Recently, in a list of communicants at the German Lutheran Church (in Culpeper County, Virginia, then, but in Madison County now), one of the surnames was Redman. A correspondent commented on the name, which is of interest to him. First, the nationality, or even the race, of the Redman family is uncertain. I believe we can discount any idea that the name derives from an identity with a native American. Redman could easily be a variant of a German name.
Here is what I could discern about the Redman name from a few sources.
The name appears only a few times at the German church, and then always in the "passive" role of a communicant, i.e., one who was taking communion. The first mention that we have a record of is late in 1775 when Peter Redman was at church, sitting between Conrad Delph and his wife Magdalena Castler, and Nicholas Jager and his wife Susanna (Wilhoit). (The latter man is the grandson of the immigrant.) It was unusual for a "single" person to sit with the married couples, but perhaps Rev. Frank had not established the discipline that we see later. (It might be that Peter came with his wife but she did not take communion.) The next Easter, two Redmans, Jacob and Peter were present (sitting in the "singles" section). That is about the extent of the Redmans at church. The suggestion is that they were German, since they were attending a church service conducted in German.
In the Culpeper Classes of 1781, there are six Redmans:
Abraham (85),
Harmon (100),
Jacob (84),
John (39),
John (61), and
Nathaniel (50).
The number of them is above average for a surname, and the geographical dispersion is large. The suggestion is that the family had been in Culpeper County for a while, had grown, and then disbursed.
In the tax list of 1787, there are seven Redmans:
John, James, John, Nathaniel, Patrick, Richard, and William.
Again, there is a geographical diversity across the county. In each of these three sources, there is a given name not to be found in the other two sources.
Some of the first names suggest German origins, while others suggest otherwise. Harmon sounds very Deutsch to me, but Patrick and Nathaniel do not.
In the Culpeper will abstracts for 1749 to 1770, the closest I can come to Redman is Reapman (Christian).
Some of the land owned by the Redmans is in the neighborhood of German and English owners.
It is hard to say whether we have another Germanna family or not. Certainly anyone who attends the German church where services are held in German will be on my (Germanna) list until proven otherwise. With as many of them as there were, they are candidates to have married Germanna citizens.
(29 Dec 00)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.