Hearing upon the Petition of Katherine Auker, Middlesex Sessions 1690.

Order upon the petition of Katherine Auker, a black. Shows she was servant to one Robert Rich, a planter in Barbadoes, and that about six years since she came to England with her master and mistress; she was baptized in the parish Church of St. Katherine’s, near the Tower, after which her said master and mistress tortured and turned her out: her said master refusing to give her a discharge, she could not be “entertained in service elsewhere.” The said Rich caused her to be arrested and imprisoned in the “Pulletry Cempter,” London. Prays to be discharged from her said master, he being in Barbadoes. Ordered that the said Katherine shall be at liberty to serve any person until such time as the said Rich shall return from Barbadoes

Middlesex Sessions, February 1690. Text from British History Online, Calendar of the Middlesex Sessions, Book 472, 1905. Original: London Metropolitan Archives record MJ/SB/B/0046. See also London Metropolitan Archives, Switching the Lens: Katherine Auker.