Who were Benjamin Cooper's sons? A male line resting on very little

Benjamin's daughters are well attested. Mary (Polly), who married first a Cross and then an Annin, and Charity, who married Jacob Haas, are named as his children in the family histories and appear in their own marriage records [I.22] [I.4] [C.41] [C.6]. His sons are another matter. No record made in his lifetime, or at his death, names a son of Benjamin Cooper.

The family's own tree names one. Arthur E. Cooper's hand-drawn "Descendants of Daniel Cooper and Grace Runyon", titled 1695–1895, gives Benjamin four daughters, Charity, Theodosia, Caty and Mary, and a single son, John, drawn with two children of his own, John and Sarah [L.4]. It is a family compilation made long after Benjamin's death, not a record of his time.

The nearest thing is his father's will. Daniel Cooper Sr gave part of a revoked legacy to "the Children of my Son Benjamin", and named none of them [A.8] [A.9]. Benjamin died insolvent in December 1794, six months before the will was proved, and the papers of his own estate name no heirs [A.1] [A.6].

John H. Cooper of Lebanon: probable

Arthur E. Cooper's tree [L.4] and a family history by Sheldon Craddock (1999) [I.22] both name a son John for Benjamin. A John H. Cooper "of Lebanon Twsp." was co-administrator of Benjamin's estate in 1795 [A.1] [A.6]; that January, Daniel Cooper of Morris County conveyed to him the plantation "whereon Benjamin Cooper formerly lived" [K.46]; and in 1796 the court allowed "John H. Cooper, administrator of Benjamin Cooper, deceased" his account [A.113].

None of these papers says he was Benjamin's son. An administrator could be a creditor or a neighbour. But he took charge of the estate and the land, at the right time and place, and both family sources name a son John. The catalog grades him a probable son. No son of his own has been found.

The six-brother hypothesis

The other candidates come from the census. In 1830 Independence Township, Warren County, had exactly four Cooper households, headed by John, Robert, Joseph and Samuel, and no older Cooper man [D.39] [D.40] [D.598]. In 1850 John, Joseph and Robert, aged 65, 65 and 67, lived in adjoining houses there [D.4]. Two more men of the right age, Aaron Sr and Thomas, lived nearby in Frelinghuysen [D.43]. The only record placing a Benjamin Cooper in that neighbourhood is a deed made at Hackettstown in 1767, and whether that was our Benjamin is uncertain [K.21].

The idea was that these six were brothers, and Benjamin their father. It rests on their ages and on their living near one another. No record links any of them to Benjamin, and Arthur E. Cooper's tree draws none of them among his children [L.4].

John of Independence: refuted

John died on 4 February 1867, aged 80. The township's return of deaths gives his birthplace as "Meddows" and, under the names of his parents, "Isral Cooper" [F.278]. He was the member of the group the hypothesis most often rested on, and his own death record gives him a different father.

Joseph of Independence: unproven

Joseph was born about 1785 and died in 1852 at Great Meadows; his estate was administered that November [A.94]. His death return gives his birthplace as "Great meadows" and his parents as "Not known" [F.216]. That shared birthplace, with John and Robert, is the first record suggesting the three were one family, but it says nothing about Benjamin.

Robert of Independence: unproven

Robert's ages in the records put his birth between about 1779 and 1789. He was living with his wife Sophia in 1860 [D.469] and died on 16 November 1863 at the Warren County poorhouse in Mansfield Township; his return gives his birthplace as "Independence" and his parents as "unknown" [F.217].

Aaron Cooper Sr: probably not

Aaron Sr, a weaver born about 1785, died of measles in Frelinghuysen Township on 12 April 1851. The parents and birthplace columns of his death return are blank [F.215]. A male-line descendant of his has reported a Y-chromosome result that does not match the one found on Daniel Sr's documented line through Daniel Jr [J.154] [J.230]. Either Aaron's line does not descend from Daniel Sr, or one of the two lines has a break in paternity. Until that is settled the catalog treats him as probably not Benjamin's son.

Samuel: unproven

Samuel was the fourth Cooper head in Independence in 1830 [D.39], later moved to Ohio, and died in Tymochtee Township, Wyandot County, on 23 August 1871. One cemetery transcription gives his birth as 23 July 1795 [G.540], seven months after Benjamin died. A younger Israel Cooper lived in his household and bought land in Ohio with him [K.96], so he may belong to an Israel Cooper family instead.

Thomas: no evidence either way

Thomas is known from one record: a 56-year-old labourer boarding in a Frelinghuysen household in 1850 [D.43]. Nothing more has been found.