New Jersey Slavery Records · 1801, Cato Stone, Manumission

1801, Cato Stone, Manumission

Item

Title: 1801, Cato Stone, Manumission
Identifier: NJS-EVE-00047
Event Description: Cato Stone was manumitted by Thomas Edgar, one of the executors of the estate of William Stone (1700–1788). The certificate of manumission was signed by the Overseers of the Poor of Woodbridge (George Harrison, Ezekiel Ayers) and Justices of the Peace for Middlesex County (Ichabod Potter, Jeremiah Manning) on June 13, 1801. The document stated that Cato Stone was examined in court and met the eligibility requirements for manumission in New Jersey, i.e. the person was 21 to 40 years old and was "sound in mind and not under any bodily incapacity" of obtaining a livelihood. Cato Stone's exact age was not recorded in the document. This manumission was recorded by the Middlesex County Clerk (William P. Deare) on June 17, 1801.

The certificate of manumission described Cato Stone as "slave named Cato Stone late a slave of the said William Stone decd [deceased] and by his will left to be set free."

The abstract of the will of William Stone (published in the Calendar of Wills, Vol. 7, 1786-1790) does not mention any enslaved persons; however, it is possible that the abstract is incomplete. The will was written on August 24, 1787, and William Stone died circa September 1788. Thirteen years passed between the death of William Stone and the manumission of Cato Stone.
Event Type: Legal: Manumission registration
Action Status: Completed
Date: 13 June 1801
Location: Woodbridge, NJ
Primary Participant: Cato Stone
Primary Participant Description (verbatim): slave named Cato Stone late a slave of the said William Stone decd
Sex: Male
Age: Adult; 21 to 40
Freedom Status: Transition
Enslaver of Primary Event Participant: William Stone (1700-1788)
Officiator: George Harrison; Ezekiel Ayers
Judge: Ichabod Potter; Jeremiah Manning (1736-1803)
Additional Participant: Thomas Edgar (1746-1812)
Source: Middlesex County Manumissions and Removals, page 23; Manumission of Cato Stone (certificate dated 1801-06-13), recorded in Manumissions and Removals Book, p. 23. Middlesex County (N.J.) Records, 1688-1929, Vol. XI (MC 784.1). Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries.; Abstract of Will: William Stone, Woodbridge, NJ, August 24, 1787, proved October 14, 1788. See Elmer T. Hutchinson, ed., Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey, 1st series, vol. 36, Calendar of Wills, Vol. 7, 1786-1790 (Trenton, NJ: MacCrellish and Quigley, 1941), page 216.
Author: William Philips Deare (d. 1826)
Record Contributor: Isaac Guzmán; Jesse Bayker