| Notes |
- Lt. Philip Thomas
From GENi
Philip Thomas
Birthdate: circa 1620 (54)
Birthplace: Bristol, City of Bristol, England, United Kingdom
Death: Died 1674 in West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States
Immediate Family:
Father:
Evan Thomas
Mother:
Sarah Thomas
Spouse:
Sarah Thomas
Children:
Martha Arnell / Arnold;
Philip Thomas, II;
Sarah Mears;
Elizabeth Harrison Cole
Samuel Thomas, Sr.
Siblings:
Evan Thomas, Jr.;
Rhys Thomas;
Evan Thomas;
William Thomas;
Philip Thomas;
Penelope Thomas
Dora Emily Thomas
About Lt. Philip Thomas
Just because he immigrated from Bristol does NOT mean that he was born there. He may actually have been born in Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales.
http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p2617.htm#i78635
'Philip Thomas
'M, b. circa 1620, d. 1674
Father Evan Thomas b. c 1580, d. 1650
Mother Sarah b. c 1598
' Philip Thomas was born circa 1620 at of Bristol, Gloucestershire, England. He married Sarah Harrison, daughter of Edmund Harrison and Jane Godfrey, circa 1651 at England. Philip Thomas died in 1674 at Anne Arundel, MD.
'Family Sarah Harrison b. c 1628, d. 25 Nov 1687
Child
◦Elizabeth Thomas+ b. c 1654
__________________
Sources
Genealogical Records and Sketches of the Descendants of William Thomas of Hardwick, Mass. ... (Google eBook) Amos Russell Thomas F. A. Davis, 1891 - 221 pages. Page 5. Philip Thomas, the progenitor of the Maryland branch of the family, came from Wales in 1651. Soon after arriving in the country he joined the Friends, and many of his descendants are still members of that body. He was a man of much influence in the colonies, and his descendants are not only numerous, but have been influential in the State, and by intermarriage have become related to many prominent families in that and adjoining States. "26th. John Philip THOMAS,t who inherited the lands of his father, and left a son. 27th. Evan Thomas, b. about 1580. He d. in 1650. leaving three sons,—Captain Evan Thomas, Philip, and Eice. Philip Thomas came to the Province of Maryland in 1651, with his wife, Sarah Harrison, and three children. Captain Evan may have been the same Evan Thomas who came to Boston, in 1635, as master of the ship "William and Francis," and settled in that place in 1639 or 1640, with a wife and four children, and is believed to have been the ancestor of William of Hardwick. Any claim that might be made for the identity of these two persons rests, however, solely upon the correspondence in names and dates.
From Americans of Royal Descent
Philip Thomas, who was engaged in mercantile pursuits in Bristol, England, and in 1651 left there with his wife, Sarah Harrison and three Children, Philip, Sarah, and Elizabeth, and came to Lord Baltimore's province in Maryland, and had a grant 19th February 1651-2 of 500 acres of land, called "Beckley," on the west side of the Chesapeake Bay in 1758 and 1661 he had granted him 100 acres, called "Thomas Towne," and in 16665 a grant of 120 acres, called "Fuller's Point," and afterwards many other grants lying mostly in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. He died 1675, having by his wife who died in 1687; 1 Samuel Thomas and 2) Elizabeth Thomas
From the Thomas Book
PHILIP THOMAS, of the mercantile house of Thomas & Devonshire, at Bristol, England, son of Evan Thomas of Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales, who died in 1650, is the earliest ancestor of this family of whom we have legal and documentary proof, although I have little doubt that the descent given in this genealogy is accurately taken from Sir Rhys ap Thomas, K.G., and will be confirmed by further investigations. A curious old tradition in the family derived them from Thomas de Douvre 1 (
Further research satisfied me that the descent was to be taken directly from Sir Rhys through one of his sons by Gwenllian (a. v.), sister of his friend and counsellor, Robert ap Gwylim Harry ap Jevan Gwyn of Mydhifinych, Abbot of Talley. Referring then to the genealogy of Sir Rhys ap Thomas for its earlier history, we begin the present family with this THOMAS AP RHYS, b. after 1478, whose son Philip ap Thomas m. Sybell, daughter of Philip and Joan (Warnecombe) Scudamore, and dying before 1585 left a son and heir, John Philip Thomas, who appears to have inherited from his mother the demesne lands of Grosmount Manor, Monmouthshire, and a grist-mill near by, before 1585, when he held them "in right of Philip Skidamore," and in 1591 was Queen's lessee of mills at Kentchurch in the same shire. He married Gwenllian, fourth daughter of Walter Herbert, Esq. (q. v.), of Skenfrith, Sheriff of Monmouthshire in 1552, and had issue: Evan Thomas, b. 1580, whose