8. Rachel Lindsey Cooper Halbert 

Rachel is one of the children of William Lindsey and Rachel Earnest about which there’s actually quite a bit of good documentation. But this documentation has unfortunately not kept many family trees for her and her Cooper and Halbert families from populating themselves with a plethora of incorrect information. Nor has it stopped published histories of those two families from broadcasting a load of misinformation about Rachel and her two families. In what follows, I’m hoping to point readers to much good documentation that corrects mistakes made in various accounts of Rachel and her husbands and children.

Strategies for Sorting Confusion in Accounts of Rachel’s Life and Families

An excellent starting point to put us on the right path is the biography of a son of Rachel Lindsey by her second husband William Anson Halbert. This is their son Preston Halbert, who was born 1 December 1834 in Laurens County, South Carolina, and who died 4 March 1920 in Crawford County, Missouri. In 1888, Goodspeed published a biography of Preston Halbert in its History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford & Gasconade Counties, Missouri — see the head of the posting.^[1]

In using Goodspeed biographies, it’s important to note that the information they contain was almost always supplied by the subject of the biography: these are essentially autobiographical statements published as biographical ones. So we can be pretty confident Preston Halbert supplied the information about himself and his family published in his Goodspeed biography.

What Halbert says about himself and his parents is important because it corrects misinformation and confusion in many accounts of William A. Halbert’s two families by his two wives. Preston Halbert’s biography tells us that he was born in Laurens County, South Carolina, in 1834, and his parents were William Halbert and Rachel Lindsey Cooper. The biography says that, prior to marrying Rachel Lindsey, a widow Cooper, Preston’s father William had married as his first wife Elizabeth Bowen, by whom he had eight children. He then married Rachel, and had four children by her. The biography also says that Elizabeth Bowen had died before William A. Halbert married Rachel Lindsey, the widow Cooper, and that Rachel died in 1845.

Despite the clear testimony of this biography for which Preston Halbert himself supplied information, numerous sources (see, e.g., here) have William marrying Elizabeth Bowen after Preston Halbert’s birth — and before Rachel had died. This erroneous information has led researchers to list children belonging to Rachel (e.g., Preston) as children of Elizabeth. 

For instance, in his Historical Southern Families, John Bennett Boddie places William A. Halbert’s son Preston as a son of Elizabeth Bowen (whom Boddie calls Brown) — though Preston Halbert himself reported to Goodspeed that he was a son of William Halbert and Rachel Lindsey (Cooper), the third of that couple’s four children.^[2] Boddie does acknowledge that there was uncertainty about the order of birth of William A. Halbert’s children by his two wives, and that more research needed to be done on this family. 

Then there’s Louise Ayer Vandiver in her Traditions and History of Anderson County, [South Carolina], which gives William A. Halbert only one wife — Vandiver calls her Elizabeth Brown and may have been Boddie’s source for the incorrect surname — and which states that William and Elizabeth went from South Carolina to Alabama, though I’ve found no evidence that William A. Halbert lived anywhere but in Anderson and Laurens Counties, South Carolina, before he moved to Missouri in 1845.^[3]

I’m pointing you to this welter of confusion about Rachel Lindsey, her two husbands, and their families in published sources and online trees to pave the way for a discussion of how important it is to look at first-hand sources to document those families, and not to rely on family trees compiled by others or on published accounts. Preston Halbert’s biography is an indispensable starting point, since the information it contains comes directly from Preston himself, and it tells us some important facts that help guide us as we look for information about Rachel.

Preston Halbert’s biography tells us the following important pieces of information:

1. Before marrying William Anson Halbert, Rachel Lindsey had married a Cooper husband.
2. Rachel was William Anson Halbert’s second wife, dying in 1845, and he had four children by her after he had had a family of eight children by wife Elizabeth Bowen, who died before William and Rachel married. 

We can fairly well pinpoint, when William A. Halbert and Rachel Lindsey Cooper married. The estate records of her first husband Jacob Cooper show him dying by 15 November 1829, when Rachel’s brother Isaac Lindsey appealed for execution of Jacob’s will (though it appears there was not, in fact, a will, something I’ll discuss in more detail later).^[4] Rachel appears in Jacob’s estate records as Rachel Cooper up to 28 January 1830, but by 26 April 1830, she had married William Anson Halbert. On that date, he requested to be made administrator of Jacob Cooper’s estate in place of Rachel, stating that the couple had married. This tells us that we can be sure all children born to William A. Halbert after April 1830 were born to his second wife Rachel, not to the first wife Elizabeth Bowen.

