New Hampshire Spy (Portsmouth NH), 23 June 1787 — death notice for Daniel Cooper Jr. Esq. of Long Hill, Morris Co. NJ. Reprint of a New-Brunswick (NJ) dispatch dated 22 June 1787 reporting Daniel Jr.'s suicide by hanging on Friday 24[?]/25 May 1787 in his barn at Long Hill. Names Rev. Samuel Kenedy as funeral preacher; describes ~600-700 mourners; states Daniel Jr. left a desolate widow and eleven children; confirms burial in 'the family burying ground, on his father's plantation' = the G.4 Long Hill site.

Transcription and notes

2026-10-21 - the weekday was recomputed, and FamilySearch supplies the third candidate

This entry's open follow-up asked to reconcile the death-date day, noting that the notice says "Friday the 24th ult." while 24 May 1787 was a Thursday. Recomputed during the [pr.111] comparison of [p.79] against FamilySearch [KL1V-F1D]:

=> This notice contradicts itself: it gives a weekday and a day-of-month that cannot both be right. And the day-name it gives - Friday - points at the 25th, which is exactly what the FamilySearch profile carries. So FS's date is not arbitrary; it is the reading that makes this notice internally consistent.

Not resolved, and the entry asserts nothing new. A headstone is a commissioned inscription and [G.4] reads "May the 23" off it directly; a compositor setting a reprinted out-of-state dispatch is precisely where a numeral slips, which would favour the weekday over the numeral here. The honest state is 23, 24 or 25 May 1787, with the weekday evidence favouring the 25th. The argument lives at [p.79].

Burial is unaffected - "interred on the Sunday following" is 27 May 1787 on all three.

• Filename: (image held in the family archive) + (image held in the family archive)
• Source identification: Notice runs under a "NEW-BRUNSWICK, June 22" dateline (= the NJ city of New Brunswick, Middlesex Co.; not Canada's New Brunswick, which was unsettled British colony in 1787). The New Brunswick item was picked up and reprinted in the New Hampshire Spy (Portsmouth, NH; a regional newspaper). Filename indicates a print date of 23 June 1787, consistent with the dateline being the previous day's (22 June 1787) New Brunswick story — at typical 1780s northbound courier-news lag of one to several weeks the NH reprint date is plausibly 23 June or shortly after. Original NJ-newspaper source not identified in this image; the New Brunswick item could have run in any of several mid-1787 NJ papers (e.g., New-Jersey Gazette of Trenton, Brunswick Gazette of New Brunswick).
• Acquired: date unknown; in folder Newspaper/New Hampshire Spy/ per maintainer pre-2026 collection.

Verbatim transcription

NEW-BRUNSWICK, June 22.

On Friday the 24th ult. the following melancholy catastrophe happened at Long Hill, in Morris county. — Daniel Cooper, jun. Esq. of that place put a period to his life, by hanging himself in his barn about five o'clock in the evening of that day. — This poor man has appeared for about two months to be in a delirium in the former part thereof he seemed to have an extraordinary superfluous flow of spirits, and for about four or five weeks of the latter he appeared quite melancholy. The reason of those changes is supposed to derive from his being concerned about his future state, as appeared by his conversation. A man who, to appearance, from the general conduct of his family, and the state of his worldly affairs, seemed to be blessed with much of the good things of this world. — He was interred on the Sunday following in the family burying ground, on his father's plantation, attended by a multitude of mourning relatives and friends, supposed to amount to six or seven hundred: — he has left a desolate widow and eleven children. — There was a sermon preached on this very mournful occasion by the Rev. Mr. Samuel Kenedy, from the 4th chapter of James and 7th verse, the [following?] part of the verse, "Submit yourselves therefore to God."

Data from the document (verbatim)

