Petition of the inhabitants of the County of Morris to the Legislature of the State of New Jersey, praying that the road act be amended - dated Morris County 11 December 1793, read in the Assembly 9 January 1794 and committed 25 January 1794. Two leaves of signatures. New Jersey State Archives, Legislature series SLE00002, "Petitions and Other Papers relating to Bridges, Canals, Dams, Ferries and Roads, 1765-1835", Box 4 folder 43; four-page NJSA copy supplied 2026-10-06.

What this document records

The question it was ordered to answer

One, from the 2026-10-03 request: "in 1793, Charles Cooper Charles and Henry Cooper were in Mendham, Morris County" - so would either sign a county-wide Morris petition of that December?

What it answers and it is a null

NO COOPER SIGNED THIS PETITION. Roughly seventy signatures across two leaves, four columns in all, every column read at 3x for the surname. No Charles, no Henry, no Davenport, no Daniel, no Benjamin, no Cooper of any given name. The null is bounded, not absolute: a county-wide petition is signed by whoever was asked and whoever was at hand, so absence from it is weak evidence about residence. What it does do is close the specific expectation the order was placed on, and it does so on a read page.

The trap on the docket which is the real finding

THE DOCKET NAMES A COOPER, AND HE IS A LEGISLATOR, NOT A NEIGHBOUR. The verso endorsement ends "Com[mitte]d to Cooper / Neelen[?] / Morris" - the three Assembly members to whom the petition was referred on 25 January 1794. That "Cooper" is a member of the New Jersey legislature sitting at Trenton, not a Morris County signer, and he must not be read into this family. CLAUDE.md's own standing disambiguation rule points the same way: an unnamed "Mr Cooper" in New Jersey legislative records defaults to the Gloucester/Camden Quaker line ([fam.3]) unless contradicted. The rule as written covers 1738-1782 and this is 1794, so it is cited here as the right presumption rather than as a decided fact - but the direction is clear, and nothing on this page identifies him at all. Worth noticing because the catalog nearly gained a "Cooper" from a Morris County roads petition of 1793 who was never in Morris County.

What the petition asks for described not quoted

Three things, read at 1x and therefore summarised: that the limitation on the time within which the court must fix for the surveyors to meet be taken off, because it keeps surveyors in constant attendance and often prevents inhabitants getting an order at all, and that surveyors who do attend may adjourn and meet again without a fresh application and the cost of re-advertising; that where a person legally warned to work on the roads defaults, the overseer return his name to a justice of the peace, who shall proceed by distress as in recovering taxes; and that overseers make a yearly return on oath, at the annual town meetings, of the number of full days' work done in their districts, so that the work may be more equally divided and penalties annexed to oblige overseers to do their duty.

The signatures as read

FIRST LEAF, left column, beneath the dateline "Morris County Dec.r 11th 1793": Gilbert Allen · Jonas Phillips · Ben[?] Lindsly · Jonat[han] Ogden · Isaac Prudden · John Mills · Isaac Woolley. FIRST LEAF, right column: Benj.n Pierson · Matthias Crane · Jonah Tapper[?] · Ebenezer Sayre · Benj.n Thompson · Luke Cary[?] · Geo.e O'Hora[?] · Philip Lindsly · Lewis Baker. SECOND LEAF, left column: Joseph Halsey · Jn.o Kinney · Darius Cae[?] · Joseph Munson · Zenas Lindsly · Joseph Dickerson · Lawrence Wilson · Nath.l Broadwell · David Freeman · Abraham Kinney · John Oliver · David Baker · Daniel Lindsly · Joseph Byram · Benoni Hathaway · Isaac Miller · Moses Estey · George Tucker · Samuel C. Gregory · Sam.l Morrison · William Hamilton · Henry King · Silas Mills · Gabriel Pierson · Samuel Hutchmore[?] · David Pierson Jun.r · Silas Condict Jun.r · Sam.l Lenman[?]. SECOND LEAF, right column: Jonathan Bruen[?] · William Coggnor[?] · Aaron Burnet · Ichiel Bouton[?] · Wm Butler · John Daniel · Henry Halsey · Jonathan Nicholas · David Stepherd[?] · ABRAHAM CARLE · Thomas Donington · Robert Moores · Enoch Beach · Moses Kitchel.

One surname worth noticing and nothing more

ABRAHAM CARLE signs the second leaf. CARLE is the married surname of Ann (Cooper) Carle Ann (Cooper) Carle, Daniel Sr's youngest daughter, who married Jonas Carle - a Morris County family. NO IDENTIFICATION IS MADE and none is implied; the name is recorded because a reader of this page should know the catalog has a Carle connection rather than meet it cold later.

The docket in full

"Petition from Mo[rris] / for amendment o[f] / the Road Act / Jan.y 9. 1794 / 2d Read / Jan.y 25 1794 / Com[mitte]d to Cooper / Neelen[?] / Morris". The right edge of the first two lines runs off the scan. Read at 3x after rotating the page 180 degrees. Note the shape of the sequence: petitioned 11 December 1793, read 9 January 1794, read a second time and committed 25 January 1794 - and [K.136], the Knowlton petition, was committed in the same January to a committee that also included a "Morris".