The Coopers of Long Hill

Document I.129 · Published Genealogies and County Histories · transcription: verbatim

Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County, New Jersey, Vol. II (Lewis Publishing Co., New York, 1899), Vol. II p. 937 [Ancestry image-pagination] — 'THE COOPER FAMILY OF MORRIS COUNTY' narrative biographical section embedded in the Joseph W. Thompson biographical sketch. PRIMARY-SOURCE-GRADE 1899 Long-Hill-Cooper-family-tradition narrative (= 1899 publication is within living memory of Daniel Sr's grandchildren, age 50+ in 1899 = adults remembering grandparents). 6 catalog-defining content blocks: (1) 'About the year 1700 the first American ancestor of this family came from Holland' = INDEPENDENT CORROBORATION of Holland-origin tradition 47 years earlier than [I.36 House of Cooper 1946](I.36.yaml). (2) Confirms Daniel Cooper [Sr] × Grace Runyan + Long Hill residence + 'leading man, justice of the peace and county judge'. (3) NEW LAND CLAIM: 'He located on a tract of five hundred acres along the banks of the Passaic river from Sterling to Long Hill, his deed being signed by William, earl of Sterling and one of His Majesty's commissioners in the state of New Jersey' — = NEW NJSA primary-source-search target NOT YET in catalog K-section. (4) Confirms Daniel Jr 'was a sheriff of this county' = matches catalog [I.99](I.99.yaml)/[I.100](I.100.yaml). (5) 5-sons-of-Daniel-Jr roster: Peter / Dr John of eastern PA / Daniel / William / Joseph. (6) Late-19th-c. Long-Hill Cooper continuation: William d. 1880 (m. 3 times Sarah A. Cooper + Martha Brown + Martha Cross; father of Mrs. Joseph W. Thompson); Alexander 'still living on the old homestead' 1899 (m. Abigail Parrott; 5 children incl. Mrs. Elizabeth Travis of Newark + Mrs. Anna Flaker of Brooklyn).

Transcription and notes

MAJOR PRIMARY-SOURCE-GRADE 1899 Long-Hill-Cooper-family-tradition narrative with 6 catalog-defining content blocks. = the single most comprehensive 19th-century published narrative of Daniel Cooper Sr's Long Hill Cooper family found to date in catalog.

Source identification

Element Value
Title Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County, New Jersey
Volume II
Section "THE COOPER FAMILY OF MORRIS COUNTY" (embedded in larger biographical sketch of Joseph W. Thompson, 1899 resident of the Daniel-Sr Long Hill old homestead)
Pagination Ancestry-image-paginated p. 937 of 970 (= within Joseph W. Thompson biographical sketch)
Publisher Lewis Publishing Co., New York
Year 1899
Format Ancestry database digitization (2005); original book digitized by Ancestry.com Operations Inc
Filename CORRECTED 2026-07-15 → (image held in the family archive) (538 pp) — the narrative is at PDF p. 499 = printed book p. 770, opening "THE COOPER FAMILY OF MORRIS COUNTY. About the year…". The prior pointer was wrong on two counts and is retained here for the correction record: it read "(image held in the family archive) (full 970-image PDF on disk … image 937 of 970 in the on-disk PDF)" — but (a) that file is VOLUME I, while this entry is expressly Volume II (see the row above), and (b) it is 602 pages, not 970 — no on-disk PDF has 970 images. Cause: I.129 was catalogued 2026-05-24 from an Ancestry screenshot, whose "p. 937 of 970" is Ancestry's own image-numbering of its digitization, not a local page; a later pass appears to have back-filled a guess at which on-disk PDF that was, and guessed the wrong volume. The Ancestry pagination in the "Pagination" row above is unaffected and still correct as an Ancestry citation. (Vol I is now (image held in the family archive); full volume map in [I.65].)
Certainty medium DOWNGRADED — see caveat below

Caveat — POSSIBLY DERIVATIVE of Littell 1851 (= NOT independent corroboration if so)

Per maintainer note 2026-05-24: the Lewis Publishing Co. 1899 narrative "may be derivative of Littell, not sure if it's independent corroboration". This is a material caveat affecting one of the catalog-defining claims of I.129:

Verbatim transcription — "THE COOPER FAMILY OF MORRIS COUNTY"

"THE COOPER FAMILY OF MORRIS COUNTY.

