Document K.46 · Land Records / Deeds · transcription: verbatim

Deed — Daniel Cooper (Morris Co.) to John H. Cooper (Lebanon Twp), 5 Jan 1795 — the plantation 'whereon Benjamin Cooper formerly lived' (423³⁄₁₀ ac) [verbatim]

What this document records

✅✅ t1 the full-text search was run and here is what it found

RUN 2026-09-11 ON FAMILYSEARCH FULL-TEXT. The method works, and it produced three things. ① The query "whereon Benjamin Cooper" returns EIGHT hits nationwide and exactly ONE in New Jersey:

Hunterdon, New Jersey. Deeds 1796-1802, ark 3:1:3Q9M-CS4X-PSKK-7, image 784 of 1,087 > — “…being part of the Plantation whereon Benjamin Cooper deceased did lately live, and now in…” That is [K.51] Deed 1 — the transcript reads “the said John Cooper for & in consideration of the sum of One hun[dred] & twenty six pounds twelve Shillings gold and Silver proclamation Money … paid by the said part Miller”, and £126 12s is Deed 1's exact consideration. So it is not a new deed — it is a BETTER CITATION for one the catalog already has. [K.51]'s source is Sue Bennett's compiled PDF, a secondary packaging; this is the recorded original, with an ark and an image number. → t3. ② The coverage claim I made when writing this task was WRONG, and is corrected here. I inferred from the first result set that FamilySearch does not index Hunterdon deeds before 1796. It does index the period — a query on “Township of Lebanon in the County of Hunterdon” returns Hunterdon, New Jersey. Miscellaneous Records 1700-1900, Other Records / Miscellaneous Records / Loan Books / Court Records 1713-1860, and a later query surfaced Hunterdon, New Jersey. Mortgages 1766-1811 — in which Benjamin Cooper appears as an adjoiner (“…easterly side … a Corner of Benjamin Cooper thirty Acre…”). Those spans cover both the 1784 sheriff's sale and the 1795-1802 guardianship window [pr.86] is asking the Surrogate for. → t4. ③ IT TURNED UP A SOURCE THE CATALOG HAD ALREADY READ, AND THIS TASK MIS-REPORTED IT AS NEW. Corrected within the hour, 2026-09-11, after the maintainer asked whether the big family tree already named Benjamin's wives. It did, and so did Benjamin Cooper. The volume below is the Hiram E. Deats compilation the catalog cites as IGN 008933523, read 2026-07-14 and cited from [I.191], [I.192], [I.68], Charity (Hoff) Cooper and todo.md; and Benjamin Cooper carries Craddock's four-wives sequence (Charity (Hoff) Cooper Charity Hoff, an unknown 2nd, Mary ____, Anna (Brown) Cooper Anna Brown). The aged 17 years in the snippet is CHARITY, who died in childbed at 17 — not a son. The full correction is in Benjamin Cooper. What IS new: the volume has 17 matches and only image 1081 has ever been read. Hunterdon, New Jersey. Genealogies 1769-1977 (ark 3:1:3QHV-1359-YXS8, 1,916 images, 17 matches) carries “Charity Cooper, wife of Benjamin Cooper…” and “In N. J. Abstract of Wills, 1791-1795 a Capt. Benjamin Cooper, who d. Int., Lebanon or Tewksbury Twp”. It is a 1972 typewritten letter in a society's correspondence file — compiled, secondary. Nothing adopted. → Benjamin Cooper and the todo.md INBOX, where the full caution is written out. What the search did NOT find: Jacob Miller's “first purchase of Benjamin Cooper deceased”. And that is expected rather than disappointing — the phrase searched postdates Benjamin's death, so a purchase made from him while alive would be worded quite differently (“of Benjamin Cooper”, “from Benjamin Cooper”). → t4.

🚫🚫 there is another lot no 4 in this catalog and it is not this one

DO NOT MERGE THIS LOT #4 WITH THE ONE IN [K.89] AND [K.90]. Checked 2026-09-11, the same day the Lot-4 attribution was added here, precisely because the collision is easy to make. | | THIS tract | [K.89] / [K.90]'s Lot No 4 | |---|---|---| | survey | West Jersey Society great tract | the THOMAS PARKER division | | township | Lebanon | Hardwick / Independence | | county | HUNTERDON | WARREN | | acreage | 423 | ~19½ | | marker | — | a Swamp White oak, and Howell's line | ⇒ Different survey, different county, and twenty-two times the acreage. Lot numbers are survey-local and repeat freely — which is exactly why t1 records that a bare Lot No 4 is a weak full-text query and must be paired with the township and county. This is that warning with a worked example attached.

