Morris County NJ Court of Common Pleas Minute Book Vol 4-6 (1766-1778) (FamilySearch DGS 7903185), image 264 of 669, March Term 1771 — William Neilson v Benjamin Cooper & co — Fieri Facias de Bonis et Tenementis in Case. Sheriff returned that he has levied and seized on 2,000 acres in Pequannock Township Morris Co. NJ where Benjamin Cooper now lives, jointly owned by Benjamin Cooper and Lord Stirling, including the Hibernia Furnace and other buildings; remains unsold for want of buyers. = MAJOR NEW catalog finding: Benjamin Cooper's residence c.1770-71 was Pequannock Twp Morris Co. (NOT Lebanon Twp Hunterdon as A.1 1795 attests for the later period); 2,000-acre Cooper-Stirling Hibernia property scale primary-source-attested for the first time; earliest documented Cooper-Stirling creditor / Sheriff's levy.

Transcription and notes

MAJOR catalog finding — three first-of-kind primary-source data points

This entry catalogs Morris CCP Vol 4-6 image 264 = printed pp. 156-157 = March Term 1771 sealing docket. Three first-of-kind primary-source data points emerge from this single case caption:

1. Benjamin Cooper's RESIDENCE was Pequannock Twp Morris Co. NJ c. March 1771 — explicit "Benjamin Cooper now lives" attestation in the Sheriff's return. Previously the catalog had Benjamin in Lebanon Twp Hunterdon Co. per A.1 1795 estate administration, but the period before 1794 was not primary-source-locked.
2. Cooper-Stirling Hibernia property = 2,000 acres in Pequannock Twp — first primary-source attestation of the partnership's land scale; corroborates secondary sources (e.g., I.22 Craddock, I.56 Mellick) that describe a "large" Hibernia property without specifying acreage.
3. Earliest documented Cooper-Stirling creditor / Sheriff's levy = March 1771 — pushes the Cooper-Stirling debt-distress timeline back from the 1790-1801 episodes (per pr.13) to March 1771 = 2 years pre-counterfeiting (1773), 13 years pre-1784 Lebanon Twp sheriff's sale. Documents Cooper-Stirling financial pressures from the very early years of their Hibernia partnership (1769 purchase per Craddock + Mellick).

Source

• File: (image held in the family archive)
• Note: filename emphasizes the Daniel Jr Late Sheriff content (catalogued separately at I.112); the Benjamin Cooper Pequannock/Hibernia content surfaced as the MORE significant finding on this image after image-verification 2026-05-19 LATEST
• DGS 7903185 image 264 of 669; FamilySearch ark: TBD
• Date: late March Term 1771 (= "21st March 1771 The Court Adjourned" appears at bottom of page); session ran in the days leading up to 21 March 1771
• Source tier: Primary-source manuscript minute book (1771 clerk hand); image-zoom verified 2026-05-19 LATEST

Verbatim — Img264 William Neilson v Benjamin Cooper case caption + Sheriff's return

"William Neilson agt [— joining curly bracket] Benjm Cooper & Co" — "Abm Ogden Atty"

"Fi Fa de Bon. & Ten in Case"

"Sheriff Returned That he has Levied [&] Seized on all those Lands hereafter Mentioned Situate in the Township of Pequannock Whereon the Defd Benjamin Cooper now lives Containing by Estimation Two Thousand Acres belonging to the said Benjamin Cooper & Lord Stirling With the [F]urnace well known by the Name of the Hibernia Furnace and other Buildings &c on the Same to the Value of Which is unknown to him and Remains unsold in his hands for Want of Buyers Subject to prior Execution Then in the Hands of the Coroner at his (the Sheriff's) Suit and another at the Suit of Joseph Self, and there is no Goods and Chattels on his Bailiwick Vend Exp[onas] Ordered..."

What this source establishes

1. Benjamin Cooper's RESIDENCE was Pequannock Twp Morris Co. c. March 1771

The Sheriff's return explicitly identifies Benjamin Cooper as "now lives" in Pequannock Township Morris Co. NJ. This is a NEW catalog datum — previously the catalog had:

• Birth-and-childhood Long Hill, Morris Co. (per I.22 Craddock entry 102 + multiple sources)
• 1762-1763 (1st marriage to Charity Hoff) in/near Pittstown, Hunterdon Co. NJ (Charity's parents' home)
• Death December 1794 near Pottersville NJ + estate administered at Lebanon Twp Hunterdon Co. NJ per A.1

The period 1763-1794 residence had been a gap; this Img264 attestation locks Pequannock Twp Morris as his residence as of March 1771. The relocation to Lebanon Twp Hunterdon happened sometime between March 1771 and December 1794 (= 23-year window).

