Hunterdon County, New Jersey, recorded mortgages — book pp. 378–380 (FamilySearch Hunterdon. Mortgages 1766–1811, DGS 008139598, images 851–852): Isaac Smith of Lebanon Twp to Joseph Hankinson of Readingtown, 21 December 1805, a lot in Lebanon beginning at "a corner of Benjamin Cooper's thirty acre lott", being the lot John Dawes and Alice his wife conveyed to Smith on 25 April 1801.

What this document records

🎯 the mortgage

Mortgage Deed dated the twenty first Day of December in the year of our Lord One Thousand eight hundred > and five Between Isaac Smith of the township of Lebanon in the County of Hunterdon and State of New > Jersey party of the first part And Joseph Hankinson of the township of Readingtown … party of the second > part. For all that lott or parcel of land situate in the Township of Lebanon aforesaid bounded and > described as follows. Beginning at a Pepperage tree marked on four sides standing on the easterly side of a > run of Water Being a corner of Benjamin Coopers thirty acre lott thence running (1) North fifty one > degrees and thirty minutes West ten chains and twenty two links to a red oak saplen for a Corner … (7) down > the said brook the several Courses thereof. And along said Co[?]pers line to the Beginning Containing > Sixty nine acres two roods and eight perches … [Being the same lott or parcel of land which John Dawes > and Alice his wife by Indenture bearing date the twenty fifth day of April in the year of our Lord One > thousand eight hundred and one granted and Conveyed to the said Isaac Smith his heirs and assigns in fee] > Excepting thereout two lotts containing together sixteen acres and sixty five perches … To Secure payment > of the sum of One hundred and thirty three Dollars and thirty three cents … $97.33 on the 1 day of May > A.D. 1807 to the said Joseph Hankinson Esq … and $36.00 on the 1 day of May A.D. 1807 to the said Joseph > Hankinson Exec[uto]r of Abraham Carkhuff deceased … Isaac Smith (L.S.) · Signed Sealed & Delivered in > presence of Alex[ande]r Bonnell, Nathaniel Saxton · Proved by Nathaniel Saxton 21 Dec 1805 before George C. > Maxwell M.C. · Recorded Dec[embe]r 21. 1805. (Margin: cancelled.) The second "Coopers" is written Cothers at 4× — read as the same name as the first, marked [?].

🔑 why it matters

"Benjamin Cooper's thirty acre lott" as a landmark in Lebanon Township, 1805 — eleven years after Benjamin Cooper Benjamin died there. Adjoiners' lots keep their owners' names long after death, so this is a locating clue for the Lebanon land [K.46] is trying to place, not evidence he was alive. The chain runs through John Dawes — the man who with John H. Cooper took out letters of administration on Benjamin's estate on 5 Feb 1795 ([A.1]), both "of the Township of Lebanon". The deed names his wife Alice. Recorded as a coincidence of name and place; no identification is asserted. The 25 April 1801 Dawes → Smith deed itself would give the lot's earlier title and may say whose it had been.