Note, too, that when we put the information in Preston Halbert’s biography — that his father William Halbert married Rachel Lindsey, the widow Cooper — together with the estate records of Jacob Cooper, we can give the Cooper man Preston Halbert says his mother Rachel married before marrying William A. Halbert a name: he was Jacob Cooper. This is important information because there is a world of confusion and misinformation in various accounts of the Cooper family about Jacob Cooper’s wives, and, in particular, about his last wife Rachel, who is often called Stokes in accounts of this family.^[5]

Biographical Data about Rachel Lindsey and Marriage to Jacob Cooper

Here’s what I can tell you about the life of William Lindsey and Rachel Earnest’s daughter Rachel, from documented sources:

Rachel was born between 1800 and 1810 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. She appears on the 1840 federal census in the household of husband William Halbert in Laurens County, aged 30-39.^[6] We know from the Goodspeed biography of her son Preston that she died in 1845. Other sources tell us that William Anson Halbert moved from Laurens County, South Carolina, in that year. He went to Missouri and would die there in 1859. I have not found documentation of where Rachel died. In my view, it’s likely she died in South Carolina and William then moved his family out of state.

I have not found documentation regarding when Rachel Lindsey married Jacob Cooper. We know from an equity court case filed by Rachel in 1830, which will be discussed in more detail later, that she and Jacob Cooper had a single child, a son named Jacob Henry Cooper, whose birth year is indicated as 1829 on both the 1850 and 1860 federal censuses, and as 1828 on a Civil War draft registration list.^[7] We can infer from the 1820 federal census that Jacob’s former wife was still alive in 1820,^[8] so this would suggest that Jacob Cooper and Rachel Lindsey married in the period 1820 to 1827-8, and that Jacob’s wife prior to Rachel died after 1820. 

Biographical Data about Jacob Cooper

I speak of “Jacob’s wife prior to Rachel” because I have not seen any documents giving that wife’s name. An interesting document in Jacob Cooper’s loose-papers estate file is an agreement he made on 10^th month 27^th day 1786 with Hugh and Sarah Ely to provide care for Jacob’s daughter Mary. The contract states that Mary was the daughter of Jacob and Mary Cooper, and Mary (the mother) had died.^[9]

As we’ll see when we examine carefully Jacob Cooper’s loose-papers estate file and the equity court case Rachel filed in 1830 regarding Jacob’s estate, Jacob Cooper’s two first-born children, as listed in the various accounts of the heirs of his estates, were William and Mary, both evidently born to his first wife Mary, who had died by 10 October 1786. Jacob then evidently remarried at least once before he married Rachel Lindsey in the 1820s, and most of his children were by a wife or wives following Mary. 

The contract with Hugh Ely was evidently placed in Jacob’s estate file as proof that he had a daughter Mary by his previous wife Mary, since, as the estate file and equity court case file both suggest, Mary was not living in South Carolina with her half-siblings when her father Jacob died, and they did not even know her married name. As the dating of the contract indicates, the Cooper family had Quaker roots. The contract does not state where it was made or where Hugh and Sarah Ely lived, but since Mary seems to have been raised by this couple apart from her family in South Carolina, it seems to me very likely that this contract was effected in Harford County, Maryland, where the Ely family moved from Pennsylvania prior to Jacob’s move of his family to South Carolina — and where I think the Coopers moved at the same time, though I am having difficulty documenting the Coopers’ move, as explained in the footnote below.^[10] I believe that both the Hugh Ely family and the Jacob Cooper family went from the Buckingham Quaker meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to the Deer Creek Quaker meeting in Harford County, Maryland, before the Coopers moved to South Carolina. Hugh Ely died in Harford County in 1799. It seems to me likely that Jacob’s daughter Mary Cooper grew up and married there. I assume that Mary married, since her siblings apparently believed her to be married when their father died, but did not know her married name.

