Document A.84 · administration · transcription: partial
Administration on Samuel Cooper Esq. of Newark, Essex Co., intestate — NJSA loose-paper File 883–888G plus the recorded grant at Vol. C p. 173; granted 22 August 1737 to his widow Experience Cooper.
- repository
- New Jersey State Archives
- identifier
- Essex Co. loose papers File 883-888G; recorded grant Vol. C, p. 173
- date
- 1737-08-22
What is transcribed: The recorded grant, the bond, the letters, and the debts-due-to-the-estate list. Not the itemised inventory, which is most of three pages.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Cooper | deceased | Samuel Cooper 1719–1737 | residence: Newark, Essex Co., New Jersey death: before 22 Aug 1737, Newark, Essex Co., New Jersey |
| Experience Cooper | administrator | Experience Cooper | |
| Daniel Cooper | mentioned | Daniel Cooper Sr 1695–1795 unproven | |
| Coll. John Cooper | mentioned | ||
| Isaac Lyon | bondsman | ||
| Daniel Tichenor | bondsman | ||
| John Hamilton | official | ||
| William Maddock | official | ||
| [the other book-debtors] | mentioned |
What this document records
Why it was ordered and what happened
IT WAS THE [pr.2] HYPOTHESIS-A TEST, AND THE TEST TURNED OUT NOT TO EXIST. The question was: does the distribution of Samuel Cooper's estate name a son Daniel, born about 1695? Samuel died intestate and the file contains only a grant, a bond, an inventory and a debt account. There is no distribution, no division among heirs, and no document naming his children at all. That is not the same as a negative result. A distribution listing children without a Daniel would have made Hypothesis A implausible; a file with no children listed makes it neither more nor less likely. The acquisition answered a different question than the one asked — namely "is the answer in this file?", and it is not. To enumerate Samuel's children a different instrument is needed: a later guardianship of minors, a division petition, or a deed by the heirs. None is in 883-888G.
The one cooper datum and what it is worth
Two Coopers appear in the debts-due list, as book-debtors of the Newark estate: "Daniel Cooper — £0.6.9" and "Coll. John Cooper — £2.4.9". These are commercial accounts and carry no kinship language whatever. They establish only that a Daniel Cooper and a militia-colonel John Cooper had dealings with Samuel Cooper Esq.'s household about 1737. Which Daniel is not identified, and a Newark account is geographically plausible for a great many men.
A citation that pointed at the wrong entry
Samuel Cooper had cited "A.20" for this administration. [A.20] is the unrelated New York County wills-index sweep. Corrected when this entry was created; noted because a mis-citation that lands on a real entry is invisible to every link check.
It supersedes the published abstract
The long-cited authority was NJA Abstracts of Wills Vol. XXX p. 109, via [I.138]: "Cooper, Samuel, Esq., of Newark, Essex Co. Int. Adm'x, Experience Cooper, widow. Isaac Lyon and Daniel Tichener, fellow bondsmen." The manuscript confirms every word of it — and adds the bond, the letters, the inventory and the debtor list.
Transcription and notes
Provenance, why the file was ordered, why the [pr.2] test it was meant to run turns out not to
exist in it, and what the two Cooper book-debtors are and are not worth, are all in the source:
and coverage: headers and are not repeated here.
Contents of the file [verbatim / closely transcribed]
Recorded grant — Recorded Vol C p.173 (register page; the Samuel item among several)
"Be it Remembred that on the [22] day of August [Anno] Domini 1737, Letters of Administration [were] granted by the Hon[ora]ble John Hamilton Esq.r President &c To Experience Cooper of Newark, appointing her Administratrix of all [&] Singular the goods[,] Rights and Credits of Samuel Cooper late of [Newark] deceased … did exhibit an Inventory … according to Law …" — register hand; companion items on the same recorded page are an Ashton will + probate (proved 28 July 1737 before Surrogate William Maddock) and the opening of a 1734 Johnson will (unrelated).
Loose papers File 883–888G
| PDF p. | File label | Document | Key contents |
|---|---|---|---|
| p.0 | 883 | Inventory (begins) | "A True Inventory … of the Estate of Samuel Cooper late of the Town of Newark deceased" (taken ~22 Sept 1737); itemized goods with £.s.d values. [partial — long itemized list not fully transcribed] |
| p.1 | 884 | Inventory (continues) | further itemized household/farm goods + values |
| p.2 | 885 | Inventory (ends) + debts due to the estate | totals; then a two-column list of debtors incl. "Daniel Cooper — £0.6.9" and "Coll. John Cooper — £2.4.9" (others: Nathaniel Coward Jr, John Molley, Samuel Gadden, James Smith, Capt Amos Williams, Abraham Mosker[?], Frans Francisco, Nathaniel Crain, John Baldwin Jr, Benjamin Shipman, John Francisco, etc.); debtor-list subtotal £14.16.10½ |
| p.3 | 886 | Debt account (debts of/to the estate, incl. "new book unsettled"), sworn | more names; sworn before the authorities [date 1738 in margin] |
| p.4 | 887 | Administration bond | obligors Experience Cooper (signs by her mark) + Isaac Lyon + Daniel Tichenor of Essex Co., bound to Pres. John Hamilton; condition = Experience to well & truly administer Samuel's goods |
| p.5 | 888 | Letters of administration / probate act | grant to Experience Cooper, administratrix of Samuel Cooper late of [Newark] dec'd; "she will make … a true & perfect Inventory & render [an account]"; signed "Jno Hamilton" |