NJ Supreme Court Case File #34263 Gisbert Sutfin, Lawrence Vanderveer & Jacobus Vanderveer (Exrs of John Vanderveer dec'd) v. Benjamin Cooper, Esquire — Scire Facias to revive the 1771 £1,800 judgment ([K.36](K.36.yaml)) — Hunterdon, 1783 — FULL MANUSCRIPT TRANSCRIPTION of the writ. Recites that both John Vanderveer AND the Earl of Stirling have died and that Benjamin Cooper has survived them = primary-source-attests Benjamin alive 1783 (Hunterdon), still pursued for the 1771 Hibernia-era bond 21 years later; sheriff's endorsement attests Benjamin was warned 2 Sept 1783. Writ tested by Chief Justice David Brearley 19 May 1783.

Transcription and notes

Source identification

VERBATIM — The scire facias writ (page 4)

Hunterdon County [ss.] … State of New Jersey to the Sheriff of the County of Hunterdon greeting. Whereas John Vanderveer lately in our Supreme Court at [blank] before our Justices of our same Court by the Consideration of our same Court recovered against the Earl of Stirling and Benjamin Cooper Esq[uire] otherwise called the Right Honourable William Earl of Stirling and Benjamin Cooper Esquire of the Province of New Jersey as well a certain Debt of One Thousand and eight hundred Pounds current Money of New Jersey at eight shillings the Ounce as also four Pounds nineteen Shillings and ten Pence proclamation Money of New Jersey which to the said John Vanderveer in our same Court were adjudged for his Damages … whereof the said Benjamin Cooper and Earl of Stirling are convicted as appears of Record. And now in our same Court … we have understood that the said John Vanderveer made his Last Will and Testament, and by the same constituted and ordained Gisbert Sutfin, Lawrence Vanderveer and Jacobus Vanderveer Executors of his Will and afterwards died: and we have further understood that the said Earl of Stirling is also dead, and that the said Benjamin Cooper has survived him the said Earl of Stirling. And although Judgement thereof is given Execution nevertheless for the Debt & Damages yet remains to be made. Wherefore the same … Executors … have besought us to grant them their proper Remedy … command you that by good and lawfull [notice] of your Bailiwick you give Notice to the said Benjamin Cooper, that he be before our Justices … at Trenton … on the first Tuesday in September next, to shew if he has or can say any thing for himself why the said … Executors … ought not to have Execution against him for the Debt & Damages … Witness David Brearley Esq[uire] Chief Justice of our said Court at Trenton … this nineteenth Day of May … one thousand seven hundred and eighty three. A. Ogden Att[orney]. W[illiam] C[hurchill] Houston Clerk.

VERBATIM — Sheriff's endorsement (page 3, partly faded)

Supreme Court, Hunterdon. Gisbert Sutfin, Lawrence Vanderveer & Jacobus Vanderveer Ex[ecuto]rs of John Vanderveer deceased ag[ains]t Benj[amin] Cooper Esq[uire]. [Sci]re [Fac]ias. Ogden Att[orney]. … [return, lower right:] … this Day has [warned] the [within named] … Benj[amin] Cooper … Sep[tember] 2, 1783 …

Catalog synthesis (interpretation — not data bullets)

• What this primary-source attests: (1) the 1771 £1,800 Vanderveer judgment (K.36) was still unsatisfied 12 years later; (2) by 1783 both the obligee (John Vanderveer) and the co-obligor (the Earl of Stirling, d. Jan 1783) had died; (3) Benjamin Cooper was living in 1783, in Hunterdon County, and was the surviving target of the revived execution; (4) he was given notice (warned 2 Sept 1783) to appear at Trenton.
• This dovetails with the 1784 Hunterdon sheriff's sale of Benjamin's Lebanon-Twp plantation (J.9, at the suit of "Daniel Cooper") and his attested Lebanon-Twp Hunterdon residence at death (A.1) — a coherent picture of a man besieged by old Stirling-era debts in his final decade. Causal links are interpretation, not attested here.

Follow-ups

• Determine the disposition of the scire facias (did execution issue? was anything levied on Benjamin's Hunterdon lands?) — would require the Supreme Court minutes for September Term 1783 (Trenton) or any later return in this docket.
• Relate to pr.53: the 1783 scire facias + the 1784 Daniel v. Benjamin sheriff's sale fall in the same Hunterdon window — check whether the 1784 sale satisfied (in part) this or the Livingston judgment.

Cross-references

• K.36 Vanderveer v. Stirling & Benjamin Cooper £1,800 (1771) — the underlying judgment this writ revives.
• K.38 Philip Livingston v. Stirling & Benjamin Cooper £1,304.4.0 — the parallel Stirling-Cooper bond (revived separately 1791 per case 22049, not yet pulled).
• K.33 NJ Supreme Court Benjamin Cooper search — index source.
• A.1 Benjamin Cooper estate administration 1795 — Lebanon Twp Hunterdon residence at death.
• J.9 1784 Hunterdon sheriff's sale of Benjamin's Lebanon-Twp plantation — same Hunterdon window.
• p.2 Capt Benjamin Cooper — subject.