KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, THAT I JOSIAH RAMSAY SR. [also sometimes Ramsey] OF THE COUNTY OF CALLAWAY IN THE STATE OF MISSOURI, FROM MOTIVES OF BENEVOLENCE, AND HUMANITY HAVE MANUMITTED AND DO HEREBY MANUMIT AND SET FREE FROM SLAVERY MY NEGRO MAN PHILIP, EPHRAIM, GEORGE, JERRY, ARCHY, TIMOTHY & REUBEN, MY NEGRO WOMEN AMY, ROSY, FLORA & RHODY, & MY NEGRO CHILDREN LEWIS, SAMUEL, MARY, FRANK, STARK, LEAH, JENNY, BETSY, MARY, EMELINE, MELFORD, AMERICA, SARAH, HETTY ANN, & JACK, AND I DO HEREBY GIVE, GRANT AND RELEASE UNTO THE SAID NEGROES ALL MY RIGHT, TITLE AND CLAIM OF IN AND TO THEIR PERSONS, LABOUR AND SERVICES, AND OF IN AND TO THE ESTATE AND PROPERTY WHICH THEY MAY HEREAFTER ACQUIRE AND OBTAIN ... THE ABOVE DEED IS MADE WITH THIS CONDITION, HOWEVER, THAT ALL THE ABOVE NAMED NEGROES MANUMITTED AND SET FREE AS AFORESAID, WHO ARE UNDER THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE YEARS SHALL BE BOUND OUT TO SERVICE UNTIL THEY ARRIVE AT THE AGE OF TWENTY ONE YEARS ... THIS DEED HOWEVER IS NOT TO TAKE EFFECT UNTIL AFTER MY DEATH by [Missouri Slave Manumission] - 1834

Callaway County, Missouri, 1834. Single leaf, filled on recto and verso in neat ink manuscript in the hand of Irvine O. Hockaday, Clerk of the Callaway County, Missouri, Court. Very Good.

The deed is of particular interest for the large number of slaves emancipated, as well as the various conditions attached to the deed. Josiah Ramsey's Deed of Emancipation is dated September 3, 1834. After his signature, and those of two witnesses, is the statement and attestation of Irvine O. Hockaday, dated 7 October 1834. Hockaday writes that Ramsey's deed of emancipation was presented to the court; witnesses swore that Ramsay was of sound mind when he executed it; and Ramsey's death was noted. The court ordered the document certified and recorded.
Josiah Ramsey, Sr. [c.1750-1835] was a native of Virginia, renowned for having been kidnapped by the Shawnee Indians as a young boy and held for several years before his release, at which time he was claimed by Thomas Ramsey, believing Josiah to be his son. Josiah may have spied on local Indians for the Virginians during the Revolutionary War. He was present at the battles of Long Island Flats and Point Pleasant. He became one of the earliest settlers of Callaway County and a wealthy man.
Hockaday "settled in Callaway Co., and was appointed the first circuit and county clerk, also Treasurer, which offices he continued to fill for 18 years, to the entire satisfaction of the people of the county. He was also Probate Judge of Callaway Co. one term, and President of the Weston Bank, in Fulton, for some time. Judge Hockaday was a man of superior talents, and associated intimately with such distinguished men as EDWARD BATES, THOMAS H. BENTON, BEVERLY TUCKER AND HAMILTON R. GAMBLE. He was an influential member of the Presbyterian Church for a number of years, and enjoyed the respect and confidence of his brethren and fellow citizens in the highest degree. He died in 1864" [article on Hockaday at web site of Callaway County, Missouri].
There was an interesting aftermath to Josiah Ramsey's Deed of Emancipation. In 1837 the Supreme Court of Missouri heard the cases of "Amy (A Woman of Color) v. Jonathan Ramsey" and "Rhody (A Woman of Color) v. Jonathan Ramsey." "Amy" and "Rhody" were among the slaves purportedly manumitted by Josiah Ramsey; they were nevertheless held in slavery by Jonathan Ramsey. Jonathan claimed that, before Josiah executed his Deed of Emancipation, Josiah had sold Amy and Rhody to him on the understanding that they could reside with Josiah until Josiah's death. They sued for their freedom in the Circuit Court of Callaway county, asserting, among other things, that the bill of sale was a phony. But they lost. [REPORTS OF CASES ARGUED AND DECIDED IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSOURI FROM 1835 TO 1837, Fayette, MO: 1837, pp. 505-513.].