Document B.50 · published register · transcription: verbatim
Stryker, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War (Trenton, 1872) - Cooper surname sweep
- repository
- On disk — the printed register
- collection
- William S. Stryker, Adjutant General, Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War, Trenton, printed by authority of the Legislature, 1872.
- identifier
- Compiled from the NJ Adjutant General’s manuscript Revolutionary rolls, pension applications and Continental returns. A STATE compilation — which is the point; see coverage.
- date
- 1872
View the book on Internet Archive · View page 280 on Internet Archive · View page 553 on Internet Archive
What is transcribed: Every Cooper occurrence across the register’s sections. Searched on “Cooper” — variant spellings (Cowper, Coper, Couper) were not swept, and Stryker did not consolidate duplicates between sections, so one man may appear more than once.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| COOPER, BENJAMIN | mentioned | Benjamin Cooper 1741–1794 probable | |
| COOPER, JOHN | mentioned | John Cooper 1738–1778 possible | |
| Daniel Cooper | referenced | Daniel Cooper Sr 1695–1795 | |
| Daniel Cooper Jr | referenced | Daniel Cooper Jr 1729–1787 |
What this document records
It is the state register and that is why it matters
[B.30] established that Capt. Benjamin Cooper is ABSENT from Fold3’s federal indexes — M881, M246, M804 — in a complete 360-result sweep, and reasoned that a county militia officer who died in 1794, before any pension act, leaves nothing for a federal index to hold. This is the other half of that argument. Stryker is the NEW JERSEY register, and Benjamin is in it: “COOPER, BENJAMIN. Captain, militia” (p. 280). Absent federally, present at state level — exactly as predicted.
The captaincy now has four independent classes of source
Recorded because no single one of them would carry it alone: ① this 1872 state register; ② the NJSA card-and-manuscript set [B.1]-[B.6a], including MSS 701 in his own hand; ③ two 1832 pension declarations by men who served under him — Andrew Bray [B.32] and Robert Hazlett [B.34] — and Jacob Smith’s affidavit [B.2a]; ④ an 1890 SAR application [B.49] calling him “Capt. Benjamin Cooper, N.J. Militia.” Stryker gives NO county and NO regiment for him, so on its own this line is a candidate, not a confirmation. It is the others that place him in Hunterdon.
The pardon question is still open
A 1773 pardon and a militia captaincy are an odd pair. [I.22] Craddock records the pardon; the commission would have followed within four years. Historically possible — counterfeiting convictions were pardoned and men re-entered public life — but unexplained, and the catalog should not smooth it over. No reading is offered here; it belongs in Benjamin Cooper.
The daniel null and what undercuts it
“Daniel Cooper” returns ZERO hits across every Stryker section. For Daniel Sr Daniel Cooper Sr, aged 82 in 1777, that is unremarkable. For Daniel Jr Daniel Cooper Jr, aged 48, the entry offers three readings — over the militia age bracket, a civilian official, or a Loyalist. CORRECTED 2026-09-02 — the Loyalist reading is much weaker than it looks. [B.33] is a NARA M881 record showing “Dan’l Cooper” sitting among the “Esqrs” as a militia CLASSING COMMISSIONER in Morris County, 7 and 12 May 1778, with Col. Sylvanus Seely and Aaron Kitchel. A man classing companies for the Continental cause is not a Loyalist, and Stryker — a register of officers and men — would not list a civil commissioner at all. [B.33]’s Daniel is unidentified, so this does not establish that Daniel Jr held the office. What it does establish is that Stryker’s silence is not evidence of absence from the war effort.
The sussex coopers and snell 1881s copy of them
Added 2026-09-12. The same p. 553 also carries the Sussex Coopers, re-read off the rendered page (PDF p. 558, 300 dpi, 2×): "COOPER, JOHN. Sussex." and "COOPER, WILLIAM. Captain Harker's company, Second Regiment, Sussex." p. 552 (PDF p. 557) has "COOPER, CORNELIUS." — with no county at all. The on-disk djvu OCR text reads "Captain BARKER's company"; the printed page says HARKER. Anyone grepping the (archive file) for this company will miss it. Snell 1881 ([I.207], book p. 71) reprints these three together in its list of "nearly one thousand soldiers from Sussex County", crediting Stryker by name (book p. 68 footnote) — so its "Cornelius Cooper. John Cooper. William Cooper, Capt. Harker's company." is derived from this register, not independent of it. And Snell counts Cornelius as a Sussex man although Stryker gives him no county. That attribution is Snell's own and is not adopted.
Eight morris coopers nobody has worked
Stryker p. 553 gives eight Morris Co. Cooper privates — Abraham, David, Henry, Ichabod, James, John, Reuben, William. In Daniel Sr’s own county, in his sons’ generation. No identification is claimed for any of them.
Transcription and notes
Benjamin is here. Provenance, why a STATE register is the complement to [B.30]'s
federal null, the four independent classes of source now supporting the captaincy, and the
correction to the Daniel-Cooper-as-Loyalist reading are in the source: and coverage: headers
and are not repeated here.