Refinement targets: - Search Vol 4-6 1771-1778 for Benjamin Cooper residence-locating attestations (= when does the Pequannock identification stop appearing?) - Search Hunterdon Co. tax records 1772-1794 for Benjamin Cooper first appearance in Lebanon Twp - Search NJ Tax Lists 1772-1822 (D.269 was the prior catalog-entry under this database; its Roxbury 1793 attribution was DOWNGRADED 2026-05-21 to unlikely-but-not-disproved for our Benjamin based on wealth-pattern inference — see D.291. Use D.291 + parallel township pulls from NJ State Archives nj.gov direct-download path) for Benjamin Cooper Pequannock vs Lebanon attestations across the decade. Priority pull: Pequannock Twp 1772-1797 (NJSA reel 22, books 1334-1397) — would surface Benjamin's last Pequannock attestation if it post-dates March 1771; ALSO would test whether Hibernia property was assessed in Pequannock (= would explain its absence from the Roxbury 1793 manuscript and inform the D.269/D.291 downgrade)

2. Cooper-Stirling Hibernia property = 2,000 acres in Pequannock Twp

Primary-source-attested acreage of the Hibernia partnership land. Previously the catalog had:

• I.22 Craddock entry 102: "Hibernia Iron Mines + Furnace" (no acreage specified)
• I.56 Mellick p. 575: "Hibernia Iron Mines + Furnace" (no acreage)
• I.90 Tuttle Fragment No. 16 (1859): "[Cooper] originally bought that property at auction, perhaps under execution, and afterward disposed of it to Lord Stirling" — inverted chain framing but no acreage
• J.33 Cooper-Stirling Hibernia business connection (no acreage)
• I.110 Img380 Dec 1772 Earl of Stirling + Benjn Cooper Esqr joint plaintiffs in Hibernia debt cases (no acreage)

The 2,000-acre figure is now primary-source-attested. Confirms the partnership held a substantial estate — consistent with the "iron-works proprietor" status that gave Benjamin his "Esq" title in clerk's hand.

3. Earliest documented Cooper-Stirling creditor / Sheriff's levy — March 1771

pr.13 Benjamin Cooper Stirling debt previously tracked the Cooper-Stirling joint-debt distress through 1790-1801 episodes. This Img264 finding pushes the timeline back to March 1771:

• Pre-1769: Stirling-Cooper Hibernia partnership formed (per Craddock + Mellick chronology; OR per Tuttle inverted-chain framing, Cooper held property first then transferred partial interest to Stirling)
• March 1771: William Neilson v Benjamin Cooper & co — Sheriff levies + seizes 2,000-acre Pequannock property + Hibernia Furnace; unsold for want of buyers
• March 1771 (parallel): Joseph Self also has an Execution writ against Benjamin Cooper, held by the Coroner
• August 1773: counterfeiting arrest (Benjamin sentenced 19 Aug 1773; per I.22 + M.32)
• December 1773: Gov. Franklin pardon (per J.134)
• 1784: 400-acre Lebanon Twp plantation sheriff's sale (per J.9 + pending pr.53)
• 1790-1801: Continued Cooper-Stirling joint debts (per pr.13)

The 1771 Neilson + Self episode = EARLIEST documented financial distress. Possibly THE underlying cause of Benjamin's 1773 counterfeiting choice — facing 2,000-acre property levy + multiple creditors, Benjamin may have been desperate for cash. (This is a hypothesis, not a catalog claim — to be tested via further research.)

4. Multiple simultaneous creditors as of March 1771

Per the Sheriff's return: in addition to the William Neilson Fi Fa (with the Sheriff), there was ALSO an Execution writ at the suit of Joseph Self held by the Coroner (the Coroner could execute writs when the Sheriff was a party or disqualified). The "Subject to prior Execution..." phrase indicates the Cooper-Stirling property was encumbered by multiple writs simultaneously by March 1771.

5. Abm Ogden as recurring attorney

Abraham Ogden represented William Neilson per this entry. Ogden appears across the Vol 4-6 records as a recurring attorney for Cooper-family + Hibernia-Iron-Mines litigation (cf. I.106, I.110, and others).