• Date of death: "Friday the 24th ult." — relative to a 22 June 1787 dateline, "ult." = ultimo = the previous month → 24 May 1787 (Friday per newspaper). NB: in 1787, calendrically, 23 May was Wednesday, 24 May was Thursday, 25 May was Friday — so either (a) the day-of-month was 25 and the newspaper transcribed it as 24, or (b) the day-of-week "Friday" was a newspaper error. The G.4 Long Hill headstone reads "May the 23 [d] 1787" — which would have been a Wednesday. Three readings on the table: stone = 23 May (Wed), newspaper-numeric = 24 May (Thu), newspaper-day-of-week = Friday i.e. 25 May. Discrepancy not yet resolved; recorded here verbatim from the newspaper.
• Time of death: "about five o'clock in the evening."
• Manner of death: "put a period to his life, by hanging himself in his barn." Death by suicide via hanging in his barn.
• Subject identification: "Daniel Cooper, jun. Esq. of that place" (= Long Hill, Morris Co. NJ).
• Mental-state narrative (preceding ~2 months): "for about two months to be in a delirium" — initial phase ~3 weeks: "extraordinary superfluous flow of spirits" (consistent with manic phase); latter phase ~4-5 weeks: "appeared quite melancholy" (depressive phase). The contemporary observer attributed the cause to spiritual / religious distress: "concerned about his future state, as appeared by his conversation."
• Material circumstances: "from the general conduct of his family, and the state of his worldly affairs, seemed to be blessed with much of the good things of this world" — i.e., he was viewed as well-off and his family well-conducted. Consistent with A.10's £450.14.8 inventory.
• Burial: "interred on the Sunday following in the family burying ground, on his father's plantation." If death was 24 May (Thu), Sunday following = 27 May 1787. If death was 25 May (Fri), Sunday following = 27 May. Either way, burial Sunday 27 May 1787.
• "Family burying ground, on his father's plantation" = the Cooper Family Burying Ground at Long Hill (G.4). Confirms Daniel Sr.'s plantation = the Long Hill site of G.4 in primary-source form. (Daniel Sr. was alive in May 1787 — d. 1795 — and the plantation belonged to him at the time.)
• Mourner count: "supposed to amount to six or seven hundred." Strikingly large attendance — implies wide local prominence of the Cooper family, despite the unusual nature of the death.
• Survivors: "a desolate widow and eleven children." MAJOR DATUM — Daniel Cooper Jr. left a widow + ELEVEN children. Compare:
• A.10 names "Ann Cooper" as the widow who renounced administration on 10 July 1787; administrators Peter Cooper + William Cooper of Morristown + bondsman John Cooper. Per memory note pr.11 Two Johns on Cooper tree (RETIRED).md and the A.10 entry these were most plausibly adult sons of Daniel Jr. (= Daniel Sr.'s grandsons). Three named (Peter, William, John) of eleven means eight more children (likely a mix of minor and adult, sons and daughters) were not named in A.10's admin paperwork.
• This is a dramatic expansion of the Daniel-Jr.-branch family tree and substantially raises the prior-importance of Daniel Jr.'s descendants for catalog scope (Daniel Jr.'s sons are alternative-hypothesis candidates for William Cooper Sr. of Hanover 1830 → William T Cooper Sr. parentage, per the A.10 hypothesis).
• Funeral preacher: "Rev. Mr. Samuel Kenedy."
• Sermon scripture: "the 4th chapter of James and 7th verse" — James 4:7. Quoted: "Submit yourselves therefore to God." (KJV: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.")

Cross-references

• A.10 — Daniel Cooper Jr.'s 1787 intestate admin in Morristown. MUST UPDATE with the eleven-children datum from this entry. The A.10 reading of "Peter, William as administrators + John as bondsman = three adult sons" is now 3 of 11.
• G.4 — Cooper Family Burying Ground at Long Hill. MUST UPDATE with primary-source confirmation that this is "his father's [Daniel Sr.'s] plantation" + the Daniel Jr. stone reading discrepancy with this newspaper account. G.4's verbatim Daniel Jr. stone says "May the 23 [d] 1787" — newspaper says "24th ult." (= 24 May). The discrepancy of one day is recorded but not yet resolved.
• I.23 — Craddock entry 204 lists Daniel² as Daniel Sr.'s 2nd child b. 1729. d. 1787 per A.10 + G.4 + this entry. 38-year-old Daniel Jr. (per stone) would have b. c. 1749, NOT 1729 (Craddock's reading). The 20-year discrepancy in Daniel Jr.'s birth year between Craddock (1729) and the G.4 stone (b. c. 1749) is a substantial reconciliation problem flagged at I.23. Either Craddock's birth year is wrong, or Daniel Jr. of Morristown (A.10) ≠ Daniel² Cooper of Craddock entry 204 (which would require an additional son named Daniel between Daniel² 1729 and Benjamin² 1741 — possible but undocumented). Pending.
• I.4 — Littell First Settlers of Passaic Valley p. 91 names Daniel Jr.'s 2nd wife as "Nancy Cross, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Cross" — first wife "Miss Conover" with daughter Catherine Cooper m. her cousin John Ludlow. The eleven-children count from J.42 may include children from BOTH wives.