name begins the pedigree compiled by the late Philip E. Thomas, Esq., of Baltimore. I find notices, of Evan Thomas ap Evan, Under Sheriff of Glamorganshire in 1615; Evan Thomas, who was one of the Awennydion, or College of Bards, of Glamorgan in 1620; Major Evan Thomas, killed on the part of the King, at the battle of St. Fagans, near Cardiff, May 8, 1648; Evan ap Thomas of Eglwysilan, Wales, b. 1581, d. 1666; E. (probably Edward) Thomas, printer of Deacon's "History of James Naylor," at "his house in Green Arbor, London, 1657 ;" and Evan Thomas, of Pembrokeshire, who was fined for absence from church as a Quaker, but whether any of these are Evan of Swansea I cannot say. His wife's name is unknown. Philip, his son, was b. about 1600, and may have been the Philip Thomas in the East India Company's service who petitioned for unpaid wages in 1621, but his behaviour was complained of and he was discharged their service on December 17th. Another Philip Thomas, with Thomas Lawrence and Martin Saunders, gives information about a Romish plot April 1, 1628; and there was a Philip Thomas called to account for saying at the Castle Tavern in St. Clement's parish, London, January 20, 1638, that" the punishment of Prynne, Bastwick and Burton, the Puritans, by ear-cropping, etc., was not more than they deserved." Before 1638 a Philip Thomas was messenger of the Chamber for charitable uses, and August 13, 1638, he suggested a new commission. Philip Thomas, the emigrant, before 1650, formed a business partnership with one Devonshire at Bristol, and some time in the year 1651, only seventeen years after Leonard Calvert and Lord Baltimore's first colonists landed at St. Mary's, removed to the province of Maryland. The earliest land patent in his name, dated February 19, 1651-2, conveys to him 500 acres of land called " Beakely " or " Beckley " on the west side of Chesapeake Bay, "in consideration that he hath in the year 1651 transported himself, Sarah, his wife, Philip, Sarah, and Elizabeth his children, into this our province."
He would appear to have come directly from Bristol to Maryland. An examination of the land records of the colony of Virginia, made by the well-known genealogist, R. A. Brock, Esq., of Richmond, fails to show any grant to a Philip Thomas in the seventeenth century, and there would seem to be no reason to suppose that he was in America before coming to Maryland, or, as some have thought, was a member of the Puritan Colony in Virginia and removed thence along with them, when in 1649 and 1650 about seventy families of Puritans from Colonel Richard Bennett's plantation at Nansemond, Va., emigrated to Maryland and settled first on Greenbury's Point, at the mouth of the Severn River, principally on 250 acres surveyed in 15-acre lots, and called the "Town lands of Severn." The first meetinghouse was erected on land adjoining that of Elder Durand, their minister. Mr. Philip Thomas is said to have lived on the premises and guarded the sanctuary. About five years later the settlers transferred their lands to Bennett, and moved away. Between 1658 and 1661 Philip Thomas had patented to him 100 acres called *• Thomas Towne ; " in 1665 a patent of 120 acres called "Fuller's Poynt;" in 1668, of 300 acres called "The Planes ;" in 1672, of 200 acres called "Phillip's Addicion," and numerous other patents 1 of unnamed tracts. This land lay mostly in Anne Arundel County, near what is now known as West River. "Fuller's Poynt," between the Severn and South Rivers, is now called Thomas Point, and is the site of a light-house. A man of character and resolution, the emigrant soon acquired influence amongst his neighbours, and, affiliating himself with the Puritan party, he became one of its leaders in the conflict with Lord Baltimore, the Proprietary, and his representatives in the province. When Cromwell and the Parliamentary party were supreme in England, their sympathizers in Maryland broke out in open rebellion under Colonel Richard Bennett, and Philip Thomas, holding a military commission as lieutenant, was of their muster in Anne Arundel County, Md. Governor Stone immediately summoned the militia of the province, and with a little army of 250 men, after seizing a magazine of arms collected by the Puritans, set out for Providence on the Severn, the head-quarters of Bennett's partisans. Part of his men were transported in small vessels, and part marched along the Bay shore. As they drew near Providence, Stone sent forward a messenger to the enemy, summoning them to surrender; but the messenger did not return; and on the evening of the same day, March 24, 1654-5, the Governor's little fleet, with all his army now on board, made its appearance in the Severn.
