The Coopers of Long Hill

Document C.27 · Marriage Bonds + Records · transcription: verbatim

First Reformed Church Easton PA Marriage Register — '22 May. Doctor John Cooper, Mary Ervine' (1798, entered out-of-chronological-order at bottom of 1797-1798 page) — = primary-source-locked marriage of [p.27 Dr John Cooper Sr](../../people/p.27%20Dr%20John%20Cooper%20Sr.md) to [p.128 Mary (Ervine) Cooper](../../people/p.128%20Mary%20Ervine%20Cooper.md); confirms 'Mary E. Cooper' of A.42 will = MARY ERVINE (E. middle initial = Ervine maiden-name pattern); locks bride's surname as Ervine

Transcription and notes

Source identification

Element Value
Repository First UCC Easton PA (= modern successor congregation to the historic German Reformed Church / Evangelical Reformed Church of Easton; UCC denomination formed by 1957 merger; pre-1957 the congregation was Reformed)
Record type Marriage register
Year-spread of visible spread 1797-1799 (left page = 1797 + 1798; right page = 1799+)
Specific entry date 22 May [1798] (entered at bottom of 1797-1798 page; out-of-chronological-order = retroactive addition typical of period registers)
Officiant (unrecorded in this entry; likely the Reformed Church pastor of Easton 1798)
Source file (image held in the family archive) (5142 × 4075 px scan of 2-page register spread)
Date retrieved 2026-05-20

Verbatim — entry

(Bottom entry on left page, after the regularly-dated chronological list. Format = date | groom | comma | bride, distinct from the standard "mit" (= German "with") used for adjacent entries.)

22 May. Doctor John Cooper, Mary Ervine

Context — surrounding entries (verbatim partial transcription)

The register page is mixed German-English with predominantly German names. Adjacent entries (chronologically before the Cooper-Ervine retroactive entry):

Date Groom mit/with Bride
14 Oct 1797 Abraham Schmidt mit Sibilla Pratschki [?]
29 Sep [1797] Jacob Schumacher mit Elizabeth Eberhart
16 Dec [1797] Christian Rauch mit Magdalena Hoeg [?]
(date unclear) Peter Beck mit Marg. Billhammer
1798
12 January George Knauer und Metzger
20 Feb Jacob Berger mit Maria Nagel
28(?) May Niclaus Yeisla mit Eve Reichart
March 1 Conrad Schumacher mit Catarina Pasting
May 28 John Kratz mit Catarina Rippel
July 29 Michael Mesinger mit Elizabeth Adler
Aug 12 1798 Jacob Reib mit Maria Knez [?]
Sept 12 [?] Joh George Reides [?] (none) Sarah Kohn [?]
22 May Doctor John Cooper , Mary Ervine

BREAKTHROUGH significance

This marriage record:

  1. Primary-source-confirms Dr John Sr's marriage (previously known only as "Wife Mary E. Cooper" per A.42 = secondary inference). Now locked at primary-source tier.
  2. Resolves Mary E.'s maiden name = Ervine. The "E." middle-initial pattern in A.42 follows the period convention of using maiden surname as middle initial post-marriage (= "Mary [Ervine] Cooper" → "Mary E. Cooper").
  3. Surname ETHNIC CONTEXT: "Ervine" = Ulster-Scots / Scottish surname. Easton PA + Northampton Co. PA had significant Ulster-Scots (Scotch-Irish Presbyterian) population in late 18th c. The Cooper-Ervine match is cross-cultural (Cooper = English/Dutch NJ origin × Ervine = Ulster-Scots PA origin).
  4. Locks 1798 as marriage year, 1 year before son Dr John Jr's birth (1799 per memory user_chris_cooper_ancestry) — age-typical first-child timing.
  5. Identifies the wedding congregation as the Reformed Church of Easton (= predecessor to today's First UCC Easton PA, per user maintainer's denomination affiliation).

Personal note (maintainer)

The maintainer (Chris Cooper) noted 2026-05-20 that he is a current member of First Congregational Church UCC of Boulder CO = same UCC denomination as the modern successor to this 1798 Reformed Church of Easton. This is a personal-religious-affiliation continuity across 228 years, though the Reformed Church in 1798 ≠ UCC (= denominational merger formed in 1957). Not catalog-load-bearing but worth recording.

Catalog-changing consequences

  1. p.27 Dr John Sr's marriage — upgraded from family-tradition tier to primary-source-tier. Marriage date 22 May 1798 + place Easton Reformed Church (PA) primary-source-locked.
  2. NEW catalog person — p.128 Mary (Ervine) Cooper. Created same-day as stub. Her family-of-origin (= the Ervine family of Easton PA / Ulster-Scots) is a new research thread.
  3. A.42 will re-reading priority — re-check whether Mary (Ervine) Cooper is named as surviving widow in the 1851 will, OR if she predeceased Dr John Sr. If predeceased, her death window narrows to 9 Dec 1850 (= last D.281 census attestation) → 26 Jan 1851 (Dr John Sr's codicil date).

Open follow-up

  1. Mary Ervine's family-of-origin — Easton PA / Northampton Co. PA Ervine family records 1770s-1800s; baptism / father identification. The Ulster-Scots Ervine surname = traceable via Northampton Co. PA Presbyterian church records.
  2. Mary Ervine Cooper death record — was she alive at Dr John Sr's 1851 death? Per D.281 alive Dec 1850.
  3. Mary Ervine Cooper Find A Grave — likely buried Easton Cemetery alongside Dr John Sr; pull Find A Grave.
  4. Other Cooper-Ervine connections — does the Ervine family of Easton PA appear elsewhere in NJ/PA Cooper-line records 1750-1850?
  5. Confirm officiant + witnesses to the marriage — full register-page text + minister's signature would surface from a higher-resolution pull.
  6. Why was the entry retroactively added at out-of-chronological-order position? — Reformed Church register practice; possibly because the bride/groom resided locally but weren't church members + the minister recorded post-facto.

Cross-references