Document K.39 · Land Records / Court Records / NJSA Searchable Databases · transcription: verbatim
NJ Supreme Court Case File #23110 Daniel Lawrence (Assignee of Jacob Ford Jr., Esq.) v. Benjamin Manning of Roxbury Township — Debt £74.8.0, Morris, 1766–1767 — manuscript-read (NJSA free View-PDF). Daniel Cooper's sheriff endorsement — 'Dn.l Cooper Sheriff' + '2[s] mileage' — appears on the April 1767 writ = manuscript-tier confirmation of Daniel Sr's Sheriff-of-Morris role (corroborates [K.30](K.30.yaml) index). Defendant Benjamin Manning 'of Roxbury Township' = Cooper-Manning-context datum for the Grace Manning family-of-origin thread (Daniel Sr executing process against a Manning two years before his 1768 marriage to Grace Manning).
Transcription and notes
Source identification
| Element | Value |
|---|---|
| Repository | New Jersey State Archives — Supreme Court of New Jersey, Case Files 1704–1844 (SSV00001) |
| Case # | 23110 |
| NJSA cover description | "Daniel Lawrence (also as Assignee of Jacob Ford Jr., Esquire) v. Benjamin Manning / Debt (£74.8.0 current money of the province at eight shillings the ounce) / Morris : 1766 – 1767" |
| Parties (cover) | PLAINTIFF Daniel Lawrence (also as Assignee of Jacob Ford Jr., Esq.); DEFENDANT Benjamin Manning (of Roxbury Township); OFFICIAL — Coats [Unrecorded] (Clerk); Cooper, Daniel (Sheriff of Morris); Ford, Jacob Jr. (Sheriff of Morris); Smyth, John (Attorney, for Daniel Lawrence) |
| Folder tab | "23110 Lawrence v. Manning / Morris / Debt" |
| Local PDF | (image held in the family archive) (9 images = NJSA cover + folder + 7 manuscript pages: 3 writs + endorsements across the Jan 1766, Apr 1766, and Apr 1767 terms) |
| Downloaded | 30 May 2026 by maintainer (free "View PDF" from the NJSA Supreme Court portal, per K.30 free-download follow-up) |
The Daniel Cooper sheriff endorsement (April 1767 writ, p.7)
The April 1767 capias/testatum writ carries, on its dorse, the clerk's initials "C·C" (Coats) over a sheriff's endorsement reading "Dn.l Cooper Sheriff" with a fee notation "2[s] mileage", beside the archival stamp "23110". This is a manuscript-tier attestation of Daniel Cooper as Sheriff of Morris executing this writ in the April 1767 term, corroborating the K.30 NJSA-index "Cooper, Daniel (Sheriff of Morris)" official-role tag. The two earlier writs (January and April 1766 terms) are endorsed by the predecessor sheriffs Jacob Ford Jr. and [?]Miller — i.e. the sheriffalty passed Ford → [Miller] → Cooper across the case's life, consistent with Daniel Sr's known ~1759–1769 Sheriff-of-Morris span (K.30 synthesis).
Manuscript content (not fully transcribed)
The file is the standard Debt action paperwork across three terms: royal capias writs ("George the Third by the Grace of God …"), each with a folded dorse endorsement (court term, parties, "Debt", returnable date, clerk, sheriff). The body Latin/English boilerplate of the writs is not individually transcribed at this pass (court hand; low marginal catalog value). The catalog-relevant data — parties, residence, sum, and the Cooper sheriff return — are captured above from the legible cover sheet + the p.7 endorsement.
Catalog significance (interpretation — not data bullets)
- Manuscript-confirms Daniel Sr's Sheriff-of-Morris service in 1767 for this matter.
- Places a Benjamin Manning of Roxbury Township as a debt defendant in Morris Co. 1766–67, with Daniel Cooper as the executing sheriff — i.e. Daniel Sr was personally handling process against a Manning in the two years before his 11 Mar 1768 marriage to Grace Manning. Whether this Benjamin Manning is kin to Grace is not attested here; recorded as same-surname context only. See the companion £600-bond matter K.40 (45641), which adds Reuben Manning + a Roxbury co-obligor network.
Follow-ups
- If the Grace-Manning family-of-origin thread is reopened, the two Benjamin-Manning-of-Roxbury matters (this + K.40) plus Reuben Manning are the Morris-Co. Manning cluster to map. Roxbury-Twp tax/church/probate records for Benjamin + Reuben Manning ~1760–1775 would test any Grace kinship.
- Higher-resolution zoom of the three dorse endorsements would let the Ford/[Miller]/Cooper sheriff succession be transcribed precisely.
Cross-references
- K.30 NJ Supreme Court Daniel Cooper search — index source (this case = row 62; "Daniel Lawrence … v. Benjamin Manning").
- K.40 Thomas White v. Benjamin Manning, £600 bond 1763 (45641) — companion Daniel-Sr-Sheriff-vs-Benjamin-Manning-of-Roxbury matter.
- p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr — subject of the sheriff endorsement.