🎯🎯🎯 the plantation has a lot number it is lot 4

THE 423-ACRE TRACT IS LOT #4, AND THAT IS THE FIRST SEARCHABLE HANDLE THE CATALOG HAS EVER HAD FOR IT. Read 2026-09-11 off the Stanton Hammond map already in Maps/, at 3×:

LOT #4 · JOHN H. COOPER · 423.A. And its neighbours are numbered too, which is what makes the numbering usable: | lot | owner | acres | map's deed ref | |---|---|---|---| | #4 | JOHN H. COOPER | 423 | — | | #13 | JACOB MILLER, 1790 | 200 | (4-335) = Deed Bk 4 p. 335 | | #5 | Peter & Isaac Wyckoff, 1780 | 222 | — | | #3 | Peter Schamp / George Eick | 181 | — | | — | James Van Sickle / Andrew Van Sickle | 420 | (mtge) | These are the numbered lots of the WEST JERSEY SOCIETY'S great tract, the survey [K.51]'s context deed names when John Stevens Esq conveys "Lot No 13" in Tewksbury to Jacob Miller. So the Lebanon/Tewksbury parcels in this chain all sit in one lot-numbered system. The map is a 20th-century compilation, not a period document. It is a research aid by Stanton Hammond; the lot number is recorded here as the MAP's attribution, not as something read off a deed. No period instrument the catalog holds calls this tract "Lot 4". And the tract has no PROPER NAME. [K.46], [K.52] and [J.9] all identify it purely by occupancy — "the plantation whereon Benjamin Cooper formerly lived", "… deceased did lately live". There is no estate name, no farm name. → t2.

⚠️ a date discrepancy on millers lot 13

The Hammond map dates Jacob Miller's Lot 13 purchase 1790, with the deed reference (4-335). [K.51]'s own reading of that deed — John Stevens Esqr & Elizabeth his wife → Jacob Miller, Deed Bk 4 pp. 335-337 — gives "30 Jan 179[9]", with the last digit uncertain. Unresolved, and recorded rather than reconciled. It matters a little: if Miller was established on Lot 13 from 1790, he was Benjamin Cooper's neighbour for the last four years of Benjamin's life, which is the window [D.599] t6 puts around his unfound "first purchase of Benjamin Cooper deceased".

Transcription and notes

Filenames: (1) original acquisition — (image held in the family archive) pp.2–3; (2) clean recorded copy (2026-07-07 Sue Bennett care package) — (image held in the family archive) = Hunterdon Co. Deed Book 2, pp. 85–86. From Sue Bennett, Hunterdon Co. Clerk (pr.53). The clean copy resolves the earlier faint readings — see the corrections below.

The keystone of pr.53: the family-redemption resolution. Daniel Cooper conveys to p.105 John H. Cooper (Benjamin's proven son) the very plantation "whereon Benjamin Cooper formerly lived" — i.e. the Lebanon Twp plantation seized from Benjamin in the 1783–84 execution (A.81 / J.9 sale).

Data from the document `[verbatim]` — from the clean recorded copy (Deed Bk 2 pp. 85–86)

Endorsement: "Daniel Cooper / To / John H Cooper."
Date: "This Indenture made this fifth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Ninety five [5 Jan 1795]."
Grantor: "Daniel Cooper of the County of Morris and State of New Jersey of the one part." (No township is stated for the grantor — the earlier [Lebanon?] reading was mistaken; it reads simply "of the County of Morris.")
Grantee: "John H Cooper of the Township of Lebanon in the County of Hunterdon and State aforesaid of the other part."
** Consideration — CORRECTED: "the Sum of one Hundred pounds Lawfull money of New Jersey to him in hand paid by the s.d John H Cooper." *(The earlier faint-scan reading "one thousand [?] pounds" — repeated as "~£1,000" in pr.53 — was a misreading; the clean recorded copy plainly reads one Hundred pounds* ["one Hun-" / "-dred pounds," wrapping across two lines]. A below-market family price, fitting Daniel Sr's redemption-and-regrant to his grandson. NB the £250 Stillwell mortgage [K.52] two years later exceeds this — the £100 was a family conveyance figure, not market value.)
Property (operative grant) — full metes-and-bounds now transcribed: "All that Certain farm or plantation of Land whereon Benjamin Cooper Deceased lately lived Situated in the Township of Lebanon in the County of Hunterdon aforesaid, Beginning at a White oak tree marked on four Sides Standing on the South side of Rockaway River near Potterstown at the North foot of a Hill and is also a Corner of a Lot on which Jacob Angle formerly lived; thence South 83° East 16 chains 93 links to a poplar sapling; thence South 64° East 15 chains 30 links to a white oak tree marked for a corner; thence North East 13 chains 24 links to a black sapling marked; thence North 84° 15′ East 7 chains 46 links to a corner stake in a New Road, corner of a Lot on which Tunis Eyck formerly lived; thence [North?] 23° East 40 chains to a peppperidge sapling marked; thence North 6° 30′ West 38 chains 26 links to a heap of Stones; thence South 79° 30′ West 28 chains to a heap of Stones; thence North 60° 30′ West 8 chains 27 links to a heap of Stones; thence South 34° West 39 chains 58 links to a heap of Stones; thence South 21° West 34 chains 37 links to a stake … thence South 45° 30′ East 15 chains 27 links to the place of Beginning, containing four Hundred and twenty three acres and three tenths of an acre [423³⁄₁₀ ac] Together with all … the Buildings Improvements orchards Gardens woods waters mines minerals privileges …" Adjoining owners named: Jacob Angle (SW corner) + Tunis Eyck (NE, a New Road corner).
Execution / acknowledgment: grantor Daniel Cooper signed by his MARK ("Daniel [ his mark] Cooper") + seal; "Sealed and Delivered In presence of George Cooper & Charity Cooper." (Witness surnames now confirmed Cooper, not "Cooker.") "Be it Remembered that on the fifth day of May seventeen Hundred and Ninety five [5 May 1795] before me John Corle Esquire one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas in and for the County of Morris came George Cooper one of the within subscribing Witnesses and made oath that the within Grantor Daniel Cooper Signed Sealed and Delivered the within Instrument of Writing freely and Voluntarily … John Corle." (Judge = Corle, not "Cole.") Recorded Dec.r 7th 1796 (the earlier faint copy read "December 19th"; the clean copy reads a single-digit "7th").

