Document B.3a · militia election certificate · transcription: verbatim
MSS No. 701 — the election return of the 4th Battalion, Hunterdon militia, White House, 25 April 1778, written and signed "Benjn Cooper Clark". The catalog's only known Benjamin Cooper autograph.
- repository
- New Jersey State Archives, Trenton
- collection
- Revolutionary War manuscripts — MSS No. 701
- identifier
- Page 2 is the folder/envelope, printed oval label "701", endorsed "Godfrey Rynehart & Ebenezer Berry for Majors Hunt[erdon]." Page 3 is the certificate itself.
- date
- 1778-04-25
What is transcribed: The certificate and its folder endorsement.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benjn Cooper | witness | Benjamin Cooper 1741–1794 | occupation: 25 Apr 1778, White House, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey, Clerk, 4th Battalion Hunterdon militia officers' election |
| Godfrey Rinehart | mentioned | ||
| Ebenezer Berry | mentioned | ||
| Peter Brunner | witness |
What this document records
It is a signature and that outranks everything else here
HE WROTE THIS DOCUMENT AND SIGNED IT. "Benjn Cooper Clark", 25 April 1778, in a fluent hand with a long flourish. Under the CLAUDE.md image-hunt rule a signature is preference tier 2, behind only a lifelike likeness — and for a man who died in 1794 no likeness is expected. This is the best image of Benjamin Cooper the catalog is likely ever to have, and it went unrecorded on Benjamin Cooper for over a year while that file's Images section listed a tier-3 fallback.
It is also the only document here in his own hand
Everything else in the cluster is about him — a card a cataloguer typed, a ledger a paymaster kept, another man's pension file. This one he wrote. The certificate's body, the interlineated correction ("the [struck] Councill & Assembly"), and the signature are all the same hand.
What it records
An election of the officers of the 4th Battalion of Hunterdon Militia at the White House on 25 April 1778, to fill two vacant Major's commissions: Godfrey Rinehart first and Ebenezer Berry second, recommended to the Councill & Assembly "as proper Persons for to fill those Stations." Certified by Benjn Cooper, Clark and Peter Brunner, Inspector.
Battalion or regiment
This document says "4th BATTALION of Hunterdon Militia"; the cards say "Fourth REGIMENT, Hunterdon County Militia." Recorded as a difference in wording between the sources, not resolved — the two terms were used loosely for NJ county militia units, but nothing here establishes that.
Transcription and notes
The catalog's only known Benjamin Cooper autograph. Provenance, the 4× re-read
of the signature block, why a signature outranks the image currently on [p.2], and the
battalion-vs-regiment wording difference are in the source: and coverage: headers and are not
repeated here.
- Data from the manuscript (page 3, full transcription of text):
- "At an Election of the Officers of the 4th Battalion of Hunterd[on] Militia held at the White House on the 25th Aprl. For the Appointment of Two Majors which Offices were Vacant was Duly Elected & Appointed Godfrey Rinehart for first & Ebenezer Berry Second Majors & Recommend them to the [Council] Councill & [Assembly] as proper Persons for to fill those Stations."
- Date: "25th Apr 1778."
- Signed: "Benjn Cooper Clark."
- Co-signed: "Peter Brunner Inspector."