NJ Supreme Court Case Files — Sarah Corriel & John Corriel v. Daniel Cooper, Morris 1753 — Cases 6685\* (Assumpsit £100 light money) + 6213 (Debt £40 light money) — manuscript pull (NJSA Order 202605-87245 / pr.77). Both case files contain only the capias writs + sheriff's returns (cepi corpus — Daniel Cooper taken into custody); NO declaration, NO kinship/estate-administration language. = the pr.16 manuscript test for a Cooper↔Coriell estate-dispute reading returns NULL on kinship language.

Transcription and notes

Manuscript pull received 2026-06-16 via NJSA Order 202605-87245 (pr.77). These are the two companion 1753 cases first surfaced at index tier in K.30 (records #15 + #19) and flagged as the catalog's highest-leverage pr.16 Cooper-Coriell Y-DNA mystery manuscript target. Files: - (image held in the family archive) - (image held in the family archive)

Headline result for pr.16 — kinship-language test returns NULL

Both case files, as scanned, contain only the capias writ(s) and the sheriff's endorsed return — there is NO declaration (narratio), NO bond/note copy, and NO kinship, inheritance, estate-administration, or "administrator/executor" language anywhere. The hoped-for reading of these suits as a Cooper↔Coriell estate dispute (the pr.16 / pr.2-Hypothesis-E test) is not supported by the manuscript — and not refuted either. What the documents DO establish: the Corriels pursued Daniel Cooper as creditors (one assumpsit "upon promises" for £100, one debt for £40), and the sheriff took Daniel Cooper's body into custody (cepi corpus) in both actions. The underlying transaction behind the "promises" / debt is not stated in the surviving papers.

Case 6685* — Trespass on the Case (Assumpsit; £100 light money)

Source identification (NJSA finding aid, p.1) [verbatim]

The writ (PDF p.4 — capias ad respondendum) [verbatim, closely transcribed from cursive]

A single horizontal-strip writ. Closely transcribed (line breaks approximate; […] = edge-lost or illegible):

"New Jersey ss. GEORGE the Second by the Grace of God of Great Brittain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith &c, To our Sherriff of our Coun[ty of Morris greeting we command you to take] Daniel Cooper [otherwise called Daniel Cooper] … late of the County aforesaid, if he may be found within your Bailywick and him safely keep so that you may have his body before us at our City of Perth Amboy on the Third [Tuesday … to answer] Sarah Corriell and John Corriell … against him the said Daniel for One Hu[ndred pounds] … to a plea of Trespass and also to the Bill of … [One] Hundred Pounds light Money upon his [promises] … then and there to be Exhibited … Witness Robert Hunter Morris Esq.r Our Chief Justice at … the Thirteenth day of November in the Twenty Seventh Year of our Reign"

Signed at foot (clerk): "Read." Attorney noted at foot of the reverse: "Pidgeon Att."

The endorsement / docket (PDF p.3 — reverse of the folded writ) [verbatim]

Archival number "6685" written across the blank panel. Caption + return:

"[Supreme] Court / Sarah Corriell / John Corriell / & / Dan.l Cooper } Cap.r [capias] / assumps.t / £100 light money Cepi Corpus in Custody / John Ford Sh.ff"

= the sheriff's cepi corpus return ("Cepi Corpus" = "I have taken the body"): Daniel Cooper was arrested and held in custody by John Ford, Sheriff of Morris.

Case 6213 — Debt (£40 light money)

Source identification (NJSA finding aid, p.1) [verbatim]

Contents [verbatim / closely transcribed]

The file contains two writs (consistent with the "Morris and Somerset" two-county venue + the two named sheriffs): - PDF p.6 — the Morris writ (to the Sheriff of Morris, John Ford), with PDF p.5 its endorsement (caption "Sarah Corriel / John Corriel / & / Dan.l Cooper } Ca[pias]"; return "Cepi Corpus in Cu[stody] / John For[d]…"). - PDF p.4 — a second writ (torn at lower right), with PDF p.3 its endorsement — the Somerset counterpart (Abraham VanDorn, Sheriff of Somerset, per the finding aid). - PDF p.2 — the docket wrapper ("6213 / Corriel v Cooper / Morris / Debt").

The Morris writ (p.6), closely transcribed:

"New Jersey ss. George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Brittain France [&c …] [To our Sheriff of our] County of Morris, Greeting we Command you [to take Daniel Cooper] otherwise Called Daniel Cooper in the County of Mor[ris] … within your Bailywick and him safely Keep so [that you have his body before us on] the Third Tuesday in March next To Answer … the said Sarah and John against him the said [Daniel] … [to a] plea of Trespass and also to the Bill of … [li]ght money of Debt According to the Custom of our Court before us Then and there [have] this Writ. Witness Robert Hunter Morris Esq.r Our Chief Justice … the Thirteenth day of November in the Twenty Seventh Year of our Reign"

Signed at foot (clerk): "Read." Attorney "Pidgeon Att."

Catalog synthesis (interpretive — not data)

• Both cases are creditor actions, same plaintiffs, same year (1753), same defendant. Sarah Corriel + John Corriel jointly sued Daniel Cooper of Morris County for (a) £100 "light money" in assumpsit "upon promises" (6685*), and (b) £40 "light money" in debt (6213, Morris + Somerset venue). Same plaintiffs' attorney (Pidgeon), same Chief Justice (Robert Hunter Morris), writs tested the same day (13 Nov, 27 Geo. II = 1753). The two suits are evidently a coordinated pair.
• Daniel Cooper was arrested in both (cepi corpus, Sheriff John Ford). No outcome/judgment paper survives in either file as scanned.
• The "promises" behind the £100 assumpsit are not described. A joint-plaintiff assumpsit by two persons sharing the surname Corriel is consistent with (but does not prove) two siblings jointly owed under one obligation — which is the shape a promised legacy/estate-share dispute could take. It is equally consistent with an ordinary joint commercial debt. The manuscript does not decide it. Per the pr.2 Hypothesis E / pr.16 lens, the absence of any kinship or estate-administrator language is the key (negative) datum: the estate-dispute reading gets no manuscript corroboration.
• Identification of "Daniel Cooper of Morris County": the writs give no suffix (Sr/Jr) — only "Daniel Cooper … late of the County [of Morris]." Highest-probability = p.1 Daniel Cooper Sr (the prominent Morris-Co. Daniel Cooper in 1753); cannot be primary-source-excluded as another Daniel.

Cross-references

• K.30 — index source (records #15 = 6685*, #19 = 6213); this entry resolves the K.30 " Discrepancy" note (John Corriel is a co-plaintiff per both finding aids + the endorsement captions).
• K.20 David Coriell of Piscataway — sister Coriell-surname sweep; "Corriel" spelling matches the Middlesex branch.
• pr.16 Cooper-Coriell Y-DNA mystery — the thread this pull serves; result = kinship-language NULL (see Headline result above).
• pr.2 Daniel Sr father search — Hypothesis E (paternal Coriell kin); not advanced by the manuscript.
• p.569 Sarah Corriel / p.570 John Corriel — the two plaintiffs.