Reuben Levy Bishop (1805-1856) was my fourth great grandfather. He died in Morris County, New Jersey. I have not uncovered his parents yet.
There was another man living in Morris County also named Reuben Bishop. His records, alongside my known Reuben, were discussed in this article. (The first name is usually written as Ruben, Reuben, or Rueben.)
Modern technology has brought us Full Text Search of records. In the past, the creation of an index of a record set might only include the name of the subject of the record. Full Text Search enables a search of any word in the document.
Here's how this menu option appears at Family Search.
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| Drop down menu of Full Text Search at FamilySearch |
There is an exception for the results. If a record set is blocked from home viewing, it is not included in the Full Text Search if performed at home.
New Jersey Probate Records is a collection at Family Search. Each county maintains its own probate records. New Jersey currently has 21 counties. Only 20 are offered in this record set. Morris County is missing.
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| Probate records for New Jersey at FamilySearch Morris County was removed from this collection |
I've been told that Morris County probate records, although digitized by Family Search, cannot be viewed from home because of contractual restrictions. I visited the Morris County Surrogate's Office last year to locate a will from 1782 that was not filmed. Nobody could locate the films from this time period. I asked to speak with someone who could address the issue with access through Family Search. I was told, "We want people to visit us and view the films here." (I found the skipped will at the New Jersey State Archives.)
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| Me at the Morris County Surrogate's Office September 11, 2025 |
You can perform a Full Text Search on restricted records from a Family Search Center. There may be differences in access to records between a Center and an Affiliate Library. I am geographically near both types of facilities, but their hours are limited.
While logged into a Family Search Center computer, I searched for Reuben Bishop in Morris County. He witnessed three wills:
-John Woodruff in 1816
-Joseph Wheaton in 1824
-Josiah Goff in 1826
-John Woodruff in 1816
-Joseph Wheaton in 1824
-Josiah Goff in 1826
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| Reuben Bishop's signature witnessing the mark of John Woodruff Township of Chatham 1816 |
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| Reuben Bishop's signature witnessing the signature of Joseph Wheaton Township of Chatham 1824 |
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| Reuben Bishop's signature witnessing the signature of Josiah Goff Township of Chatham 1822 |
Note: these are poor quality images because these are restricted records, meaning you cannot download them. Compare these to the images of Reuben's will below, which were printed from microfilm at the Morris County Surrogate's Office years ago.
The Reuben who signed these documents was not my Reuben. My Reuben was born in 1805, so he was too young to begin signing in 1816. The signer was the other Reuben.
This other Reuben signed his own will on January 30, 1829. The will was proved September 21, 1829, indicating that he likely died in September 1829.
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| Signature of Reuben Bishop on his own will January 30, 1929 Witnesses: William Sayre, H L Burnet, and H V ??? |
The family mentioned in this 1829 will were Reuben's brothers: Calvin, Luther, Miles, and Abner. No wife and no children were mentioned.
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| Family mentioned by Dr Bishop in his will: brothers Calvin, Luther, Miles, and Abner |
These names are not rare, but they are more unusual, especially as a group of five Bishop brothers.
A Google search produced an unsourced document purporting to be an index of death notices in Morris County newspapers.
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| Name indexes for Morris County newspapers are floating around the internet |
The Jerseyman was digitized and is available at GenealogyBank (pay site). But the issues from September and October 1829 are missing.
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| Dates of The Jerseyman newspaper available at GenealogyBank |
The pertinent information from this index:
Reuben Bishop was a doctor of Bottle Hill. He died September 11, 1829 at the age of 58 [say born in the year 1771]. He was from Woodbury, CT [Connecticut].
Bottle Hill was the name of the area renamed Madison in the 1830s. Madison was a village within Chatham Township. This tracks because Reuben Bishop appeared on the tax ratables for Chatham in 1814.
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| 1814 Tax Ratables, Chatham, Morris County, New Jersey Reuben Bishop was taxed for a horse. |
The other location mentioned in the newspaper index is Woodbury, Connecticut. Dr Reuben Bishop has a memorial page at Find A Grave for South Cemetery in Woodbury.
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| Memorial page for Dr Reuben Bishop died 1829 South Cemetery Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut |
The gravestone transcription:
In memory of
Doct. Reuben Bishop
who died
Sept 11, 1829
in his 53 year.
A respectable
physician & an honorable man.
The etching at the top of the stone appears to be a weeping willow over an urn.
A book about the descendants of John Bishop, a founder of Guilford, Connecticut, was published in 1951.¹ Dr Reuben does not seem to appear in this book, but a cluster named Miles, Calvin, and Luther does appear- and they lived in Woodbury.
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| A book that possibly pertains to Dr Reuben Bishop's family |
In this book, we see three of the names mentioned in Reuben's will from 1829: Miles, Calvin, and Luther. Miles was the father and Calvin and Luther were sons of Miles. Below is this family arrangement linked to their memorial pages on Find A Grave. They were buried in Woodbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut.
Miles Bishop (1739-1815) and Sarah Chapman (1737-1822) had two sons:
It is possible that Dr Reuben Bishop, born circa 1771, was also a child of this couple. He and the other two brothers, Miles and Abner, are not mentioned in this book.
Was Dr Reuben Bishop, originally from Connecticut, related to my fourth great grandfather Reuben Levy Bishop? Why did Dr Bishop move to Morris County, New Jersey?
More research is needed.
1. Cone, William Whitney, and George Allen Root, comps., Record of the Descendants of John Bishop, One of the Founders of Guilford, Connecticut in 1639 (Nyack, N.Y.: John Guy Bishop, 1951), 22; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/62282/records/4372365112 : accessed April 10, 2026).
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