Sussex Co., NJ Deeds (DGS 7903150, img 257) — 12 Dec 1814 deed, JOHN D COOPER & Sarah his wife, WM COOPER & Nancy his wife, and MARTHA COOPER, described as 'Heirs &c of Wm Cooper Deceased' of Mansfield Twp, to Wm McCraa of Lebanon Twp, Hunterdon — 5 acres for $60, recited as land Wm Cooper dec'd bought of Andrew Smith 14 Dec 1802

Transcription and notes

Source: Sussex County (New Jersey) Deeds, Liber C2, page 448 — FamilySearch DGS 7903150, image 257, ark 3:1:3Q9M-CSHM-XYM5. Surfaced 2026-08-01 in the FS Full-Text sweep "John D Cooper in Sussex County NJ"; image pulled and read 2026-08-07. On disk: (image held in the family archive) ( not yet filed into Docs/).

The liber and page come from the county's own GRANTOR index ([K.26], image 381, book p. 418), read at 8× on 2026-08-07 — the deed image itself carries no liber/page. The index row is a bracketed grantor group: "John · Martha · William Cooper" on one line and "William Dec'd Cooper · etal" on the next, both braced to a single grantee "William McCray", liber ditto (= C2), page 448.

That index entry independently corroborates the deed's central phrase. The county clerk, indexing in his own words rather than copying, recorded the deceased William Cooper as a named party to the conveyance. An indexer who read "Heirs &c of Wm Cooper Deceased" as anything other than these people are conveying the dead man's land would have had no reason to put him in the grantor column at all. It does not corroborate the relationship — the index says "Dec'd", not "father" — and note the index writes plain "John", without the D.

The deed occupies the foot of the left-hand page and the upper right-hand page of the opening.

Data from the document [verbatim]

"This Indenture made the Twelfth day of December in the year of our Lord one Thousand eight hundred and fourteen Between John Cooper and Sarah his wife, Wm Cooper and Nancy Cooper his wife and Martha Cooper Heirs &c of Wm Cooper Deceased of the Township of Mansfield in the County of Sussex and State of New Jersey of the one part and Wm McCray of the Township of Lebanon County of Hunterdon and State aforesaid of the other part…"

"…do grant Bargain sell alien enfeoff Convey and confirm unto the said Wm McCraa his heirs and assigns forever all that Tract lott or parcel of Land Situate lying and being in the Township of Mansfield County of Sussex and State aforesaid being a lott of Land the aforesaid William Cooper deceased Purchased of Andrew Smith by a Deed of Indenture dated December the fourteenth one Thousand eight hundred and Two Beginning at a hickory Tree Corner to [George?] Phillips land…"

"…Containing five acres…" (metes: courses run S 52° 30′ W, N 50° W six chains thirty links to a stone corner, N 52° 30′ E eight chains to a stone corner, S 50° E six chains thirty links to the beginning corner — read at 4× but the chain/link figures on the first course are not fully legible)

"…And the said John Cooper and Sarah his wife and Wm Cooper and Nancy his wife and Martha Cooper party of the first part do for themselves their heirs Executors and Administrators Warrant and forever defend the aforesaid described Lott of land Unto the said Wm McCraa…"

Signature block (each name followed by a written "[Seal]"):

"John D Cooper [Seal] · Sarah Cooper [Seal] · Wm Cooper [Seal] · Nancy Cooper [Seal] · Martha Cooper [Seal]" — Martha's is a mark, with "mark" written above the cross. "Signed Sealed and delivered in the presence of —"

Acknowledgment:

"Sussex County To wit Came before me Henry Han[kinson?] one of the Masters in the High Court of Chancery of said State and Andrew Likens one of the Subscribeing Witnesses to this deed of full age who being duly sworn according to Law saith that he saw John D Cooper, Wm Cooper, Nancy Cooper and Martha Cooper the grantors in this deed named Sign Seal and deliver the same as their act and deed for the uses and purposes therein expressed and that he saw Conrad Henry the other witness Subscribe his name thereto as a witness. Andrew Likens Sworn and Subscribed before me the 31st of December in 1814…"

• Consideration: sixty dollars (the figure is written in the left-page portion; read as "Sixty dollars", but see the illegibility note below).
• Grantee's surname is spelled two ways in the one document — "McCray" in the opening recital, "McCraa" in the granting and warranty clauses.
• Grantor named "John Cooper" in the body, "John D Cooper" in the signature and in the acknowledgment.

Illegible / uncertain

• The magistrate's surname reads "Han…" — plausibly Hankinson, a known Sussex name, but the terminal letters are not legible. [?]
• The abutter "[George?] Phillips" — given name uncertain. [?]
• The first course's chain-and-link figures are struck through and rewritten in the manuscript; not transcribed.
• "Heirs &c" — the abbreviation after "Heirs" is a contraction mark; read as &c, but it may be &ca or a flourish. The word Heirs itself is clear.

Cross-references

• p.129 John D Cooper of Hardwick Twp Warren — the "John D Cooper" grantor; his wife is independently recorded as Sarah Crosby, matching "Sarah his wife" here.
• p.1746 William Cooper of Mansfield Twp Sussex — the decedent.
• D.44 — a William Cooper, head of household of 8, Mansfield Twp in the 1830 census (by then Warren Co.); indexed at name.3. Same township, sixteen years later.
• K.25 — Sussex Co. grantor/grantee index, which carries a "William [Cooper] / John Read / 446" line.
• K.74 and K.75 — the two deeds John D. Cooper witnessed in the same neighbourhood, 1814 and 1820.

Open follow-ups

• AND 2026-08-23, NO PROBATE EITHER — the Calendar of New Jersey Wills 1801–1817 (NJ Archives Vols 39–42) and the 1912–13 NJ State Index of Wills ([A.126]) both lack a William Cooper estate for Sussex or Warren across his whole death window. Scoped at p.1746; the one untried series is the county Orphans' Court minutes, which run from 1804.
• SEARCHED AND NOT FOUND 2026-08-07 — the 14 Dec 1802 Andrew Smith → William Cooper deed recited here appears never to have been RECORDED. Full null recorded in [K.26]. In short: the Sussex Grantee index Cook/Cooper pages were read at 5× across 1801–1835 ([K.25] images 359 and 360) and contain no William Cooper as grantee at any date, and no Andrew Smith as grantor at all. Recording was optional and cost money in early New Jersey; an unrecorded deed stayed in the grantee's own hands. This actually explains the deed above — the heirs had to recite their father's acquisition in full precisely because there was no recorded instrument to point a purchaser at.
• Look for a Sussex Co. probate / administration for William Cooper dying before Dec 1814. A deed by "heirs" rather than by an executor suggests he may have died intestate, in which case an administration bond and possibly an Orphans' Court partition would exist. This is now the primary route, the deed route having been closed.
• File the image into Docs/ and run scripts/check_fs_duplicates.py.

Correction — a deed book holds no signatures

When this entry was first written it listed the 1802 deed as an image-hunt target for William Cooper's signature. That was wrong, and the error is visible in this entry's own transcription: a recorded deed book is the county clerk's transcript, not the executed instrument. "John D Cooper [Seal]" above is the clerk copying a name and noting that a seal was present — it is the clerk's hand throughout, including Martha's "mark". No Sussex deed book will ever yield a Cooper signature. The executed originals went home with the parties. Corrected 2026-08-07 here and in [p.1746].