To all whom this may come Know Ye, that I Catharine  Spencer of Sussex County on Delaware Widow do hereby from and apprehension of it’s being my Duty manumit and set absolutely free my Negroes hereafter named Towitt my Negro Woman named Catharine aged about fifty five years, also my Negro man named Richard aged about fifty one years and my Negro Alice aged sixteen years and nine Months: so that henceforth they shall be deemed adjudged and taken as & for free Persons to all Intents and Purposes, that is to say, Catharine and Richard this Day and Alice when she arives to lawfull age viz eighteen; to be at their own Disposal and at Liberty to act for themselves without the Lett Hindrance or Molestation of Me or any other Person or Persons Whatsoever: And I do further hereby bind myself my Heirs Executors & Administrators & every of them unto each the aforesaid Negroes in the penal Sum of one hundred pounds lawfull Money of this Government to do or perform any or further Act or Deed that may be reasonably required or needed by them or either of them in Order to establish and confirm to them their equitable and first Right as afsd; hereby also entituling them to a Recovery in their own proper Names as afsd as free Women & Men the aforesd Sum from any of us that may attempt to derive them of their Priviledge as afsd. In Witness whereof I do hereunto set my Hand and affix my Seal this thirty first Day of the third Month in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred & seventy five. 1775. Catharine Spencer her mark {seal}

Witness present John Cowgill Warner Mifflin Babtist Lay William Wilson

Record Examined Warner Mifflin

U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Delaware, Kent County, Duck Creek Monthly Meeting, Manumissions 1774-1792, Image 9, Page 11. 

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2189/images/31906_275426-00486?pId=2350650

Transcribed 4 Feb 2026 by Nancy Maliwesky