"7 Oct 1697. Ann Redman, a Mulatto woman complaining to this Court being borne of the body of Janes Redman, an English Woman, free from Slavery, & being so born and now being at the age of Twenty seven years at the least and haveing ever since her birth been kept & detayned in Slavery by Colo. William Loyd deced and his Son, Mr. Thomas Lody & being therein greatly abused as the Complainant conceives, humbly prays this Court that she may be discharged from the Service of the said Thomas Loyd and that he be ordered to pay costs &c., And the Plaintiff by severall depositions taken in this Curt proving herself to be borne free of the Body of a White Woman Servant named Jane Redman, who was a reputed Christian, the Court have ordered that the said Ann Redman be free and clear from the service of the said Thomas Loyd & that he pay all costs of suit alias Exo., from which Judgment the sd Thomas Loyd appeales to his Excellency & Councill for a Rehearing the matter on the 7th day of the next General Court.
"Ordered that the Depositions taken in this Court in the Complaint made by Ann Redman against Thomas Loyde be recorded at the request of ye Deft." (1)
(1) Ruth Sparacio and Sam Sparacio, Order Book Abstracts of Richmond County, Virginia 1697-1699 (McLean, Virginia: The Antient Press, 1991), 18, 125-126, quoting Richmond County, Virginia Order Book 1697-1699, 263-264, 497.
(2) "Redman Family," Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, accessed 28 June 2007.