Catalog significance

pr.53 Hypothesis A (Family Reconciliation) — strongly supported (but see the kinship caveat below). The Daniel Cooper who held Benjamin's seized plantation = p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr (he is "of Morris County," where Daniel Sr lived at Long Hill; Daniel Jr [p.79] had died 1787). After the 1784 sheriff's sale removed the plantation from Benjamin, Daniel Sr ultimately held it and, on 5 Jan 1795 — weeks after Benjamin's Dec 1794 death and in the last year of Daniel Sr's own life — conveyed it to the John H. Cooper of Lebanon Twp (p.105) who was Benjamin's estate co-administrator (A.1) one month later. This is the natural act of a grandfather settling his deceased son's homestead on that son's heir, and it explains why the family remained in Lebanon Twp.
Kinship caveat (maintainer, 2026-07-07): the deed does NOT state the relationship. It names "Benjamin Cooper deceased" only as the land's prior occupant ("whereon Benjamin Cooper Deceased lately lived") — there is no "son," "grandson," "heir," or "father" anywhere, neither Daniel Sr↔John H. nor John H.↔Benjamin. So this deed is consistent with (and strong circumstantial support for) John H. = Benjamin's son, but it does not prove it. The son-identification rests on Craddock [I.22] + this circumstantial land/estate pattern — keep it probable/strong-circumstantial, not primary-source-locked. (See [p.105] for the full assessment.)
Daniel Sr signed by MARK in 1795 — infirmity, NOT illiteracy. He was demonstrably literate: his own cursive autograph is preserved on the 1750 Van Court document (A.68). Signing by mark here (5 Jan 1795), in the last months of his ~100-year life (he died later in 1795), reflects a deathbed / physically-incapacitated hand, not an inability to write. (Separately, grantee John H. Cooper signs a full signature on his own later conveyances — [K.51]/[K.52] — but that is John H.'s literacy, not a contrast implying Daniel Sr couldn't write.)
Downstream chain now documented (2026-07-07 care package): this 423³⁄₁₀-ac tract stayed with John H. Cooper, who mortgaged it to Nicholas Stillwell for £250 on 29 Jan 1797 ([K.52]) — same metes-and-bounds verbatim. (Separately, John H. sold other Tewksbury/Lebanon pieces of Benjamin's plantation to Jacob Miller in June 1795 — [K.51] — which are distinct parcels, not this 423-ac core tract.)
2026-07-14 — also in the FamilySearch Full-Text corpus (IGN 007896976 "Hunterdon Deeds 1796–1802," image 48 = this Deed Book 2 p.85). The FS OCR renders the acreage as "four Hundred and seventy three acres" — that is an OCR misread of "twenty three"; the clean recorded copy (Sue Bennett) plainly reads 423³⁄₁₀ ac, which stands. Confirms this deed is indexed/searchable in FS Full-Text.
Same deed-book page (p.86) continues with an UNRELATED deed — Deborah & Robert Coate (executors of Henry Coale of Kingwood) → Henry Clifton, 7 Mar 1796, a Kingwood Coale/Coate-family conveyance (not Cooper) — incidentally captured in the scan; out of scope, no separate entry.