A Bill in the Chancery of New Jersey (the 'Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery', 1747) — East Jersey Proprietors v. Elizabeth-Town. Schedule N° III gives the full chain-of-title 'To Daniel Cooper' of Lot No. 2 (≈500 ac) of Robert Barclay's 2,000-acre Pasaick-River tract, acquired 1733–35 jointly with / then from Reynier Runyon; plus the trespass cause Cooper v. Moss / Crain. = our [p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr](../../people/p.1%20Daniel%20Cooper%201695-1795.md) — and it DISPROVES the 'Daniel Cooper, 2,000 acres, first settler of New Brunswick' conflation (Clayton / [I.137](../I-Published/I.137.yaml)).

Transcription and notes

Source

A Bill in the Chancery of New-Jersey, at the suit of John, Earl of Stair, and others, Proprietors of the Eastern-Division of New-Jersey, against Benjamin Bond and some other persons of Elizabeth-Town (printed by James Parker, New York, 1747) — the "Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery," the Proprietors' great suit against the Elizabethtown Associates. On disk: (image held in the family archive) (maintainer-downloaded 2026-06-02; full OCR text layer). This is the source Clayton's footnote cited as "Elizabeth[town] Bill, p. ~80" for the Daniel Cooper claim (see I.137 / pr.7).

Data from the document — Schedule N° III, chain of title "To DANIEL COOPER" [verbatim, OCR; [?] = uncertain]

The 2,000-acre Passaic tract and how it reached Daniel Cooper:

• 1687 Oct 13 — Council of Proprietors → Robert Barclay (one of the 24 Proprietors): warrant for laying out acreage "on North side of Pasaick River, 20 Miles above the Falls."
• 1687 Oct 20 — Surveyor General → Robert Barclay: "Return of Survey of 2000 Acres on Pasaick River" (No. 28 of this schedule).
• 1687/8 Jan 22 — Proprietors of E. Jersey → Robert Barclay: "Patent under Seal of Province for 2000 Acres."
• Robert Barclay died → son & heir Robert Barclay by descent; John Harrison became entitled to 1/5 of Barclay's NJ estate (incl. this tract).
• 1719 Nov 25 — "having divided the said 2000 Acres into five Lots, the No. 2 fell to John Harrison, and the four partners release No. 2 to him."
• 1723 Jan 22 — John Harrison → David Jamison: mortgage of Lot No. 2 in fee.
• John Harrison died → Benjamin Harrison (son & heir); → 1731 Feb 22 Benjamin Harrison → Evan Drummond; Benjamin died, widow Rachel dower.
• 1732 Feb 27 — Evan Drummond, David Jamison & Rachel Harrison: release of redemption + grant of rights in Lot No. 2.
• 1733 Nov 10 — David Jamison → Daniel Cooper & Rezier Runion [Reynier Runyon]: "Conveyance to them of Lot No. 2 in Fee."
• 1735 June 20 — Rezier Runion [Reynier Runyon] → Daniel Cooper: "Release of his Moiety of Lot No. 2."
• "Lot No. 2 aforesaid, in Possession of Daniel Cooper, is the Place on which Joseph Moss, John Crain and others trespassed, and were found guilty, as in the Bill is set forth."

Data — the litigation (Bill narrative) [verbatim, OCR; [?]]

• "…the Land of your Orator Daniel Cooper… and the same 2000 Acres are represented on… Schedule N° III…"
• "August, 1742, the said cause of Cooper versus [Norris?]… gave a Verdict for the Plaintiff, Daniel Cooper…"
• "March, 1742-3, the said cause of Cooper [v. …]… the Plaintiff Daniel Cooper against the Defendant[s]… [Younglove, two of the tenants]…"
• Related causes named: Cooper v. Moss, Cooper v. Crain (the trespassers on Lot No. 2). [These match the Board-of-Proprietors-of-East-Jersey minutes "Cooper vs Moss / vs Crain / vs Scudder / vs Norris" pages, 1742–43.]

Catalog significance

This "Daniel Cooper" is our p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr — not a 17th-century founder: - Lot No. 2 of (Robert) Barclay's tract = the 500-acre "Berkeley tract Lot No. 2" of Littell (I.4) — i.e. Daniel Sr's Long Hill / Passaic-Valley home tract ("20 miles above the Falls" of the Passaic = Long Hill country). - Acquired 1733–35, jointly with / then from Reynier Runyon — a concrete Cooper–Runyon land tie (Daniel Sr m. Grace Runyon 1726). - The Moss / Crain trespass = the documented Daniel-Sr land-riot litigation already in the catalog (Board of Proprietors minutes; I.78 / I.94 Newark land riots; pr.7).

DISPROVES the conflation behind the "first settler of New Brunswick" tradition. Clayton (History of Union & Middlesex Cos., the I.137-tradition / Barber 1846 / Gordon 1834) called this Daniel Cooper "one of the very early purchasers and settlers under the proprietors" with "a tract of two thousand acres on the Passaic," and fused him with the misty New-Brunswick-ferry legend. The Bill shows otherwise: - the 1687 dates belong to Robert Barclay (original grantee), not Cooper; - the 2,000 acres was Barclay's whole tract (five lots) — Cooper held only Lot No. 2 (~500 ac), ~¼ of it; - Cooper acquired it in 1733–35, on the Passaic at Long Hill, not pre-1697 at New Brunswick.

So the "very early purchaser / 2,000 acres / first settler of New Brunswick" picture is a stack of misattributions of Barclay's facts (and a separate town-founding legend) onto our Daniel Sr. The New-Brunswick-founder tradition gets no support from the one documentary anchor.

Berkeley → Barclay correction: the catalog's "Berkeley tract Lot No. 2" (from Littell's spelling) is Robert Barclay's tract (the East Jersey proprietor), per this Bill — not Lord Berkeley.

Cross-references

• p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr — the Daniel Cooper of this schedule; Lot No. 2 chain-of-title folded into his file.
• I.4 Littell — "lot No. 2 of the Berkeley tract, 500 acres" (now sourced to Barclay via this Bill).
• I.137 + pr.7 — the Clayton/Barber/Gordon "first settler / 2,000-acre" tradition this Bill disproves as a conflation.
• K.31 — 9–10 Nov 1733 Lot No. 2 records (= the same 1733 Nov conveyance).
• K.35 — 1776 Morris Loan Office mortgage on Lot No. 2.
• I.78 / I.94 — 1747/1749 Newark land riots + timber affidavit (the Moss/Crain-type trespass context).
• J.153 — the 1816 first-settler account, now understood as part of the same conflation.
• I.153 — Benedict's 1912 founding study, which names no Cooper among New Brunswick's first settlers (ferry = Inian) — discredits the tradition this Bill's "Daniel Cooper" got conflated into.