Document F.156 · Church and Vital Records · transcription: partial
History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, N.J., 1742-1885 (pt. 1: Records of trustees and session 1742-1882; pt. 2: Combined registers 1742-1885) — Morristown 'Banner' Steam Print, 1885 — 938-page published volume of trustee minutes + Session minutes + register of baptisms + marriages + deaths + communicants for the entire 1742-1885 church history. = The COMPREHENSIVE PRIMARY-SOURCE PUBLICATION of Morristown First Presbyterian records. Cited by [F.100](F.100.yaml), [F.101](F.101.yaml), [F.128](F.128.yaml) as 'The Record' / 'The Record of the First Presbyterian Church'. KEY NEGATIVE FINDING 2026-05-22: Moses Cooper × Mary Coleman 20 April 1751 marriage NOT in this register (= marriage did NOT happen at Morristown First Presbyterian); contradicts [G.165](../G-Cemetery/G.165.yaml) Find A Grave body text's 'Morristown, Morris, New Jersey' claim.
Transcription and notes
Source
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Title (full) | History of the First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, N.J. |
| Publisher | "Banner" Steam Print, Morristown, N.J. |
| Date | 1885 |
| Parts | Part 1: Records of trustees and session, from 1742-1882. Part 2: The combined registers, from 1742 to 1885. |
| Compiler / Editor | (per I.116 Presbyterian Historical Society catalog) — published as the result of The Record of the First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, N. J. (= monthly publication v.1-5, Jan 1880 – Dec 1885, edited by Rufus Green) — the periodical itself is now on disk((image held in the family archive), downloaded 2026-06-20) = the serial original underlying the Combined Registers |
| Pages | 938(per pdf.py info command) |
| Library call number | BX 9211 .N5796 F506 1885 (Presbyterian Historical Society) |
| Local file | (image held in the family archive) (moved + renamed 2026-06-20 from Books/; 938pp = Part I Trustees/Session + Part II Combined Registers. A duplicate lower-res scan also sits in the folder — candidate for deletion.) |
| Acquired | 2026-05-22 |
| Pastor era covered | Rev. Timothy Johnes (1743-1793); successors thru 1885 (incl. Rev. Albert Barnes 1825) |
What this source is, and where the Cooper names fall in it
1. This is the published primary-source volume cited as "The Record" in existing catalog F-section entries
F.100 (1770 Moses Cooper baptism), F.101 (First Presby register sweep), F.128 (Ichabod Cooper communicant + Long Hill context) all cite "First Presbyterian Church, Morristown, New Jersey — The Record". This download is now the local-file backing for all of those references. PDF page numbers = book page numbers + ~5 (front-matter offset; e.g., F.100's "page 118" = PDF page 123).
2. NEGATIVE FINDING — Moses Cooper × Mary Coleman 20 April 1751 marriage is NOT in this register — relocated
Moved to pr.27 on 2026-08-03: it is a conclusion, not a description of this document. The rest of this section stays because it is.
3. Cooper-name page index (preliminary — pending full audit)
Pages identified via pdf.py search "Cooper":
| PDF p. | Content type | Cooper person(s) | Catalog cross-ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Trustee book — land conveyance | Daniel Cooperreceived "Second Lot Sealed with the Shape of a mans head" (founding-era trustee record) | possibly = p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr |
| 25 | Deaths register | Phebe wf of Ichabod Cooper, bur. Apr 30 1777 aet 32; Doritheah Cooper, "school-madam" | Ichabod's first wife Phebe per F.101 |
| 27 | Marriages register | "Constant Cooper & Abigail Kenny" | fam.10 |
| 35 | Marriages register | "Henry Wick & Elizabeth Cooper" | candidate fam.10 |
| 36, 41, 60, 66, 74, 75, 90 | Constant Cooper attestations | Constant Cooper + wives (Abigail Kenny, Sarah, Phebe Vanderhoof) | fam.10 |
| 43 | Marriages register | "John Cooper & Magdalen Boyle" | possibly Daniel Sr's son John (m. 11 Sept 1763 Magdalene Boyle per F.101) |
| 59 (1771) | Marriages register | "Isaac Ayers & Mary Cooper" + "Stephen Cooper & Mary Swaine" | TBD |
| 67 | Marriages register | "James Cooper, of Roxbury & Mary Winnings, of this town" | fam.2 Long-Island-colonial → Roxbury James Cooper |
| 71 | Trustee/communicant roll | "Icabod Cooper, Dea." | Ichabod Sr as Deacon |
| 74 | Trustee roll | "Harry Cooper" (= Henry Cooper) | TBD |
| 75 | Marriages register | "Roberd Roff & Phebe Cooper"; "Constant Cooper & Phebe Vanderhoof" | TBD |
| 76 | Deaths register | "Phoebe, wife of Ichabod Cooper, aet 32, small pox" | per F.101 |
| 83 | Marriages register | "Enoch Goble & Mary Cooper"; "Ichabod Cooper & Hannah Lyon, Widow"(= Ichabod's 2nd marriage 1778); "Rubin Cooper of Virginia Sergeant & Elizabeth Cady" | per F.101 + F.128 |
| 86 | Trustee roll | "Henry Cooper jr." 25 Nov 1809 | TBD |
| 96 | Trustee roll | David T. Cooper 1843, 1848, 1849 | fam.2 line per fam.2 |