Hugh Ely’s will, which he made 10^th day of 10^th month 1799 in Harford County, Maryland, states,

I give and bequeath unto my niece Mary Cooper, Daughter of Jacob, now living with me, the Sum of fifty pounds as soon as she Shall arrive at the age of Eighteen years to be placed out to Interest on good Security & the Interest arising therefrom to go towards her Education and Cloathing and in case of her Death before She arrives at the age of Eighteen years it is my will the S^d Sum of fifty pounds Shall be the property of my wife.^[11]

The will was probated 12 January 1802, but Hugh apparently died prior to 1800, when his widow Sarah is head of their household on the federal census in Harford County.^[12]

In a family tree at Ancestry, Robert McKoy-Klamm does an excellent job of sorting out Jacob Cooper’s children by his three (at least) wives.^[13] Pointing to birth and death records of Wrightstown monthly Quaker meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, she identifies Jacob’s first wife as Mary Balderston, daughter of John Balderston and Hannah Cooper of the Wrightstown meeting, who was born 11 June 1762. Mary Balderston had a sister Sarah (1757 – after 1780) who married Hugh Ely on 5 January 1774 at Buckingham Friends’ meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.^[14] As Hugh Ely’s will indicates, when Jacob Cooper placed his infant daughter Mary in the care of Hugh and Sarah Ely following Mary’s mother’s death, he was placing her in the care of an uncle and aunt.

Many published sources and family trees (see, e.g., note 5, infra) indicate that Jacob Cooper married Hugh Ely’s sister Mary, but I find no evidence of a sister Mary. We know from the records of the Wrightstown Quaker meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, however, that Sarah Balderston had a sister Mary who was born the 6^th (? microfilmed copy of the original is illegible here) day of the 6^th month 1762.^[15] If Mary Cooper was, as Hugh Ely’s will states, his niece, then either his sister or the sister of his wife Sarah Balderston would have to have been Jacob Cooper’s wife.

Roberta McCoy-Klamm thinks that between 1786-1792, following the death of his first wife Mary, Jacob remarried to a second wife who was mother of most of the children named in his estate records. She proposes that this wife may have been named Nancy, but in my view, that conjecture rests on a misreading of a relinquishment of dower by Nancy, wife of John Cooper and not Jacob Cooper, in an October 1806 deed in Spartanburg County.^[16] I haven’t yet seen a record naming Jacob Cooper’s wife or wives following Mary Balderston. 

Roberta McCoy-Klamm also correctly states that Jacob married Rachel Lindsey, daughter of William Lindsey and Rachel Earnest as his final wife — though she places their marriage about 1811, while proposing that Rachel was born about 1800. Since the wife living in Jacob’s household on the 1820 federal census was 45+, the same age category of Jacob himself, that wife cannot have been Rachel, who was born 1800-1810, and it’s clear Jacob and Rachel married after 1820 and probably closer to when their son Jacob Henry Cooper was born in 1828-9.

So you thought this was going to be a posting about Rachel, daughter of William Lindsey and Rachel Earnest, and yet I’ve been going on at length about Jacob Cooper? I see no way around a discussion of Jacob’s life, since there’s so much confusion about his various marriages, and that confusion has led to erroneous conclusions about the surname and age of his final wife Rachel, who was, it’s clear from his estate records, the daughter of William and Rachel Earnest Lindsey.

We also need to know something about Jacob Cooper’s history to make sense of his estate records and the equity court case that ensued after his death, since the dispute in that case had to do with his landholdings and how they were to be divided among his heirs, who included not merely children by previous wives, but one son by Rachel Lindsey, and Rachel herself. So now I’m going to tell you a bit more (than what I’ve already shared) about what I know of Jacob Cooper prior to his marriage to Rachel Lindsey, with the proviso that I have not done any kind of serious research on Jacob until he begins appearing in Spartanburg and Laurens County records, and am relying on what seems to me very sound research done by others, in particular, Roberta McCoy-Klamm in her Ancestry tree I cited above, and Linda Jonas, a professional genealogist who has shared her research about Jacob Cooper at another Ancestry tree entitled “DNA Tree.”^[17] Both of these good researchers provide solid documentation that I encourage readers to peruse, as you visit these trees. It’s in the gallery section of both trees.