What this source does NOT establish

• Who William Neilson is — primary-source identification pending; candidate is William Neilson (1734-1790) of New Brunswick / NYC (Scottish-born NJ merchant + Continental officer + Newark ironworks founder), but not yet locked. Per p.82 stub.
• The underlying transaction / debt amount — the case caption is in summary form; the original Case action documents would describe what Benjamin Cooper + Lord Stirling owed Neilson. Likely a commercial transaction (iron supply contracts? loan? pre-1769 Hibernia financing?) given the Hibernia commercial context. Acquisition target: Morris CCP case papers + complaint files for the underlying Neilson v Cooper Case action (preceding the Fi Fa execution).
• Outcome of the Vend Exp — the writ ordered the Sheriff to publicly auction the seized property. Subsequent Vol 4-6 1771-1773 sessions may document whether the Hibernia property was actually sold (or whether Neilson accepted partial payment, the parties settled, etc.).
• When Benjamin relocated from Pequannock to Lebanon Twp — unknown; happened between March 1771 and December 1794. Search targets per Section 1 above.
• The 2,000-acre scope's relationship to Benjamin's individual property — the property is described as "belonging to the said Benjamin Cooper & Lord Stirling" jointly. Whether Benjamin separately held additional property in Pequannock or elsewhere is not addressed here.

Cross-references

• p.2 Benjamin Cooper — PRIMARY SUBJECT; residence finding (Pequannock Twp Morris c.1770-71) is the most important biographical addition
• p.82 William Neilson Cooper-Stirling creditor — Plaintiff stub
• pr.13 Benjamin Cooper Stirling debt — Cooper-Stirling joint-debt research thread (Neilson = NEW earliest creditor)
• pr.56 Pequannock-area church + tax list sweep — research project spawned by this entry's Pequannock residence finding; targets son John baptism + 2nd-wife marriage + relocation timeline
• pr.52 Cooper-Stirling 1773 letter acquisition — NYHS Stirling Papers acquisition target (may contain Neilson-Cooper correspondence)
• I.22 + I.56 + I.90 — Hibernia partnership secondary sources
• I.110 — Img380 Dec 1772 Earl of Stirling + Benjn Cooper Esqr joint plaintiffs in Hibernia debt cases (= 21 months after I.113; documents the partnership continuing to pursue its own debtors despite being a defendant in March 1771)
• I.112 — Img264 same page; Daniel Jr Late Sheriff attestations (= different Cooper, same court session)
• J.9 — 1784 sheriff's sale of Lebanon Twp plantation (later, separate event)
• J.33 — Cooper-Stirling Hibernia business connection

Open questions / follow-up

• Identify William Neilson — primary research priority; would unlock the commercial context. Candidate: William Neilson (1734-1790) of New Brunswick / NYC. Channels: NJ Provincial Council minutes 1768-1772, Morris/Essex Co. tax records 1770-1771, NYHS Alexander Papers (per pr.52), Newark merchant guild records, NY Mercantile Library
• Underlying commercial transaction — what did Cooper + Stirling owe Neilson? Iron supply contracts? Loan? Hibernia 1769-purchase financing from Samuel Ford? Cross-reference NYHS Stirling Papers
• Pequannock-to-Lebanon relocation timeline — search Vol 4-6 1771-1778 + Hunterdon Co. tax records 1772-1794 for Benjamin Cooper Pequannock vs Lebanon attestations
• Outcome of the Vend Exp — was the 2,000-acre Hibernia property actually sold to satisfy Neilson? Subsequent Vol 4-6 sessions may document the resolution
• Joseph Self's parallel writ — what was the underlying debt? Joseph Self also appears at I.103 Img094 1768 ('J. Self & J. Bishop' appellants); the Cooper-Self relationship may span multiple cases
• Pequannock Twp Cooper neighborhood — who were Benjamin's neighbors in 1771? Rosanna Cooper Gaston's husband Robert Gaston (p.55) was Pequannock Twp resident per I.87. Were brother-in-law Robert Gaston + Benjamin Cooper both in Pequannock in 1771?
• Was the property described "where Benjamin Cooper now lives" the same as the 1434 Long Hill Road property (= John of Long Hill's property per p.8) or a different Pequannock-area parcel? Cross-reference 18th-century Pequannock land surveys
• Hibernia Furnace location — Hibernia Furnace was in Rockaway Twp / Roxbury Twp (later Hibernia, NJ); the Img264 reference puts it in "Pequannock Township" — possibly an 18th-c. boundary identification difference (Pequannock Twp once larger than later borders)