The Coopers of Long Hill

Document I.181 · Published Genealogies and County Histories · transcription: verbatim

Published history — Stephen Wickes, History of Medicine in New Jersey, and of its Medical Men, from the Settlement of the Province to A.D. 1800 (Newark: Martin R. Dennis, 1879), book pp. 216–219 (PDF pp. 222–225), the biographical sketch headed JOHN COOPER.

Transcription and notes

Title trimmed 2026-09-12 to say what the source is; the findings it carried (the ~1690 immigrant tradition, the mother Ann Cross, the six sons and five daughters, the medical career) are all set out below.

Data from the document [verbatim] (book p. 216 ff.)

JOHN COOPER — "Was born at Long Hill, Morris County, New Jersey, March 24th, 1765. His great-grandfather came to America about 1690, and settled on the Hudson River near New York. His father, Daniel, was a considerable land owner and farmer at Long Hill. He was High Sheriff of the county for two terms, and for many years a justice of the peace. His mother, Ann Cross, was daughter of the Rev. John Cross, an Irishman by birth, and the first minister of the Presbyterian Church at Baskingridge, 1732, an intimate friend of Whitfield… Daniel Cooper, though father of six sons and five daughters, gave his children the advantages of as good an education as could at that period be obtained in that region.

After preliminary study, John commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Caleb Halstead, of Connecticut Farms, and afterwards with Dr. Melancthon Freeman, of Middlesex County. He completed his medical course with Drs. Richard Bailey and Wright Post, in the city of New York. He was licensed to practice in New Jersey, November 6th, 1787, and immediately afterwards was admitted to membership in the New Jersey Medical Society.

In 1791, proposing to leave the State, the Society granted him honorable credentials. Subsequent to this he removed to Greenwich, Warren County, where he remained about a year, and then removed to Easton, Pennsylvania, in November, 1794, where he spent the remainder of his life in the pursuit of his calling. In May, 1798, he married Mary, daughter of Arthur Erwin, of Erwinna, Bucks County, Pennsylvania… By his marriage union he had one son and four daughters. In 1799 he was appointed by Governor Mifflin, a Judge of Common Pleas, which office he held… more than forty years. In 1829 the University of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the honorary degree of M.D.… After a protracted sickness, Dr. Cooper departed this life February 2d, 1851, aged 86, at Easton, Pennsylvania."

Notes (interpretation — flagged, not asserted)

1. Immigrant-ancestor tradition — DATED (~1690) + placed (Hudson near NY) — pr.2, the #1 goal

Wickes gives the fuller, earlier form of what [I.180]'s SCHQ item compressed to "Daniel Cooper's father": "his [John Cooper's] great-grandfather came to America about 1690, and settled on the Hudson River near New York." - Whose ancestor: John Cooper (b.1765). By the catalog's Bible-locked descent (John → father Daniel Jr [p.79] → grandfather Daniel Sr [p.1] → great-grandfather = Daniel Sr's father), the ~1690 immigrant is Daniel Sr's father = the pr.2 target. - Wickes telescopes one generation — it gives John's father as "Daniel… High Sheriff two terms + JP," but those are documented Daniel Sr offices ([p.1]); John's actual father was Daniel Jr ([p.79], per Bible [B.58] + A.10). So Wickes collapsed Daniel Jr into Daniel Sr. ⇒ the "great-grandfather" is Daniel Sr's father or grandfather (1-generation uncertainty from the telescoping). Chronology favors "father": arrival ~1690, Daniel Sr b. 1695 — the father lands ~5 yrs before Daniel Sr's birth ⇒ Daniel Sr likely American-born, on the lower Hudson. - NOT new to the catalog — it corroborates the fuller [I.59] notebook narrative. Dr. John Cooper's own notebook (quoted in I.59 Theodore Cooper 1903) already gives a richer version: his great-great-grandfather "born in England, went to Holland, married a Low-Dutch woman," whose son (Daniel Sr's father) "also married in Holland and moved… about 1700 to the city of New York or near it on the North River and died there," widow's house burned, family poor, and Daniel [Sr] "learned the weaver's trade… about New Brunswick and on the Raritan" — plus "brother Immanuel settled in West Jersey on the Delaware" (= the Coriell/Coryell tie, [fam.15]). ⇒ Wickes (1879) is an independent corroboration of that tradition (Wickes cites Wm. J. Potts + Prof. Green, not the notebook), and its "~1690" is a date cross-check on the notebook's "~1700." Consistent with the Sephardic-Curiel/Dutch Amsterdam→Hudson pathway ([fam.15]). Still tradition-tier (no name).

2. John's mother = "Ann Cross, dau. of Rev. John Cross" — corroborates [p.271] + CORRECTS the B.58 "Anna Brown" error

The catalog already has Nancy/Ann (Cross) Cooper [p.271] as Daniel Jr's later wife (his widow at the 1787 admin, [A.10]; DAR [M.38] "2 wives: Catherine Hankinson + Nancy Cross"), already listing Dr. John [p.27] as her son, and already naming her father Rev. John Cross (via [I.36] + [I.130]). Wickes is a third independent witness to that parentage, adding detail: Rev. John Cross was "an Irishman by birth, the first minister of the Presbyterian Church at Baskingridge, 1732, an intimate friend of Whit[e]field." - This CORRECTS a real catalog error: [B.58] (the Dr John Sr Bible entry, May 2026) read the Bible's "Daniel Cooper & Ann his Wife" and glossed "Ann" as "Anna Brown" — but Anna Brown is Benjamin Cooper's [p.2] 4th wife ([F.1], m. Benjamin at the same Zion Oldwick church 20 Feb 1788). The Bible's "Ann" = Ann CROSS [p.271] (Daniel Jr's wife), which p.271 itself already had. B.58 conflated the two "Ann"s. Corrected at B.58 + p.27 on 2026-07-06; Wickes is the source that made the conflation obvious.

3. "Daniel Cooper… father of six sons and five daughters" = 11 children ([p.1])

Corroborates the high end of [p.1]'s disputed "9–11 children" count for Daniel Sr (Mellick/Quarrie's 11) — 6 sons + 5 daughters. (Again via the telescoped "Daniel"; the 11-child patriarch is Daniel Sr.)

4. Medical career — corroborates + enriches [p.27]

All matches Bible-tier [B.58] (b. 24 Mar 1765 Long Hill; m. Mary Erwin May 1798; 1 son + 4 daughters; Easton; d. 2 Feb 1851 aged 86). New detail: completed training with Drs. Richard Bailey + Wright Post, NYC (Post was a leading early-American surgeon); licensed NJ 6 Nov 1787; Judge of Common Pleas by Gov. Mifflin 1799 (40+ yrs); UPenn honorary M.D. 1829.

Cross-references

2026-09-12 — the Greenwich sentence filled in, and why it does not contradict Snell

The ellipses in the transcription above hid the words "where he remained about a year"; re-read off PDF p. 223 (book p. 217) at 3× and restored. The apparent conflict with Snell 1881's Phillipsburg is a township/village difference: Snell's own township history says Phillipsburg was part of Greenwich township until 1851 — see [I.207a] coverage.