WikiTree profile Annin-14 — John Alexander Annin (1764-1824) of Liberty Corner; lists Mary (Cooper) Annin b. 6 March 1780 as 2nd wife m. 2 Nov 1815 NJ — strong corroboration of Craddock I.22's Polly Cooper / John Annin marriage claim

Transcription and notes

• Source: WikiTree profile Annin-14 at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Annin-14 — "John Alexander Annin (1764-1824)." Viewed 2026-04-25 via WebFetch (page text only; profile-card images and citation details not captured in this pass).
• Filename: no local file — WikiTree-only [no local file; suggested: WikiTree/Annin-14 [2026-04-25].html]

• Why catalogued: Independent (non-Craddock) source whose 2nd-wife data point — Mary Cooper b. 6 March 1780, married John Annin 2 November 1815 in New Jersey — is an exact match on Craddock I.22's "Polly b. 6 Mar 1780 m. (2nd) John Annin." The 6 March 1780 birth-date concordance is essentially decisive: Craddock and WikiTree are independent compilations and an exact-day birth-date match for an obscure 18th-century rural NJ woman is not coincidence. This is the strongest non-Craddock source we have for Polly Cooper's identity.

• Cross-references:

• I.22 — Craddock book, the primary source for Polly Cooper's identity as Benjamin's daughter
• I.4 — Littell, also references Polly Cooper m. John Annin
• I.23 — Craddock entry 50 (Polly d. 1817 age 37; Joseph³ Cross d. 1809 age 35)
• G.18, G.19 — Find A Grave for Caty Cooper Dayton + Amos Dayton (Polly's sister + brother-in-law)
• L.8, L.9 — Windhorst + Geneanet trees for Benjamin Cooper

Verbatim data — John Alexander Annin profile (Annin-14)

• Name: John Alexander Annin
• Birth: 1764
• Death: 12 April 1824

• Residence at death: Liberty Corner, Somerset, New Jersey

• Parents:

• Father: William Annan (1715–1784, Scotland)

• Mother: Sarah (Ross) Annan (d. 1777)

• Wives (in order): 1. Elizabeth (Van Doren) Annin (b. abt. 1766, d. 4 July 1815) — marriage date and location not given on the page 2. Mary (Cooper) Annin (b. 6 March 1780) — married 2 November 1815, location given as "New Jersey"

• Children (10 listed, all attributed to "his first wife" per page header text — note: chronology shows Joseph A b. 1816 fits as Mary Cooper's child, see "Internal contradiction" below):

• Burial: "Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery" in Basking Ridge, New Jersey

Internal contradiction in the profile

The profile page header attributes "nine children with his first wife" but lists ten children. Joseph A Annin b. 19 August 1816 is the 10th — born ~9.5 months after the 2 November 1815 marriage to Mary Cooper, and ~13 months after Elizabeth Van Doren's 4 July 1815 death. Joseph A. is therefore chronologically incompatible with being Elizabeth Van Doren's child and chronologically consistent with being Mary (Cooper) Annin's child. The page's "nine children with his first wife" framing appears to be a misstatement.

If Joseph A is in fact Polly's son, he would be the only documented child of Polly Cooper × John Annin — and a paternal-line Annin (NOT a Y-DNA-Cooper carrier), but a documented Benjamin-Cooper grandson via Polly. His own descendants would carry autosomal Cooper DNA from Benjamin.

Cross-source consistency check

Implications

• Polly Cooper's burial is most likely also at Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery beside her husband, who died there 1824. She predeceased him by ~7 years (d. 1817 age 37 per I.23). A Find A Grave search for her stone in that cemetery is a high-priority next step.
• The 2 November 1815 marriage date narrows the window: Elizabeth Van Doren died 4 July 1815, John Annin remarried Polly Cooper just 4 months later. Tight remarriage suggests household-management urgency (large family of older children, infant Mary Ann b. Feb 1809 was 6).
• Joseph A Annin (b. 19 Aug 1816, only known Polly+John child) becomes a forward-trace target. As Benjamin's grandson via Polly he is a paperwork-track confirmation candidate (not Y-DNA — Annin Y-line, not Cooper).
• William Cooper Annin (b. 5 Jan 1790) — the 2nd-listed child, with "Cooper" as his middle name, was born to Elizabeth Van Doren BEFORE John's marriage to Polly Cooper. His "Cooper" middle name therefore originates somewhere OTHER than the Polly Cooper marriage — possibly from a Cooper relative on John Annin's side, or from an earlier Annin–Cooper connection. A separate web search hit (not yet catalogued) reports William Cooper Annin married Phebe Miller, daughter of Samuel Miller and Lydia Cooper — suggesting a parallel Cooper-Annin connection through the Miller family. Worth investigating but not directly on Benjamin's male-line track.

Caveats and uncertainties

• WikiTree is user-built, low-confidence per memory feedback_wikitree_low_confidence.md. The Annin-14 profile is treated as a lead, not as primary evidence. The b. 6 March 1780 + m. 2 Nov 1815 data points are sufficiently specific that they were likely transcribed from a primary record (Annin family Bible, church register, or compiled Annin genealogy), but this catalog entry must verify those underlying sources before promoting any datum to evidence-grade.
• Source-to-item view not yet captured. Per memory feedback_ancestry_tree_source_links.md, the source-link view separates source-backed claims from unsourced inference. WikiTree has its own per-claim sourcing system; click-through on each datum is needed to see whether the m. 2 Nov 1815 date rests on a primary source or on a researcher's reconstruction.
• The page does not name Polly's parents. The profile gives only "Mary (Cooper) Annin (b. March 6, 1780) — married November 2, 1815 in New Jersey." It does NOT state that her father was Benjamin Cooper. The Polly Cooper = Mary (Cooper) Annin identification rests on the Craddock cross-match alone.

Remaining follow-up

• [ ] Find A Grave search for Polly / Mary Cooper Annin in Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church Cemetery (Find A Grave cemetery 641074) — most likely burial location given husband's burial there. Search "Mary Annin" + "Polly Annin" + "Mary Cooper Annin" with d. 1817.
• [ ] Find A Grave search for John (Alexander) Annin in same cemetery, d. 12 April 1824. His memorial may link to spouse memorials including Polly's, and confirm cemetery via primary stone reading.
• [ ] Pull WikiTree's per-claim source citations for Annin-14 (the m. 2 Nov 1815 + b. 6 Mar 1780 data points) to identify the underlying primary or compiled source.
• [ ] Click through to WikiTree profile for Mary (Cooper) Annin if one exists (Cooper-NNNN). If she has her own profile, it may name her parents and link to Joseph Cross as her first husband.
• [ ] Locate the 2 November 1815 marriage record — Bernards / Liberty Corner / Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church marriage register, OR Somerset Co. NJ marriage records (1815 was after NJ began some county-level marriage registration). This would be the primary-source confirmation.
• [ ] Trace Joseph A Annin (b. 19 Aug 1816, possible only child of Polly + John Annin) forward — death record, marriage, descendants. As Benjamin's grandson via Polly he's an autosomal-DNA candidate.
• [ ] Investigate the parallel Cooper-Miller-Annin connection — William Cooper Annin (b. 1790) m. Phebe Miller daughter of Lydia Cooper. Lydia Cooper may be a Benjamin-Cooper-line relative; if so, this would be a SECOND Cooper-Annin marriage in the same generation, suggesting deeper Cooper-Annin family ties.