McCoy-Klamm places Jacob Cooper’s birth in 1753, Jonas between 1755-1765. Both state that he was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, son of William Cooper and Lydia Clark of that county. William Cooper was in South Carolina by 29 September 1768 when he had a plat for 200 acres on Padgett’s Creek of the Tyger River in what was then Berkeley County.^[18] The grant for this land was made 18 May 1771 with the land now having fallen into Craven County.^[19]when he had a grant of 200 acres on Padgett’s Creek in Craven (later Union) County.

William Cooper made his will in Ninety Six District on 23 June 1775, naming Jacob and his brother William as his two oldest sons.^[20] I have not seen a probate date for this will; both McCoy-Klamm and Jonas say that William Cooper died in 1779. The minutes of Wrightstown monthly Quaker meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, show him born 1 March 1735, son of Jonathan Cooper and Sarah Hibbs.^[21]

The minutes of Bush River monthly Quaker meeting in what would become Newberry County, South Carolina, show William being disowned on 29^th day 5^th month (i.e., May) 1775 by the Padgett’s Creek meeting, a meeting in what would become Union County under the auspices of the Bush River monthly meeting.^[22] His will makes the conventional oath in its opening statements and uses conventional dating and not Quaker dating, which indicates that he had departed from Quaker ways by the time he wrote the will the following month.

William’s son Jacob Cooper also appears as a member of Padgett’s Creek meeting in minutes of Bush River Monthly meeting, which show him disowned by the Quaker community on 30^th of 5^th month (i.e., May) 1778 for horse-racing and wager-laying.^[23] The Padgett’s Creek Quaker meeting house was at Sedalia in Union County, near present-day Cross Keys, where the old Quaker cemetery connected to the meeting house, which was taken over by a Methodist church after Quakers left the county, has been preserved.^[24]

A number of researchers have concluded that the Jacob Cooper who was in Padgett’s Creek Quaker records and then shows up owning land on the Enoree in Spartanburg and Laurens Counties is a Revolutionary soldier who served from Camden District in the Revolution, but a comparison of the signature of Jacob, son of William and Lydia Clark Cooper, in Jacob’s loose-papers estate file with the signature of the Jacob serving as a soldier from Camden District shows they were different men.^[25]

Jacob Cooper’s Land Records in Laurens and Spartanburg Counties, South Carolina

Jacob Cooper began acquiring land on the Enoree River in Laurens County by July 1800, when, on the 11^th of that month, his younger brother Stacy Cooper sold him 450 acres on the south side of the Enoree in Laurens County.^[26] Three hundred of the acres were at the Rock Bridge and were from a grant to William Humphreys, who sold to Enoch Pearson, who then sold to Thomas Holden and Holden to Cooper. The other 150 acres were from a grant to John Widerman/Widowman, who sold to William Head, who sold to Thomas Holden, who sold to Stacy Cooper. The land bordered Gunter and William Wood. This deed was witnessed by Archibald and Francis Young. Stacy Cooper’s wife Elizabeth relinquished dower for the land sale. The deed suggests that the land included a house, buildings, an orchard, and a grist mill. It seems to me likely that Jacob Cooper was settling on the Enoree in Laurens County at this time, with the intention of operating a mill in addition to planting. These tracts were between Van Patton Shoals and Wofford Shoals. 

Subsequent land records in both Laurens and Spartanburg County show Jacob as an active buyer and seller of land in both counties from 1800 to his death in 1829. These records suggest that he lived much of that time on the southern side of the Enoree in Laurens County, but at some point in the 1820s, moved across to Spartanburg County, where he had land immediately across from his landholdings in Laurens County, and where he lived the final years of his life. He appears to have had a mill initially on the Laurens County side of the river, and then later on the Spartanburg County side.

On 20 March 1809, William Wood and wife Rachel sold Jacob 125 acres on the south side of the Enoree out of grants to Childress and Widowman.^[27] Note that the preceding July 1800 deed of Stacy Cooper indicates Wood owned land adjoining the 150 acres Stacy sold his brother Jacob. For a previous discussion of this deed, see here. 

The following year on 19 October 1810, Thomas House sold to Jacob Cooper, both of Laurens County, 130 acres on the north side of the Enoree River in Spartanburg County.^[28] The land was out of grants to Thomas Childress and Robert Cooper, and joined Thomas House’s spring branch. For a previous discussion of this deed, noting that this land was close to land on which members of the Lindsey family were living, see here. 

