis alone could not have reached the land.
What benjamin owned in 1783
The levy is the only inventory of Capt. Benjamin Cooper's estate the catalog has, and it is absent from both Craddock [I.22] and Mellick [I.56]: three beds and bedding, one enslaved boy, four horses, eight cattle, ten hogs, about 423[?] acres, and standing crops of wheat, rye, Indian corn, oats and hay. A substantial Lebanon Twp. farming operation, seized entire.
The enslaved boy
"one Negro Boy" appears in the levy list between the bedding and the horses. Recorded because an execution inventory is one of the few places a person held in slavery is named at all — and here he is not even named, only counted.
The plaintiff is not identified here
The minute says only "Daniel Cooper" — not Sr, not Jr. The catalog reads him as Daniel Sr Daniel Cooper Sr on the strength of the 1795 deed [K.46], in which a "Daniel Cooper of Morris County" conveys this same plantation to Benjamin's son (Daniel Jr Daniel Cooper Jr having died in 1787). That argument is on Daniel Cooper Sr and [pr.53], not here.
What it does not say
It does not name who bought the plantation. This is the levy; the purchaser appears in the execution return at a later term of the same minute book, or in a recorded sheriff's deed. See todo.
Transcription and notes
Provenance, the £2,236 debt and its 1773 bond, what the levy shows Benjamin owned, and the
fact that the plaintiff is not identified as Sr or Jr on this record are all in the source: and
coverage: headers and are not repeated here. The debt-collapse synthesis is on [p.2],
with the second creditor at [A.114].
Data from the document (the Cooper entry) [verbatim]
Daniel Cooper / agst [against] / Benj.ⁿ Cooper — "fi fa de bonis et terris in Debt" [= writ of fieri facias on goods and lands, in an action of debt] "[Ml?] 10/ levied on 3 beds & bedding, one Negro Boy, 4 Horses, 8 Cattle, 10 Hogs, [4]23 [?] Acres of Land, Crop of wheat & rye in the Ground, a Crop of Indian Corn, Oats & Hay, & Sundry other Articles. Value £5 [?] — which remain &c."
(Penmanship: acreage reads ~"423" but the leading digit is uncertain [?]; the closing "Value £5" figure is faint [?]. Other cases on the same page — Jos. Little, Oliver Barnet, Nichs French, Philip Wisler, John Wools v. Christian Mulick, Mark Thompson v. Potts & Downing, etc. — are out of scope.)
2026-07-14 — the WRIT itself + return found (FS Full-Text) — exact debt + its 1773-bond origin
Two companion pages of the underlying fieri facias file surfaced (FS Full-Text, NJ Inferior Court of Common Pleas (Hunterdon), IGN 008351212):
- img 380 — the writ (issued 9 May 1783): "The State of New Jersey to the Sheriff of the County of Hunterdon … if the Goods and [Chattels] of Benjamin Cooper … of [Lebanon] Township … you should cause to be made the sum of Two Thousand two hundred and thirty six pounds [£2,236] lawful Money … which Daniel Cooper, lately in Our Inferior Court of Common Pleas held at Trenton … recovered against him of Debt, as also four pounds six Shillings … for his Damages … for the detention of that Debt … [else] seize sell and dispose of … the Real Estate, Houses and Lands of the said Benjamin … Witness Joseph Reading Esquire, Judge … the ninth day of May … 1783"; returnable "the first Friday in August next."
- img 379 — the return/endorsement: ~~ties the judgment to a "Bond dated 1st March 1773 for 8[%] Int[erest]"~~ CORRECTED 2026-09-11 — see the correction block below. The dorse, read at 3× off the native 4592×4369 image, says "Bond dated 1ˢᵗ March / 1773 for — — — — 1118 — · · — / Int. thereof till paid / Costs taxed at ——— £4. 6. 0". ⇒ the bond was for £1,118; there is no 8% rate on the page at all — the "8" was the last digit of 1118, and Int. begins the next line. The sheriff's endorsement is J. Anderson Sh[f]f and the receipt line reads Rec'd 20ᵗʰ May 8 P M. Full transcription of all three endorsement blocks: [A.177].
- ⇒ Exact judgment = £2,236 + £4 6s damages, on a bond dated 1 March 1773 in the sum of £1,118. Chronology firmed: 1773 bond → 1783 judgment + writ (9 May) → Aug 1783 levy (below) → 21 Apr 1784 sheriff's sale ([J.9]). (Plaintiff Daniel = Daniel Sr [p.1] per the [K.46] regrant.) What the two figures mean to each other is argued on [p.2], not here; see also the 2nd creditor [A.114].
2026-09-11 — CORRECTION: the "8% interest" on the 1773 bond never existed
Prior reading (2026-07-14, above): image 379's docket was transcribed as "Bond dated 1st March 1773 for 8[%] Int[erest]", and the catalog carried "a 1773 bond at 8%" from then on — including into [p.2]'s debt-collapse synthesis, where it appeared as "(8% interest)". What the page actually says, re-read 2026-09-11 at 3× on the full-resolution image extracted from the filed PDF (the 400-dpi re-render is smaller than the JPEG embedded in it):
Bond dated 1ˢᵗ March 1773 for — — — — 1118 — · · — Int. thereof till paid Costs taxed at ——— £4. 6. 0 Why the slip happened, so it is not repeated: the figure
1118sits at the far right of its line behind a long leader of dashes, andInt.opens the line below it. Read as one phrase across the line break,…8+Int.reads as "8% Int." — and an 8% bond is entirely plausible for 1773, so nothing felt wrong. The tell was available and was not used:£4. 6. 0on the line beneath matches the writ's "four pounds six Shillings" exactly, which shows the whole block is a schedule of amounts, not of rates.£1,118is now a recorded value and8%is withdrawn.** Any downstream reasoning that used the interest rate must be re-checked; [p.2] is corrected.