Hypothesis flagged but NOT in catalog as fact

User noted 2026-04-25: "It is thought the Basking Ridge Church cemetery didn't allow [Daniel Jr.] to be buried there for that reason [the suicide], but I don't know if that is true." This is a candidate explanation for why Daniel Jr. is buried at the Long Hill family burying ground rather than at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian churchyard alongside his father Daniel Sr. (Craddock I.23) and mother Grace Runyon Cooper (d. 1755).

Recorded here as user-stated hypothesis only; not asserted as fact. Several countervailing observations: - John Cooper (Daniel Sr.'s son, d. 31 Mar 1778, G.4) is also buried at Long Hill, not Basking Ridge. John did not die by suicide. So Long Hill was already in family use for non-suicide burials by 1778. - The newspaper itself describes a 600-700-person funeral with a Presbyterian-minister preacher (Rev. Samuel Kenedy) — not the level of stigma that strict cemetery-exclusion-for-suicide would imply. - The "family burying ground, on his father's plantation" framing in the newspaper is matter-of-fact, not euphemistic. - Possible alternative: the Long Hill cemetery may simply have been the Cooper family's local default by 1787, and Daniel Sr. + Grace at Basking Ridge represents the EXCEPTION (e.g., Grace was buried there in 1755 because that was her in-law family's church, and Daniel Sr. chose to lie beside his first wife in 1795).

A definitive answer would require: (a) Basking Ridge Presbyterian session-record review for 1787 burial-ban policies, (b) other Long Hill Coopers' burial-decision narratives, (c) possible Rev. Samuel Kenedy correspondence or sermon notes.

Significance for catalog

1. First primary-source documentation of Daniel Cooper Jr.'s manner of death. Previously only an intestate administration (A.10) + a gravestone year (G.4) were known.
2. First primary-source confirmation of Daniel Sr.'s plantation = Long Hill ("his father's plantation" + "Long Hill, in Morris county").
3. Eleven children of Daniel Jr. — substantial family-tree expansion. The Daniel-Jr.-branch is now a known 11-child family of 1787, not the 3-administrator-glimpse of A.10. Pursuing those eleven becomes a new in-scope research direction insofar as it bears on the William Cooper Sr. of Hanover 1830 hypothesis (per A.10's discussion).
4. Day-of-month discrepancy with G.4 stone — recorded for follow-up; either stone-reading or newspaper-reading needs revision.
5. Mental-health context — two-month manic-then-melancholic episode "concerned about his future state" suggests a religious-or-existential crisis. This is era-typical language but rare to find in such detail for an 18th-century NJ figure.
6. Rev. Samuel Kenedy is identifiable — there was a Rev. Samuel Kennedy (1720-1787), Princeton-educated pastor of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church 1751-1787 (he died only ~3 months after Daniel Jr.'s funeral). If confirmed identical, this means the Basking Ridge minister DID preach Daniel Jr.'s funeral — which weighs against the "Basking Ridge wouldn't bury him" hypothesis (a minister who would preach the funeral would presumably not be a hard-line denier of cemetery access).

Follow-up

• Pull the New Brunswick (NJ) original — the New-Jersey Gazette (Trenton) or the Brunswick Gazette are the most likely original-print venues for this 22 June 1787 NJ-bylined story. Check NJ State Archives or Readex Early American Newspapers.
• Identify Rev. Samuel Kenedy — confirm whether he's the Basking Ridge Presbyterian minister Rev. Samuel Kennedy (1720-1787). If yes, this complicates the user-flagged "Basking Ridge wouldn't bury him" hypothesis.
• Pursue the eleven children of Daniel Cooper Jr. + widow Anna Cross Cooper. Census records 1790 NJ (lost), 1800 NJ (lost), 1810 NJ (lost), 1820 NJ (lost) — none extant. NJ Compiled Substitutes Index is the path. Also consider Bernards Twp. / Long Hill Presbyterian baptism records for c. 1750-1787 baptisms of "Cooper" children with father Daniel.
• Reconcile Daniel Jr.'s birth year — Craddock I.23 says 1729 (= age 58 at death); G.4 stone says age 38 (b. c. 1749). 20-year gap; resolution pending.
• Reconcile death-date day — stone says May 23, newspaper says "Friday the 24th ult." but May 24 1787 was a Thursday, May 25 was Friday. Possible OCR/transcription review needed for both.