| 97 | Communicant roll | "John Cooper" | TBD |
| 99 | Marriages register | "Junia Riggs & Jemima Cooper" | TBD |
| 104 | NJ Assembly roll | "A. C. VanDuyne, C. O. Cooper" 1877, 1878 102d Legislature | fam.2 line C.O. Cooper |
| 105 | Communicant roll | "Ichabod Cooper, Abigail Prudden (John)" | TBD |
| 109 | Civil War service | "David Cooper, 8th N.J., killed at Gettysburg"; "Theodore Cooper, Morristown, 6th N.J., killed at Fort Pickens, Fla" | TBD |
| 111 | Tract narrative | "These tracts of the first purchasers... Stephens' included the farms now owned by Revere, Cooper, etc." | TBD - 19th-c. Cooper landowner Morristown area |
| 113 | Communicant roll | "Phebe Cooper" 1774 Oct | TBD |
| 118 (= original book p.118; PDF p.123) | Baptism register | "6. Ichabod Cooper & wf., ch. Moses, born Feb 15, 1770" | F.100 primary-source |
| 140 (1789) | Deaths register | "Ebenezer Cooper, aet 70, old-age" (= b. ~1719) | TBD |
| 147, 156, 163, 172, 177, 181, 183, 185, 186, 189, 193, 195, 198, 201 | Ichabod Cooper family baptisms + deaths | (Ichabod Sr's 13+ children + grandchildren) | per F.101 |
| 211 | Marriages register | "Charles Ford to Rachel Burris" + "Joseph Coleman to Ruth Mills, both of Hanover, both of Morristown. 30. Jonas..." | (Joseph Coleman ≠ our fam.1 Mary Coleman) |
| 213 | Marriages register | "David Cooper to Susanna Hinds, both of Morristown" | TBD |
| 217 | Marriages register | "James Cooper to Elizabeth Shipman, both of Morristown" | p.111 James Cooper × Elizabeth Shipman 1804 primary-source |
| 645-897 | Genealogical sections (alphabetical) | Cooper-surname families enumerated by surname | per I.21 Seversmith analogue |
| 759 | Genealogical | "Hartin, Litison Coleman, s. Reuben R. and Mary E. (Mather)" | (≠ relevant) |
| 766, 767 | Genealogical — Mills family | "Sarah Mills b. 17 Aug 1761 m. Daniel Coleman, of Chester; had two sons and one daughter" | (= different Coleman line) |
| 822 | Genealogical | "Smart, Nancy Evans: m. 3 July 1777, Nathaniel Coleman" | (= different Coleman) |
| 860 | Genealogical | "Joanna Coleman of Rahway" m. Whitehead | (≠ relevant) |
4. Catalog-source-pipeline impact
This volume is now the canonical published reference for Morristown First Presbyterian Church 1742-1885 records. Existing F-section entries that cite "The Record" should be updated to reference this F.156 + give specific PDF page numbers. Future Morristown First Presby Cooper-finding research should grep this F.156-cited volume FIRST before pursuing external archives.
Cross-references
- F.100 — 1770 Ichabod's-son Moses Cooper baptism (= book p.118 / PDF p.123 of this source)
- F.101 — Morristown First Presby register sweep entry
- F.128 — Ichabod Cooper as Long Hill communicant
- G.165 — Moses Cooper Sr 1727-1778 Find A Grave (= marriage location attribution Morristown NJ NOT corroborated by this register)
- A.8, A.9 — Daniel Cooper Sr's will + Calendar of Wills (no Cooper-Coleman or Cooper-Moses connections)
- p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr — possibly = the "Daniel Cooper" land-conveyance recipient p.21
- p.111 James Cooper × Elizabeth Shipman 1804 — primary-source marriage attestation at p.217
- fam.2 Roxbury Cooper — multi-page attestation incl. James of Roxbury p.67, Nathan A. Cooper trustee/militia rolls
- fam.10 Morris Plains Hanover Cooper — Ichabod + Constant Cooper attestations
- pr.27 LI English-colonial Cooper kindred — disambiguation thread (corroborated by negative 1751-marriage finding)
- I.116 Presby Church USA directory — record inventory for Morristown First Presby
- I.117 ldsgenealogy.com Morristown index — research-aid index naming this published volume
Open follow-ups
- Search Mendham First Presbyterian Church records for Moses Cooper × Mary Coleman 1751— = highest-leverage next pull; Mendham founded 1748, geographically tied to fam.1 LI-colonial Cooper line per Schmidt p.248 "Nathan Cooper came to Roxiticus" (= Mendham area). Mendham First Presby records 1748-1751 should exist.
- Search Hanover First Presbyterian Church records for the 1751 marriage— Hanover is older + nearer Long Hill (Daniel Sr's church) but possible if family was attending there.
- Search Friends Meeting records Morris Co. NJ 1751— if Mary Coleman was Quaker (per G.165 Pilgrim Society note), the marriage was at a Friends Meeting. Mendham Meeting + Plainfield Meeting candidates.
- Full audit of book p.645-897 alphabetical genealogical sections— Cooper-surname families enumerated by sub-section; the catalog should have entries for any Cooper-line member with biographical content here.
- Cross-reference book p.21 "Daniel Cooper" land conveyancewith p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr's Morristown business — was Daniel Sr a Morristown First Presby trustee? Unclear from existing catalog.
- Update F.100, F.101, F.128 frontmatterto cite F.156 as the on-disk source location.