The New-York Gazette, August 30, 1773 — verbatim newspaper account of sentencing of Benjamin Cooper Esq. + Doctor Bern Budd + Samuel Haynes + David Reynolds to death by hanging for counterfeiting NJ bills of credit; sentence date 19 Aug 1773 in Morristown courthouse; execution scheduled 17 September; courthouse audience of "a thousand people" with "scarce a dry eye"; Ford named as the chief villain who supplied the bills + escaped

Transcription and notes

Vol XXIX pp. 17-18 upgrade 2026-05-17

Primary-source-published-transcription verified via M.32 (NJ Archives Vol XXIX = Nelson-Honeyman 1917 NJ Newspaper Extracts 1773-1774) pp. 17-18. Craddock's transcript matches Vol XXIX verbatim for the excerpted portion.

NEW content that Craddock did NOT excerpt, surrounding the J.131 quotation in Vol XXIX:

• Ford's counterfeiting operation duration: "he went on with uninterrupted success, and emitted large sums of the Jersey and Pennsylvania currency; but principally of the latter, for these two years past" (= 1771-1773)
• Operation security: Ford's bills had passed multiple treasurer inspections; his press was in "an almost impenetrable swamp" with knee-deep water; he had to crawl on his belly some rods to reach it; he went at daylight with his gun "so that no person could suspect him"
• NEW catalog persons identified at primary-source-published level: King and Richardson — Ford's only confederates who knew the swamp's location
• Ford's nickname: "Treasurer for the three provinces" — termed by his gang
• Ford signed his own bills
• Court raid: number of persons went into the swamp; found only Ford's press + a leather impression of a Pennsylvania £3 bill of 1769 emission

Source identification

Verbatim — as transcribed by Craddock 1999, entry 102 (p. 220-221)

"Upon these facts the following (who were only concerned as passers of the money, except Reynolds, who procured some types for Ford) to wit, Benjamin Cooper, Esq., Doctor Bern Budd, Samuel Haynes and David Reynolds, were indicted and plead guilty to their several indictments, and on the nineteenth they received sentence of death, to be executed the 17th of September next. Few scenes ever were more truly affecting than the one in the court-house, at the time of sentence passing.—These four persons are remarkably handsome fine looking men, three of them about thirty, the other 40, they are all married and have children. All are descendants from the first families in the province, and all have parents living, and numerous relations—the attendance of their family and friends added much to the solemnity of it; so much that it is better conceived than described—among a thousand people there was scarce a dry eye. The spectators were more sensibly affected for those unhappy persons, as it appeared they had been drawn into it by the art, cunning and persuasion (sic) of that VILLAIN FORD."

What this source establishes

• Date of sentencing: 19 August 1773 (= "the nineteenth"; matches I.56 Mellick 1889 narrative)
• Place of sentencing: Morristown courthouse, Morris County NJ (per Craddock + Mellick; not stated verbatim in the article excerpt but contextually attested)
• Four convicted men: Benjamin Cooper Esq., Doctor Bern Budd, Samuel Haynes, David Reynolds — sentenced to death, execution scheduled 17 September 1773
• Roles: three were "passers of the money"; Reynolds "procured some types for Ford"
• Ages: three of the four "about thirty", one "40" — Benjamin Cooper was 31 (b. 13 Dec 1741 per I.22 Craddock entry 102)
• Marital status: "all are married and have children"
• Social class: "All are descendants from the first families in the province, and all have parents living, and numerous relations" — Daniel Cooper Sr. was one of the magistrates on the bench (per I.56 Mellick + I.22 Craddock + M.24 Honeyman)
• Crowd size: "among a thousand people" attending the sentencing
• Mood: "scarce a dry eye"; spectators sympathetic to defendants as Ford's victims
• Chief villain: "VILLAIN FORD" (= Samuel Ford, who supplied the counterfeit bills; escaped arrest; later named by Cooper as having robbed NJ Treasury at Perth Amboy 1768 per J.133)

What this source does NOT establish

• Direct access to the original newspaper (we have only Craddock's transcript of Nelson-Honeyman's 1917 transcript)
• The specific page number of the original NY Gazette 30 Aug 1773 issue (not given by Craddock)
• The specific Nelson-Honeyman 1917 page number (Craddock #101 entry-102 cite is "pp. 17-18, 28, 33, 141, 277-278" combined across all four quoted articles; need to pull NJ Archives Vol X to assign per-quote page)

Open questions / follow-up

• PRIORITY 1: Pull Nelson-Honeyman 1917 NJ Archives Series 1 Vol X pp. 17-18 (likely the source page for this article — first chronological item among the four) — would primary-source-confirm Craddock's transcription is verbatim or whether minor variants exist.
• PRIORITY 2: Locate the original NY Gazette 30 Aug 1773 issue at Library of Congress / NY Historical Society / NEHGS digital archives. Direct access would primary-source-attest at fully-verbatim level + identify the specific page.
• PRIORITY 3: Search adjacent items in the same NY Gazette issue for any Cooper-family-relevant content not quoted by Craddock (= 1917 Nelson-Honeyman edited only the Cooper-case material).

Cross-references

• I.22 — Sheldon Forbes Craddock 1999, entry 102 Benjamin² Cooper, pp. 220-221 (our access path; Craddock's quotation of this article)
• I.56 — Mellick 1889 pp. 574-575 (independent published-secondary narrative of the same sentencing event with consilient detail: 19 Aug 1773 + Morristown courthouse + a thousand people)
• M.24 — Honeyman SCHQ Vol I 1912 pp. 155-156 (parallel narrative)
• J.132 — NY Gazette + Weekly Mercury 27 Sep 1773 — sequel: Reynolds executed, Cooper respited
• J.133 — PA Gazette 2 Mar 1774 — Cooper's confession of Ford's Treasury robbery
• J.134 — NY Gazette + Weekly Mercury 13 Dec 1774 — Gov. Franklin's pardon
• p.2 Benjamin Cooper — catalog subject