Source identification
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Source | Official Register of the Officers and Men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War |
| Author | William S. Stryker, Adjutant General |
| Compiled under | His Excellency Theodore F. Randolph, Governor of NJ |
| Publication | Trenton, N.J.: Printed by Authority of the Legislature, 1872 |
| Filename | (image held in the family archive) |
| Underlying primary source | NJ Adjutant General manuscript Rev War rolls + pension applications + Continental Army returns + State Treasurer payment records, held at NJ State Archives |
| Source tier | Published compiled primary-source by State authority; high certainty for transcribed names; "first name blank" entries (e.g. "COOPER, ___") indicate the underlying manuscript was illegible or did not record the given name |
| Structure | Multiple sections by service category: Continental Officers, Continental Privates (alphabetical), Officers of Militia (Captains, Lieutenants), Privates of Militia + State Troops (alphabetical by surname, then county), Foragemasters, etc. Same person may appear in multiple sections if they served in multiple capacities. |
| Acquired | Long-standing on-disk holding |
| Capture into catalog | 2026-05-19 |
Verbatim — Morris Co. Coopers (Privates, Militia + State Troops section, alphabetical, p. 553)
"COOPER, ABRAHAM. Morris.
COOPER, ALEXANDER. First Battalion, Salem; also State troops; also Continental Army.
COOPER, ANNANIAS.
COOPER, CORNELIUS.
COOPER, DAVID. 'Eastern Battalion,' Morris; also State troops; also Continental Army.
COOPER, DERRICK. Bergen.
COOPER, DICKINSON. Wounded 1780.
COOPER, HENRY. Morris.
COOPER, ICHABOD. Morris.
COOPER, JACOB. Burlington. Samuel Dennis' company, First [Regiment].
COOPER, JAMES. Morris.
COOPER, JAMES W. Captain [unclear continuation: ] Regiment, Monmouth.
COOPER, JOHN. Morris.
COOPER, JOHN. Somerset.
COOPER, JOHN. Sussex.
COOPER, JOHN. Hunterdon; also State troops; also Continental Army.
COOPER, MICHAEL. Hunterdon.
COOPER, REUBEN. Morris.
COOPER, THOMAS. Somerset.
COOPER, WILLIAM. Captain Barker's company, Second Regiment, Sussex. Hunterdon.
COOPER, WILLIAM. 'Western Battalion,' Morris; also State troops; also Continental Army.
COOPER, WILLIAM."
8 Morris Co. Coopers are listed as Rev War militia/state-troops Privates: Abraham, David, Henry, Ichabod, James, John, Reuben, William.
Verbatim — Cooper Captains (Officers of Militia section, p. 280)
"COOPER, ___. Captain, militia; wounded.
COOPER, BENJAMIN. Captain, militia.
COOPER, JACOB. Captain, Burlington; Captain, Major Hayes' battalion, State troops."
3 Cooper Captains: unnamed-first-name wounded Captain; Benjamin Cooper Captain (county/regiment unspecified); Jacob Cooper Captain of Burlington / Hayes' State troops battalion.
Verbatim — Continental Cooper officers (p. 173, Privates Continental Army alphabetical)
"COOPER, ALEXANDER. Captain Anderson's company, Third Battalion, Second Establishment; also militia.
COOPER, DAVID. Also militia.
COOPER, GASPER.
COOPER, JAMES B. 'Lee's Legion,' Continental Army.
COOPER, JOHN. Captain Anderson's company, Fourth Battalion, Second Establishment; also militia.
COOPER, WILLIAM. Captain Luce's company, Second Battalion, Second Establishment; also militia."
6 Cooper soldiers in the Continental Army Privates list (some overlap with the militia Privates list — Stryker did not consolidate cross-section duplicates).
Verbatim — Burlington Co. Horsemen/Infantry section (p. ~390, by county)
"Burlington County: Captain.
Jacob Cooper"
= Jacob Cooper as Burlington Co. Captain of Horsemen (cavalry). Same person as Capt. Burlington at p. 280 + as Council-of-Safety POW at I.96.
Verbatim — Foragemaster section (p. ~999, alphabetical)
"COOPER, CONSTANT. Purchasing Foragemaster; Foragemaster.
...
COOPER, HENRY. Wagonmaster."
Constant Cooper as Purchasing Foragemaster + Foragemaster (= rear-echelon supply officer; identification unknown). Henry Cooper as Wagonmaster — likely the same Henry Cooper of Morris listed at p. 553 (Private), here in a secondary specialist role.
Verbatim — "Captain Cooper's company" references in unit rosters (~p. 488, p. 489)
"BARNES, JOHN. Burlington; also Captain Cooper's company, State troops." [Plus 14 similar entries naming Privates in Captain Cooper's company across the State troops rosters.]
Cooper datum: "Captain Cooper's company" referenced 16+ times in the Privates section under various surnames; these are men who served under a Cooper Captain. Based on the Burlington Co. context and Jacob Cooper's Burlington/State-troops role at p. 280 + p. 390, "Captain Cooper's company" = Captain Jacob Cooper's State Troops company in Major Hayes' battalion (Burlington Co. force).