1804-02-15 Birth: Gabriel
- Research Tips
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See the Middlesex County Research Guide for information about related records.
- Identifier
- NJS-EVE-00734
- Source
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Middlesex County Births of Enslaved Children, page 10
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Middlesex County Births of Enslaved Children, page 10. Archival location: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries. Middlesex County (N.J.). Records, 1688-1929 (MC 784.1). Vol. X.
- Event Description
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Middlesex County Births of Enslaved Children book contains the following record:
Page: 10
Child: Gabriel
Enslaver of mother and child: Isaac Cotheal
Location: Woodbridge, NJ
Birth date: February 15, 1804
Reported date: November 11, 1805
Clerk: William Philips Deare
This certificate lists Woodbridge township as the location. A different birth certificate submitted by the same enslaver indicated that he was a resident of Bonhamtown in Woodbridge township; it can be inferred that Gabriel was also born in the vicinity of Bonhamtown.
The names of the mother and father were not recorded on this birth certificate. Other birth records for Middlesex County indicate that, in Isaac Cotheal's household, a woman named Ann gave birth to children Jane (1808) and Hester (1810). It is possible that Ann was the mother of Gabriel.
The document indicates that the enslaver was a farmer.
Note that the original record in the book was corrected by a later addition in the margins. The original certificate, which was written in November 1805, stated that Gabriel was born on the 15th of "February last," meaning February 1805. Later in 1809, the enslaver informed the clerk that Gabriel was actually born a year earlier in February 1804.
The following is a complete transcript of the document:
"Gabriel /
I Isaac Cotheal of the township of Woodbridge in the County of Middlesex New Jersey, Farmer, certify that Gabriel a male negro boy was born on the fifteenth day of February last. Witness my hand this eleventh day of November Eighteen Hundred & five. -
Isaac Cotheal
Recorded November 11th, 1805. -
[added between the lines:]
- True time February 15th, 1804
Isaac Cotheal
[note added in the margins:]
The above is a mistake. The boy was born Febry 15th, 1804. Witness my hand. January 16th, 1809.
Isaac Cotheal
Recorded same day
Deare Clk" - Event Type
- Birth
- Date
- February 15, 1804
- Location of Event
- Bonhamtown, Edison
- Related Place
- Woodbridge
- Primary Participants
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Gabriel (b. 1804)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-01861
Role: Child
Age category: Infant
Status: Enslaved
Enslaver(s) of this participant:
- Isaac Cotheal (1743-1812)
Verbatim description from source:
"male negro boy" - Additional Participants
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William Philips Deare (d. 1826)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-00008
Role: County ClerkIsaac Cotheal (1743-1812)
Person identifier: NJS-PER-01837
Role: Enslaver - Record Contributor
- Lindsey Dixon
- Jesse Bayker