On 6 April 1812, John House of Pendleton District sold to Jacob Cooper of Laurens another 100 acres of land in Spartanburg County.^[29] Jacob then resold this piece of land on 3 November 1812 to a John Cooper who was, I tend to think, his son John C. Cooper with the deed noting that both were of Laurens District and that the land was on the waters of the Enoree in Spartanburg County. William Fowler and Henry Earnest witnessed this deed, and Henry Earnest proved it on 5 November and it was recorded 1 February 1813.^[30]

A birth record for Jacob Cooper’s son John that I cited in a previous posting gives his year of birth as 1799, and this date seems to be corroborated by the 1850 federal census, cited in the posting I have just linked — so Jacob’s son John would not have been of age in 1812. Jacob’s estate records indicate that John was his oldest son by his wife following Mary Balderson, and that Jacob’s next son by that wife was Amos, whose birth year is indicated as 1793-1795 on the 1850, 1860, and 1870 federal censuses. If that information is correct, then it would appear John was born prior to 1793-5, and his birthdate on the 1850 census and the birth year cited in the posting I have just linked is not correct. Linda Jonas concludes that John Cooper was born about 1790.

Jacob Cooper did not have a brother John and I am not aware of John Coopers other than Jacob’s son in Laurens County at this time, though, as noted above, a John Cooper with wife Nancy is in Spartanburg Conty records in 1806. The presence of Henry Earnest, grandfather of Nicy Malinda Lindsey, as a witness to this deed, combined with the fact that John and Nicy Malinda Cooper sold land on the Enoree after they moved to Georgia, makes me think that the John to whom Jacob was selling land in this 1812 deed was his oldest son John.

On 29 March 1814, Jacob bought a large tract of land — 461 acres — on Durbin Creek, waters of the Enoree, in Laurens County from Josiah Dean, with the deed stating that both Josiah and Jacob lived in Laurens.^[31] The deed states that the land lay on the north fork of the creek on the Enoree, and was bounded by William Pugh, Moore, Benjamin Griffith, David Cooper, Daniel McKie, and land of Jacob himself. Elijah Bobo and Amos Cooper witnessed the land sale, with Bobo proving the deed on 9 July 1814. David Cooper was Jacob’s brother, and Amos was Jacob’s son.

A 10 September 1817 deed of Daniel McKie of Spartanburg County to Charles Cox, evidently of Laurens County, for 150 acres states that the land was on the south side of the Enoree bordering the river, along with Jacob Cooper and William Humphries.^[32] On this deed, see this previous posting. 

On 23 July 1824, Jacob sold his son Amos 150 acres on Durbin Creek in Laurens County, with the deed stating that both lived in Laurens.^[33] Though the deed does not state this, this is possibly the 150-acre tract Jacob had bought from his brother Stacy on 11 July 1800. The deed was witnessed by Jacob’s son Joseph Cooper and by Henry Turner, with Joseph proving it on 26 July. 

On 16 October 1824, Jacob bought a large tract of land on both sides of the Enoree from John Cantrill/Cantrell of Spartanburg District, with the deed stating that Jacob Lived in Laurens District.^[34] The land was 500 acres and included a mill and houses where John Cantrill/Cantrell was then living in Spartanburg District. It bordered land of John Westmoreland on the Laurens County side of the river, and of Henry Earnest and William Childress on the Spartanburg County side. Joshua Gilbert and Moses Hughes witnessed Cantrill’s/Cantrell’s sale to Jacob Cooper, and Gilbert proved the deed on 10 January 1825.

As a February 1828 deed of Jacob to sons Jonathan and Alston I’ll discuss in a moment shows, by that date, Jacob was living on the land he had bought from John Cantrill/Cantrell in Spartanburg County, and this is where he would die the following year. It’s tempting to wonder if Jacob was making preparations for his marriage to Rachel Lindsey when he acquired Cantrill’s/Cantrell’s tract in Spartanburg County in October 1824, and was planning to move across the river as he remarried.

