Hunterdon Co. deeds — JOHN H. COOPER to JACOB MILLER, TWO deeds both 13 June 1795 (Deed Bk 4 pp.337–343): pieces of the former Benjamin Cooper plantation (31.65 ac / £126.12 + 75.7 ac / 30 shillings). Deed names NO children — only 'Benjamin Cooper deceased' as prior owner. [verbatim]

Transcription and notes

Filename: (image held in the family archive) = Hunterdon Co. Deed Book 4, pp. 337–343, within Sue Bennett's compiled research file "As Jacob Miller grows his estate" (received 2026-07-07, pr.53). Upgraded [desc]→[verbatim] 2026-07-07 — the actual deeds obtained; supersedes the 2026-06-23 Sue-Bennett verbal report below.

What Sue reported verbally (2026-06-23) is now documented — with a correction: there are TWO deeds, and they convey pieces of Benjamin's plantation (not the whole 423-ac core tract). The main 423³⁄₁₀-ac Lebanon plantation stayed with John H. Cooper (he mortgaged it in 1797, [K.52]); these two June-1795 deeds sold Jacob Miller separate Tewksbury/Lebanon parcels that were also "part of the plantation whereon Benjamin Cooper deceased did lately live."

Deed 1 — 31.65 acres, Tewksbury [verbatim] (Deed Bk 4 pp. 337–340)

• Date: "This Indenture made the thirteenth day of June … one thousand seven hundred & ninety five [13 June 1795]."
• Grantor: "John Cooper of the Township of Lebanon in the County of Hunterdon & State of New Jersey, Yeoman."
• Grantee: "Jacob Miller of the Township of Tewksbury, County of Hunterdon."
• Consideration: "the Sum of one Hundred and twenty six pounds twelve Shillings Gold and Silver proclamation Money" [£126. 12s].
• Property: "all that Lott or piece of Land & premises … in the Township of Tewksbury … being part of the Plantation whereon Benjamin Cooper deceased did lately live & now in the possession of the said Jacob Miller. Beginning at a stake for a corner on the West side of a piece of Meadow … [thence N 8° W 19 ch 45 li to three white oak saplings for a corner] in a line of said Miller's first purchase of Benjamin Cooper deceased; thence along a line of the same S 88° 30′ East 17 chains to a stake in Jersey [= James] Van Sickles's West line fence … Containing thirty one acres & sixty five hundred parts of an acre [31.65 ac]."
• Execution: signed "John H. Cooper [L.S.]" (full literate signature). "Sealed and Delivered In the presence of David Frazer [+] John Dawes."
• Acknowledgment / recording: "Be it remembered that on the 11th day of July 1795 came before me Oliver Barnett, one of the Judges for the County of Hunterdon … John H. Cooper who acknowledged he signed sealed … Oliver Barnett." Recorded June 18, 1801.

Deed 2 — 75.7 acres, Lebanon & Tewksbury [verbatim] (Deed Bk 4 pp. 340–343)

• Date: "the thirteenth day of June … one thousand seven hundred & ninety five [13 June 1795]" (same day as Deed 1).
• Grantor / Grantee: "John H. Cooper of the Township of Lebanon … & Jacob Miller of the Township of Tewksbury … Yeoman."
• Consideration: "the Sum of thirty Shillings money of the State of New Jersey" [30s — a nominal consideration; a confirming/release conveyance].
• Property: "all that Lot or piece of Land situate in the Township of Lebanon and Tewksbury aforesaid being part of the [Farm] that Benjamin Cooper late of Lebanon aforesaid did live on & now in the possession of the said Jacob Miller. Beginning at a heap of stones, James Van Sickles's corner at the foot of a mountain & is also a corner to Jacob Miller's farm & also a corner to the farm formerly in the possession of the said Benjamin Cooper … [thence to] Captain Thomas Jones's line … Containing Seventy five acres & seven tenth parts of an acre [75.7 ac]."
• Execution: signed "John H. Cooper [L.S.]" (full literate signature). "Sealed and Delivered In the presence of David Frazer [+] John Dawes." Acknowledged 11 July 1795 before Oliver Barnett; Recorded June 18, 1801.

What this establishes (and doesn't)

• Confirms Sue's report: John H. Cooper conveyed former-Benjamin-Cooper land to Jacob Miller, and neither deed names any child or heir — only "Benjamin Cooper deceased" as the land's prior occupant. So no Benjamin grandson is named (a Path-A negative for [pr.14]).
• John H. Cooper was literate — full signature "John H. Cooper" on both deeds (and on [K.52]).
• Correction to the earlier framing: these are NOT the sale of the whole 423-ac plantation "out of the family." They are two edge parcels (31.65 + 75.7 ac) in Tewksbury/Lebanon. Benjamin's plantation was large and multi-parcel, and Jacob Miller assembled it piecemeal — the deeds reference an even earlier "Miller's first purchase of Benjamin Cooper deceased" (not in this batch; likely from the 1784 sheriff's sale or a prior conveyance). The 423-ac Lebanon core tract ([K.46]) went a different route (John H. held it, mortgaged it to Stillwell in 1797, [K.52]).
• No wife / no dower release in either deed → the [pr.96] "deed names John H.'s wife" hope is not fulfilled (John H. covenants alone, "seized in his own right").
• Corroborated by the HCHS landowner map (Maps/Old Lebanon Tax Map HCHS … + Maps/Stanton Hammond Map …): shows "John H. Cooper"'s tract with "Jacob Miller Lot #13 1790 (4-335) 200.1 ac" adjacent — the map's "(4-335)" deed-ref keys to this very Deed Book 4 (Jacob Miller's Lot-13 home tract, bought from John Stevens, Deed Bk 4 p.335, immediately preceding these two Cooper deeds).

Context deed (same file, NOT Cooper): John Stevens → Jacob Miller, Lot 13 Tewksbury

The compilation opens (Deed Bk 4 pp. 335–337) with John Stevens Esqr & Elizabeth his wife → Jacob Miller, 30 Jan 179[9], £600, Lot No 13 ("whereon the said Jacob Miller now lives," West Jersey Society's great tract, Tewksbury; adjoining William Alpaugh's Lot 12). This is Miller's home-lot purchase — background to his estate assembly, not a Cooper source; recorded here only as provenance for the file.

Cross-references

• K.46 — the 423³⁄₁₀-ac Lebanon core tract (a different parcel; Daniel Sr → John H., 1795)
• K.52 — John H.'s 1797 mortgage of the K.46 core tract
• pr.53 (Sue Bennett thread) · pr.96 · pr.14 (Path-A negative)
• p.105 John H. Cooper · name.441 Jacob Miller · p.2 Benjamin Cooper