Document B.2a · pension affidavit · transcription: partial

Jacob Smith's Revolutionary invalid-pension affidavit, Inv. 914 — a private's nineteen tours of Hunterdon militia service, two of them under "Capt. Benj. Cooper, and Col. Frelinghuysen", 1776.

repository: New Jersey State Archives, Trenton
collection: Revolutionary War manuscripts — Invalid pension file #914, Jacob Smith
identifier: Header (p. 2): "Invalid #914 Jacob Smith / Age 19 / Private Militia / Hunterdon Co. N.J." Back cover: "Smith, Jacob / 2736 / Hunterdon Co. N.J. Militia / Revolutionary War / EXAMINED NO. CARDS 24." A notation "Warren Co. N.J. 1833" at the foot of p. 3.
date: 1833

What is transcribed: Nineteen service entries, transcribed sequentially. Four pages of a twenty-four card file — see coverage.the_twenty_missing_cards.

People named

As written	Role	Identified as
Jacob Smith	applicant
Capt. Benj. Cooper	mentioned	Benjamin Cooper 1741–1794
Col. Frelinghuysen	official

What this document records

It is someone else s pension file

THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT ABOUT BENJAMIN COOPER AND THAT IS WHY IT IS GOOD. It is Jacob Smith's own application, sworn to establish Smith's service. Cooper appears only as the captain Smith served under — an incidental, disinterested mention, which is the strongest form a militia attestation takes. \"Sept 1776, Served 1 month, as substitute for John Connett, under Capt. Benj. Cooper, and Col. Frelinghuysen\" and \"Nov. 1776, Served 1 month, under Capt Cooper and Col. Frelinghuysen.\"

What the card adds over it

[B.2] abstracts these two lines and supplies the regimental detail this affidavit lacks — \"Fourth Regiment, Hunterdon County Militia, attached to Colonel (Frederick) Frelinghuysen's First Regiment, Somerset County Militia.\" Where the cataloguer got it is not stated; he had the whole 24-card file and we have four pages.

A portrait of militia service

Smith served nineteen separate one-month tours, eight of them as a paid substitute for named men (Peter Cumback, Abraham Vanhorn, William West, John Connett, Andrew Swayze, Thomas Alliger, John Everole). That is what the 4th Hunterdon actually was — a rotating, substituted county levy — and it is the context for Cooper's own two one-month captaincies.

The twenty missing cards

LOW PRIORITY, BY MAINTAINER'S DECISION (2026-04-21) — and the reasoning still holds. The back cover endorses "NO. CARDS 24"; four pages are catalogued. A Revolutionary pension file centres on the applicant — Smith's own service, disability and affidavits — so the missing ~20 cards most likely do not advance Capt. Benjamin Cooper research. Do not list them among top-priority missing documents; revisit only if a specific Smith-file-context question arises. (Rule relocated here 2026-06-02 from the retired pr.47.)

The 1833 notation

"Warren Co. N.J. 1833" at the foot of p. 3. Warren County was set off from Sussex in 1824, and 1833 is a plausible date for an invalid-pension application under the 1832 act — but the affidavit's own date is not transcribed here, and none is asserted.

Transcription and notes

Provenance, why an incidental mention in another man's pension file is the strongest kind of militia attestation, and the maintainer's standing low-priority ruling on the ~20 missing cards are in the source: and coverage: headers and are not repeated here.

Data from the affidavit (pages 2–3) — service entries, sequentially:
"March 1776, Served 1 month, under Capt. Thomas Jones and Col. John Taylor."
"April 1776, Served 1 month, as substitute for Peter Cumback, under Capt. John Stephens."
"May 1776, Served 1 month, as substitute for Abraham Vanhorn, under Capt. Grundyke."
"July 1776, Served 1 month, under Capt. William Gearhart."
"Aug 1776, Served 1 month, as substitute for William West, under Capt. John Hager."
"Sept 1776, Served 1 month, as substitute for John Connett, under Capt. Benj. Cooper, and Col. Frelinghuysen."
"Nov. 1776, Served 1 month, under Capt Cooper and Col. Frelinghuysen."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, under Capt. John Ditmars. Had engagement at Springfield."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, under Capt. Dan'l [Wager?]."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, under Capt. [Tenge? Haver?]."
"Afterwards, served [...] under Capt. Samuel Grundyke."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, as substitute for Andrew Swayze, under Capt. Grundyke."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, under Capt. William Jones."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, under Capt. Wm. Carhart, as substitute for John Everole."
"Afterwards, served 1 mo. under same Captain."
"[ditto] 1 mo., Capt. David Schamp."
"[ditto] 1 [mo.], as substitute for Thomas Alliger."
"Afterwards, served 1 month, under Captain Linbrook [?]."
"Afterwards, served ½ month, under Capt. Carhart."
[desc] Several service entries have hard-to-read captain names; a few entries have not been captured. The document has a clerk's "CEJ" or similar initial mark. Additional context from the back cover endorsement: "NO. CARDS 24" indicates the full Jacob Smith file originally had 24 cards, not just the 4 pages scanned.