Robert Mills’ 1825 Atlas of the State of South Carolina shows both Jacob Cooper’s mill, marked as Cooper’s mill, and Cantrell’s mill just upstream from Cooper’s.^[35] As the map shows, Cooper’s mill is on the Laurens County side of the river a short distance from Woodruff’s tavern at the junction of roads to Augusta and Buncombe, North Carolina, the site of the later town of Woodruff. The map also shows that Cantrell’s mill was on the Spartanburg side of the river. In acquiring Cantrell’s 500 acres in October 1824, Jacob Cooper was purchasing another mill close to the one he already owned, with the two mills being on opposite sides of the Enoree. As we’ll see from information in the equity court file regarding the disposition of Jacob’s land following his death, the Cantrell mill is described in a land plat in that file as a “gristy saw mill” on the Enoree in Spartanburg County.

On 28 February 1828, Jacob deeded to his youngest sons Jonathan and Alston 300 of the 500 acres he had bought from John Cantrill/Cantrell in October 1824.^[36] The deed names Jonathan and Alston as Jacob’s sons and states that Jacob was then living on the 300 acres he was deeding to his sons. The land began at a branch at the upper end of Flat Shoals and then ran down the river to Henry Earnest’s land. The deed states that this land was part of the tract Cantrill had sold to Cooper. Jacob signed the deed with Samuel Woodruff Sr. and Isaac Woodruff witnessing. Samuel proved the deed before Philip Brewton on 29 December 1829 — after Jacob Cooper’s death. The equity court case spawned by Jacob’s estate revolved in great part, as we’ll see later, around this 300-acre tract and the insistence of Jacob’s children by his wife or wives prior to Rachel Lindsey that the deed their father had made to Jonathan and Alston be honored and this land not be sold along with Jacob’s other landholdings.

On 7 March 1828, when Samuel Jones sold 120 acres on the waters of the Enoree to Elkanah Jones, the land description given in the deed states that the land bordered Thomas Westmoreland, Jacob Cooper, a wagon ford on the land of William Lindsey, and a ford of the branch running between James Rhodes and Elkanah Jones. This deed also noted that both Samuel and Elkanah resided in Spartanburg County and the land being sold was in that county.^[37] For a previous discussion of this deed, see here. Note Jacob’s proximity in this deed to William Lindsey, father of his third wife Rachel Lindsey.

In the next posting, I’ll discuss in detail Jacob’s loose-papers estate file and the equity court case his widow Rachel filed in 1830 on her behalf and that of their son Jacob Henry Cooper against John Cooper, et al., Jacob’s children by his previous wives. 

---

^[1] History of Franklin, Jefferson, Washington, Crawford & Gasconade Counties, Missouri (Goodspeed: Chicago, 1888), p. 1059.

^[2] John Bennett Boddie, “Halbert of Virginia, with Related Families Gibson, Gordon, Berry, Dumas,” Historical Southern Families, vol. 14 (1970; republished, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994), pp. 187-190.

^[3] Louise Ayer Vandiver, Traditions and History of Anderson County, [South Carolina] (Atlanta: Ruralist, 1928), p. 139. 

^[4] Spartanburg County, South Carolina, loose-papers estate file of Jacob Cooper, file 580.

^[5] See, e.g., a source that appears to be Bruce H. Cooper, The Cooper Family, pages of which are uploaded to Jerry Cooper’s “Coopers Upstate Carolina Connections” at Ancestry. This source states that Jacob Cooper married 1) Mary B. Ely and after Mary died in September 1786, 2) Rachel Stokes, who was born about 1757. This same information also appeared in the now-defunct homepage of William Weldon Cooper at the Family Tree Maker website, discussed in a previous posting. It seems likely that William Weldon Cooper’s source for information about Jacob Cooper’s wives Mary and Rachel is Bruce H. Cooper Cooper Family. Jerry Cooper names Jacob Cooper as William Jacob Cooper in his Ancestry tree; I have seen no documents giving him any name other than Jacob, the name by which he is called in the will of his father William Cooper, to whom Bruce H. Cooper refers as William Jacob, also — but the father appears in any document I have seen as William Cooper with no middle name.