About the year 1700 the first American ancestor of this family came from Holland, and a few years afterward one of the number located on Long Hill, in Passaic township, Morris county.

One of the early descendants, Daniel Cooper, married Grace Runyan and lived in Passaic valley, where he was a leading man, a justice of the peace and county judge. He located on a tract of five hundred acres along the banks of the Passaic river from Sterling to Long Hill, his deed being signed by William, earl of Sterling and one of His Majesty's commissioners in the state of New Jersey.

His son, also named Daniel, was a sheriff of this county, became very prominent and moved from Passaic valley to Long Hill, where he bought a very large tract of land, which is still owned by the Cooper family or other descendants. He had the following named sons: Peter, Dr. John, of eastern Pennsylvania, Daniel, William and Joseph. Peter died on the old homestead, on Long Hill, after bringing up two sons; William died in 1880; and Alexander is still living on the old homestead.

William was married first to Sarah A. Cooper, next to Martha Brown and lastly to Martha Cross, and he was the father of Mrs. Joseph W. Thompson, who now lives on the old homestead; Alexander married Abigail Parrott and had five children—William, Abraham, Mrs. Elizabeth Travis, of Newark, Mrs. Anna Flaker, of Brooklyn; and the youngest, at home.

[Continues into the broader Joseph W. Thompson biographical sketch about his life + business + civic role at Long Hill]

JOSEPH W. THOMPSON. [= section header for the next biographical sketch, or continues the same one]"

Catalog-defining content analysis

Block 1 — Holland-origin tradition independently corroborated 1899

"About the year 1700 the first American ancestor of this family came from Holland, and a few years afterward one of the number located on Long Hill, in Passaic township, Morris county."

Catalog significance: - POSSIBLY independent corroboration — depending on whether Lewis 1899 is derivative of I.4 Littell 1851 (see Caveat above). IF independent: same direction as I.36 House of Cooper 1946 p. 7, 47 years earlier. IF derivative: NOT an independent corroboration; both Lewis 1899 + I.36 could trace back through Littell 1851 = single-source tradition. - "About the year 1700" immigration date = consistent with Daniel Sr (b. 1695) being a child of the immigrant generation OR Daniel Sr himself being the immigrant (= arrived as a 5-year-old) - Vague "ancestor" + "some of the number" wording = source had received family tradition through ~3-4 generations of transmission; specific names not preserved at 1899 - For pr.64 Hudson Valley Cooper-Kuyper-Coriell sweep: strengthens the Holland-origin hypothesis IF Lewis 1899 is independent; otherwise the catalog's Holland-origin attestation chain is single-thread Littell-1851→derivative-republications. Needs Littell-cross-check before treating as strong corroboration.

** Open research question:** could "About the year 1700" refer to a fam.13 descendant migrating from Bergen NJ → Long Hill ~1700-1710 (= not a Holland-emigration but a NJ-internal Bergen-to-Morris migration that got compressed in family tradition)? This is plausible if Lucas (1645) or Arent (1642) — fam.13 highest-tier hypothesis targets — had a son who relocated from Bergen NJ to Morris Co.'s Long Hill area ~1700.

Block 2 — Daniel Sr corroborations

"One of the early descendants, Daniel Cooper, married Grace Runyan and lived in Passaic valley, where he was a leading man, a justice of the peace and county judge."

Catalog significance: - Confirms catalog's p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr 1695-1795 × Grace Runyon marriage (catalog has 17 Apr 1726 Piscataway) - "Passaic valley" residence (= Long Hill area) - "Justice of the peace and county judge" = catalog's Morris CCP Judge attestation per I.99 + I.100 + K.10 + K.16

Block 3 — NEW LAND CLAIM: 500-acre Lord-Stirling-signed deed

"He located on a tract of five hundred acres along the banks of the Passaic river from Sterling to Long Hill, his deed being signed by William, earl of Sterling and one of His Majesty's commissioners in the state of New Jersey."

