State of Delaware Kent County } Ss. To all to whom these presents shall come Greeting: I John Howard of Kent County in the State of Delaware for divers good causes and considerations me thereunto moving do hereby declare free, manumit and enfranchise the Negro following to wit: Rebecca to be free on the first day of January in the year of our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eight hereby acknowledging the said Negro discharged from all Claim of Service and Right of Property whatever from me my Heirs Executors or Administrators, from & after the above mentioned Time: as Witness my Hand and Seal, this fourteenth day of May in the Year of our Lord One Thousand eight Hundred. John Howard {seal}

Witnesses John Collins. Abraham Ridgely

Kent County, Ss. On the fourteenth day of May in the year of our Lord 1800 personally appeared before me the subscriber one of the Justices of the peace for the County aforesaid John Howard party to the within Instrument of writing who acknowledged the said Instrument to be his act and deed and the Signature and Set thereto annexed to be respectively his. Abraham Ridgely

A True Copy Attest Simon W. Wilson Recorder.

Delaware, U.S., Land Records, 1677-1947, Kent County, Roll: 788, Image 174, Book F, Vol 2, Page 244. Ancestry: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61025/images/31303_221875-00173?pId=2438350

Transcribed 13 Sep 2024 by Nancy Maliwesky