Joseph Cooper (1735-1818) {Esq}

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This white person has 2 related events in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.
Identifier
NJS-PER-04407
Given Name
Joseph
Family Name
Cooper
Birth Date
1735
Death Date
1818
Sex
Male
Biographical Description
Joseph Cooper Esq. was the son of Benjamin Cooper. He was born in 1735 and lived in the Cooper's Poynt area in what was then part of Newton Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. Cooper's Poynt is now in the northern part of present-day Camden in Camden County. Joseph's father, Benjamin, had established the Cooper's Poynt ferry terminal around 1728, a few years before Joseph was born. This was the second ferry terminal that the Cooper family established on the waterfront across from Philadelphia (the first had been in operation since the 1690s at the foot of present-day Cooper Street). Joseph's younger brother, Samuel, took over the Cooper's Poynt ferry operation by the late 1760s.

Joseph Cooper Esq. is not to be confused with his uncle Joseph Cooper Jr. (1691-1749), who built Pomona Hall in Camden, or with his grandfather Joseph Cooper (1666-1731). The designation Esquire is often used in historical documents and contemporary scholarship to distinguish him from his older relatives of the same name.

Joseph Cooper Esq. held multiple people in bondage. He manumitted several people during his lifetime, and also by his last will and testament. The exhibit "Enslaved Africans of Pomona Hall" at the Camden County Historical Society highlights the following people who had been enslaved by him: Jeremiah Newry (born 1775, freed 1796), Dinah and Bethina Darkins (freed in 1800 and 1804), and Cornelia McLaughlin Kennedy (born c. 1798, freed in 1819 by the executors of the will of Joseph Cooper Esq.). Images of the 1796 manumission of Jeremiah Newry and of the 1804 manumission of Bethina Darkins are included in the exhibit.
Keywords
white person
enslaver
Places
Cooper's Poynt, Camden
Camden
Newton (Gloucester & Camden County)
Enslaver of
Cornelia McLaughlin Kennedy (b. ca. 1798)
Child of
Benjamin Cooper (d. 1772)
Sibling of
Samuel Cooper (1744-1812)
Spouse of
Elizabeth Haines Cooper (d. 1821)
Related Person
Richard Matlack Cooper (1768-1843)
References

“Enslaved Africans of Pomona Hall,” exhibit researched and curated by Bonny Beth Elwell with artwork by Erik James Montgomery (Camden County Historical Society), https://cchsnj.org/online-exhibits/.

This person is represented on the following page(s):
WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cooper-12639
Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/251808209/joseph-cooper
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Events

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Resource class
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