Catalog significance — single highest-leverage new finding from I.129: - NEW NJSA-search target NOT YET in catalog K-section - 500-acre tract along Passaic River from Sterling to Long Hill (= geographic span describing Daniel Sr's documented Long Hill landholding) - Deed signed by William, earl of Sterling personally (= Lord Stirling, William Alexander 1726-1783; held the title 1762-1783) — narrows the deed date to 1762-1783 window - AND signed by "one of His Majesty's commissioners in the state of New Jersey" = the deed was a colonial-government conveyance, possibly an EJ-Proprietor-grant or Lord-Stirling-as-Major-General confirmation - Currently catalog has Daniel Sr's K.5 1744 Green Brook Falls 26.25-ac deed × James Alexander (= Lord Stirling's father) + various K.10/K.16 Lord-Stirling-network records — but NO 500-acre Lord-Stirling-signed Passaic-River deed - Triggers new project pr.65 for the NJSA Early Land Records search

Block 4 — Daniel Jr Sheriff confirmation

"His son, also named Daniel, was a sheriff of this county, became very prominent and moved from Passaic valley to Long Hill, where he bought a very large tract of land, which is still owned by the Cooper family or other descendants."

Catalog significance: - = CONFIRMS catalog's p.79 Daniel Jr as Sheriff of Morris County per primary-source I.99 + I.100 Morris CCP Vol 2-3 image 66 (= 4 July 1758 commissioning) + I.104 (= 1768 attestation) + pr.44 (= 1769-70 "late Sheriff") - "Moved from Passaic valley to Long Hill" + "bought a very large tract of land" = = matches catalog's Daniel Jr land records (= Morris Co. surveyor + landowner) - "Still owned by the Cooper family or other descendants" as of 1899 = the Long Hill homestead remained in Cooper-family hands across the 19th c.

Block 5 — Daniel Jr's 5 sons

"He had the following named sons: Peter, Dr. John, of eastern Pennsylvania, Daniel, William and Joseph."

Catalog significance — 5-sons roster of Daniel Jr 1729-1787: | # | 1899 listing | Catalog person | |---|---|---| | 1 | Peter | Peter Cooper b. 1761 (= Daniel Jr's son per I.29e + memory user_chris_cooper_ancestry.md). Multiple catalog refs. | | 2 | Dr. John, of eastern Pennsylvania | Dr. John Cooper Sr 1765-1851 (= Daniel Jr's son; Chris Cooper's documented patrilineal-chain Gen -4 ancestor per memory user_chris_cooper_ancestry.md). "Eastern Pennsylvania" location specifier = Easton PA likely. | | 3 | Daniel | Daniel Cooper III (= existing catalog) | | 4 | William | William Cooper son of Daniel Jr — but the "William who died 1880" referenced in next paragraph is too late to be this William (= Daniel Jr's son William would have been born ~1750-1780 = age 100+ in 1880). Multiple William Coopers in this family. | | 5 | Joseph | Joseph Cooper son of Daniel Jr (= existing catalog) |

Block 6 — Late-19th-c. Long-Hill Cooper continuation

"Peter died on the old homestead, on Long Hill, after bringing up two sons; William died in 1880; and Alexander is still living on the old homestead.

William was married first to Sarah A. Cooper, next to Martha Brown and lastly to Martha Cross, and he was the father of Mrs. Joseph W. Thompson, who now lives on the old homestead; Alexander married Abigail Parrott and had five children—William, Abraham, Mrs. Elizabeth Travis, of Newark, Mrs. Anna Flaker, of Brooklyn; and the youngest, at home."

Catalog significance — multi-generation late-19th-c. Long Hill Cooper family:

Cross-reference status: Names Abigail Parrott + Anna Flaker + Elizabeth Travis appear in existing catalog entries (F.98 + F.99 + G.99 + G.101 + L.64). May represent same persons being cataloged from Find A Grave / Ancestry tree sources for Chris Cooper's patrilineal chain context. Needs cross-reference verification.

Joseph W. Thompson biographical sketch context

The Cooper-family-of-Morris-County narrative is EMBEDDED in the biographical sketch of Joseph W. Thompson (= 1899 subject). His wife (= Mrs. Joseph W. Thompson) was William Cooper's daughter and lived on the Daniel-Sr Long-Hill old homestead in 1899. The Cooper-family narrative is included to establish her ancestry. Full Joseph W. Thompson biographical sketch likely contains additional context about him + his wife + their Long Hill residence + the Cooper-family-of-Morris-County social position — = HIGH-VALUE follow-up to access.

Cross-references

Follow-ups