^[6] 1840 federal census, Laurens County, South Carolina, p. 18. In 1810, Rachel is evidently the female listed as under 10 in her parents’ householdin Spartanburg County (p. 394). I don’t find a female in her age range in the household of William and Rachel Earnest Lindsey on the 1820 federal census, though she had not yet married Jacob Cooper, who appears on that census in Laurens County with a female 45+, which is his own age range on this census: see 1820 federal census, Laurens County, South Carolina, p. 17. Rachel would have been married to William Halbert when the 1830 census was taken, but I do not find him on that census.

^[7] Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Equity Court, 1830, box 11 package 2, Rachel Cooper et al. vs. John Cooper et al.; 1850 federal census, Crawford County, Missouri, district 24, p. 236A (dwelling/family 656; 30 October); 1860 federal census, Crawford County, Missouri, Meramec township, Steelville post office, p. 775 (dwelling/family 92; 18 June); NARA, Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records, RG 110 — 2^nd Congressional District of Missouri, vol. 7, p. 65.

^[8] See supra, n. 6.

^[9] See supra, n. 4. The final digit of the year on the Cooper-Ely contract is not easy to read, and may be 1787 instead of 1786. The contract contains a signature of receipt by Hugh Ely indicating it was definitely effected before 1788.

^[10] The index to the women’s minutes of Buckingham Monthly Meeting for 1763-1802 in Ancestry’s collection “U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935,” shows Mary Balderston Cooper and her husband apparently receiving a certificate of removal to the Deer Creek meeting at an unspecified date. But unfortunately the pages indexed (91-2, 266) are not found in the microfilmed copy of these minutes digitized in the Ancestry collection. The pages filmed begin at 346.

^[11] Harford County, Maryland, Will Bk. AJ 2, pp. 200-1.

^[12] 1800 federal census, Harford County, Maryland, district 5, p. 140.

^[13] Robert McCoy-Klamm’s tree is called “romccoy.”

^[14] Buckingham Quaker monthly meeting, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Minutes, 1763-1792, from Swarthmore College’s Quaker Meeting Records, online at Ancestry, U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935.

^[15] Wrightstown Quaker monthly meeting, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Births and Deaths, 1716-1800, List of Members, 1827, from Swarthmore College’s Quaker Meeting Records, online at Ancestry, U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935.

^[16] Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. L, p. 110.

^[17] See also supra, n. 13.

^[18] South Carolina Colonial Plats, vo. 14, p. 184.

^[19] South Carolina Colonial Grants, vol. 23, p. 552.

^[20] South Carolina Will Bk. 1, p. 401-2.

^[21] Wrightstown Quaker monthly meeting, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Births and Deaths, 1716-1750, p. 6, from Swarthmore College’s Quaker Meeting Records, online at Ancestry, U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935.

^[22] See “Bush River Quakers, Newberry County, South Carolina,” a transcript by Dena W. of the Newberry, South Carolina, Genealogy Trails group of Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, vol. 1, at Genealogy Trails website. 

^[23] Bush River Quaker monthly meeting, Women’s Minutes, 1792-1801, p. 99, from Guilford College’s North Carolina Yearly Meeting Minutes, online at Ancestry in U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935.

^[24] See the Find a Grave page for the old Quaker cemetery at Cross Keys, citing Robert Stevens and Linda Crissinger, “The Quaker Smiths and the Padgett’s Creek Meeting House Cemetery at Sedalia,” Chester District Genealogical Society, vol. 18, 4 (December 1994), pp. 127-135.

^[25] For the Revolutionary audited account of Jacob Cooper of Camden District, see Accounts Audited of Claims Growing Out of the Revolution (S108092), file 1457.

^[26] Laurens County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. G, p. 209.

^[27] Ibid., Deed Bk. J, p. 89.

^[28] Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. M, pp. 415-6.

^[29] Ibid., Deed Bk. N, pp. 232-3.

^[30] Ibid., pp. 232-3).

^[31] Laurens County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. K, pp. 69-70.

^[32] Ibid., p. 236.

^[33] Ibid., Deed Bk. M, p. 143.

^[34] Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. T, pp. 35-6.

^[35] Robert Mills, Atlas of the State of South Carolina (Baltimore, F. Lucas, Jr., 1825), online at Library of Congress website.

^[36] Spartanburg County, South Carolina, Deed Bk. U, p. 278.

^[37] Ibid., Deed Bk. W, pp. 75-6.