Document B.6a · military pay abstract · transcription: partial
Auditor's Book B, p. 183 — Jesse Hart's pay abstract for the Hunterdon & Somerset militia. Line 92: Capt Cooper, 4 Hunterdon, Elizabeth town, under Brig. Winds, £131. 7. 0½.
- repository
- New Jersey State Archives, Trenton
- collection
- Revolutionary War manuscripts — Auditor's Book B, page 183, headed "183 / Jesse Hart's Pay Abstract continued."
- identifier
- Seven columns (No. | Date | Officer's name | Regiment | Where served | Under whom | [Amount]). Numbered items visible from #54 through ~#114.
- date
- 1778
What is transcribed: Line 92 (the Cooper entry) and eleven neighbours. The remaining ~50 lines are not transcribed.
People named
| As written | Role | Identified as | What this document says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capt Cooper | subject | Benjamin Cooper 1741–1794 | residence: 20 Apr 1778, Elizabeth town [Elizabethtown, Essex Co.], New Jersey |
| Brig. Winds | official | ||
| Jesse Hart | official |
What this document records
The cooper line is the only one that says where
"92 | Ap[ril] 20 '78 | Capt Cooper | 4 Hunterdon | Eliz[abeth] town | Brig. Winds | 131. 7. 0½" This is the only document in the cluster that places Benjamin Cooper anywhere. The bounty page ([B.5]) gives dates and sums but no location; the pension affidavit ([B.2a]) gives months and a colonel; the cards repeat what these two say. Elizabethtown, April 1778, under Brigadier General Winds comes from this line and no other.
The same day from two books
TWO WARRANTS SETTLED ON THE SAME DAY, FROM TWO DIFFERENT BOOKS. On 20 April 1778 Jesse Hart discharged both a bounty of £94 to Capt. Benj. Cooper (Book B p. 186 line 53 = [B.5], carded at [B.4]) and a pay warrant of £131. 7. 0½ to Capt. Cooper (Book B p. 183 line 92 = [B.6a], carded at [B.6]). £225. 7. 0½ in one day, in two series — and only the pay entry says where: Elizabeth town, under Brig. Winds. They are not duplicates; different books, different line numbers, different kinds of warrant. Nor is either a muster — see coverage.what_these_books_are.
What these books are
Auditor's Book B holds Jesse Hart's abstracts as "Paymaster to the Militia of the Counties of Hunterdon & Somerset" — p. 183 the pay rolls, p. 186 the bounty rolls. These are payment records, not muster rolls: a line proves a warrant was settled. [B.1]'s cataloguer read them as active service; that reading is his, not the ledger's.
The page is a militia paylist nobody has read
Eleven neighbours are recorded — Capt Hunt (1st Hunterdon, Trenton, £162.14.8), Ensign Brush and Capt Hippock (Eliz. town, under Col. Seeley), Thomas Noft, Drum Major, John Keeling, Waggon master, Abram Lott, Commissary of Military Stores, Capt Clunn (Artillery, Haddonfield, under Col. Ellis). The "Where served" and "Under whom" columns make this page a map of where the Hunterdon and Somerset militia actually went in 1777-78, and the catalog has read a dozen lines of about sixty.
Transcription and notes
Provenance, the fact that line 92 is the only document in the cluster that says WHERE, the
two warrants of 20 April 1778, and why a pay abstract is not a muster are in the source: and
coverage: headers and are not repeated here.
- Data — Benjamin Cooper entry (line 92):
- "92 | Ap[ril] 20 '78 | Capt Cooper | 4 Hunterdon | Eliz[abeth] town | Brig. Winds | 131. 7. 0½" (£131.7.0½)
- Adjacent officers on the page (context — partial transcription):
- Line 54: "Mar 29 '78 | Capt Hunt | 1st Hunterdon | Trenton | — | 162.14.8"
- Line 55: "Feb 27 [78] | Ensign Brush | [1st d.] | Eliz. town | Col. Seeley | 112.16.4"
- Line 58: "Feb 19 '78 | Capt Hippock | [2d d.] | Eliz. town | Col. Seeley | 239.16.4"
- Line 59: "Jan 25 [78] | Opdyke | 2nd d. | — | Col. Seeley | 165. 1. 5"
- Line 63: "Dec 1 '77 | Thomas Noft, Drum Major | — | — | — | 3. 7. 6"
- Line 64: "Feb 20 '78 | Capt Mott | 1 Hunterdon | [Howell army?] | — | 111. —. 4"
- Line 65: "Dec 8 '77 | John Keeling, Waggon master | — | Sundry accounts | — | 62. 3. 7"
- Line 66: "July 5 '78 | Shelmar Dickinson | — | Major General | — | 145.11.3"
- Line 67: "July 12 [78] | Abram Lott | Commissary of Military Stores | — | — | 20.12.6"
- Line 68: "Ap 21 [78] | Capt Clunn | Artillery | Haddonfield | Col. Ellis | [figure illegible]"
- Line 91: "Nov 7 '77 | Lt. Col. Ten[Eick?] | [1st Albany?] | Eliz. town | Gen. Dickinson | 498.10.7½"
- Line 93: "Sep 23 '77 | Capt Lane | 1 Somerset | — | Col. Frelinghuysen | 60. 4. 8"
- Line 94: "July 2 '78 | Lt. Schenck | 3 Hunterdon | Monmouth | Col. Charlton | 32. —. 9"
- Line 101: "Oct 20 '77 | Israel Smith | Muster Master's Account | — | — | 117. 5. 7½"
[desc]Many additional line items on the page were not fully transcribed; several entries have faint ink or illegible figure columns. The full page has roughly 55+ numbered line items.- Cross-reference: This is the primary-source ledger page referenced by B.1 (which cites "Auditor's Book B, pages 183 and 186") and by B.6. Page 186 of the same ledger — containing the Bounty-Rolls entries — is transcribed at B.5.