Hunterdon Co., NJ Public Records (IGN 008576535, img 263) — 6 June 1796 RETURN OF A ROAD laid along the line of John H. Cooper's [p.105] Lebanon-Twp land (between James Van Sickle of Tewksbury and Jacob Miller) — locates Benjamin Cooper's son's plantation mid-1796

Transcription and notes

Source: Hunterdon County (New Jersey). County Clerk — Public Records, 1761–1856 (FamilySearch Full-Text, IGN 008576535, image 263 of 854). Recorded 28 June 1796. On disk: Court Records/New Jersey/Hunterdon County/Public Records 1761–1856/….

A court-ordered private-road return — a new primary source (found 2026-07-14 via the FS Full-Text "John H. Cooper" sweep) that fixes the location of John H. Cooper of Lebanon Twp [p.105] — Benjamin Cooper's [p.2] son — on his plantation in mid-1796, between the Jan-1795 grant ([K.46]) and the Jan-1797 mortgage ([K.52]).

Data from the document [verbatim] (OCR-transcribed)

"Return of a road in … Tewksbury & Lebanon. We the Subscriber[s], Surveyor[s] of the highways of the Township[s] of … Lebanon & [Tewksbury], having met agreeably to an order of the inferior Court of Common pleas of the County of Hunterdon of the term of May … one thousand seven hundred [and] ninety six, to lay out a private road beginning in the great road leading from the Mills of Daniel Hunt Esquire in Lebanon to Potters Town, running from thence on the northerly course on the line between the lands of James [Van Sickle] of the Township of Tewksbury & the land of John H. Cooper of the Township of Lebanon or as near the said line as may be found convenient & practicable until it comes to the land of Jacob Miller … We have & do now lay out a private road … Beginning in the middle of the [road] at the south westerly corner of the said James Van[ ]sickle's land at the Southeasterly corner of the said John H. Cooper's land, & running from thence along the said James Van Sickle & John Cooper's line, North twenty one degrees east thirty eight chains until it comes to the land of Jacob Miller … which [road] we order to be opened … before the sixth day of July next. Given under our hands the sixth day of June … 1796. John Haar, John Vanderbilt (Tewksbury), Wm Ho[g]lett (Lebanon), James Emmons (Reading), John Wy[c]koff. Recorded June 28th 1796."

What this establishes

• John H. Cooper was resident on his Lebanon-Twp plantation in June 1796 — a firm dated attestation between [K.46] (5 Jan 1795 grant) and [K.52] (29 Jan 1797 Stillwell mortgage). Extends his firm Lebanon presence across 1795–1797.
• His land's neighbors: James Van Sickle of Tewksbury on the south-east (the road runs "along the said James Van Sickle & John Cooper's line," N 21° E) and Jacob Miller to the north — i.e. the road ran up the Cooper/Van Sickle boundary to Miller's tract. (Miller had by then acquired the adjacent Tewksbury/Lebanon edge parcels of Benjamin's old plantation — [K.51]; this shows the two men's lands abutting.)
• The road tied into the "great road from Daniel Hunt Esq'r's Mills in Lebanon to Potters Town" — the same Potterstown/Rockaway-River locale as the plantation's metes in [K.46].
• No wife named (a road return carries no dower clause) — but the neighbor set (Van Sickle E, Miller N) is new locational data for the plantation.

Cross-references

• p.105 John H. Cooper of Lebanon Twp (the "H." land-owner located here) · p.2 Capt. Benjamin Cooper (his father) · the plantation grant K.46 · the Miller edge-parcel sales K.51 · the Stillwell mortgage K.52.