Captain Fuller, the commander at Providence, put some men on board a ship lying in the harbour, who fired on Stone's boats as he landed his forces, but did no damage. On the next morning, which was Sunday, Governor Stone and his force came marching up to the attack, under the black and yellow flag of the colony, while over Fuller's men, 107 in number, drawn up in order of battle, floated the blue cross on a crimson field, the standard of the Commonwealth of England. The battle was short, but sharp; about fifty of the Governor's men were killed or wounded, and Stone himself, with nearly all his force, compelled to surrender, under a promise that their lives should be spared.
The Puritan annalist writes: "After the battle our men were so tired with watching and anxiety (before the attack) that the guards set over the prisoners fell asleep at their posts; yet the Catholics were so disheartened by their defeat, that no one of them attempted to escape." "Hammond against Heamans," a contemporary pamphlet1 by one of the Governor's party, notes that "three days after the battle Captain Fuller, Win, Burgees, Richard Evans, Leo Strong, Wm. Durand, Roger Heamans, John Brown, John Cuts, Richard Smith, one Thomas (Philip Thomas), one Bestone, Sampson Warren, Thomas Meares, and one Crouch, sat as a Council of War, condemned a number of the prisoners to die, and executed four of them."
March 20, 1656-7, Lieutenant Philip Thomas was appointed one of the six High Commissioners of the Provincial Court, the father of his son - in - law, John Mears, being another* When Oliver Cromwell ordered the revolutionists to return the province to the Proprietary he was one of the commissioners to make the surrender, which was effected on March 24, 1658-9, when the articles of surrender were signed, sealed, and delivered. After this he does not seem to have taken an active part in the political affairs of the province, the notices of his name upon the colonial records having to do with transfers of land, etc., the number of which were considerable.
From a petition to the Colonial Assembly, dated April 16, 1666, we learn that he had returned from a voyage to England in the preceding month. Tuesday, October 17, 1671, the Upper House of Assembly consents to a bill for ferries, among them being one " over Potapsco River, from Philip Thomas point in Anne Arundel Co. to Kent Co."
In April, 1672, George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers, arrived in Maryland, landing at the Patuxent just in time to reach a " general meeting for all the Friends in the Province of Maryland," which had been appointed by John Burnyeat to be held at West River. He describes it1 as a " very large meeting," and held four days, " to which, besides Friends, came many other people, divers of whom were of considerable quality in the world's account." Immediately after this meeting Fox appears to have continued his labours by preaching his doctrines and establishing meetings for discipline at various places in the province. He remained in America until after the " general meeting " at West River, which commenced on the 17th of 3d month (May), 1673, and lasted four days. The next day, being the 21st, he set sail for England. In describing this meeting he says, "divers of considerable account in the government and many others were present, who were generally satisfied, and many of them reached, for it was a wonderful glorious meeting." It is possible, from the language of his will, that Philip Thomas himself was one of those " reached " by George Fox, and there can be no doubt that during his missionary tour his preaching brought a number of the family under the influence of Quakerism, as we find their names enrolled upon the early records of the Society immediately afterward. In point of fact, an examination of those records shows that, for the generation then living and their children, in Maryland at least, George Fox, John Burnyeat, Samuel Bownas, and the other preachers of Quakerism, did very much the same work as was done a century later by John Wesley and the Methodists. Such religion as they had was formal and lifeless; many, indeed, had cast off all restraint, and were living in utter neglect of the ordinances of religion and common morality. The Quaker missionaries coming amongst them with their fervid zeal, and speaking, as they thought, messages direct from heaven, aroused the slumbering souls of their hearers, and reaped a large harvest of converts to what was in fact the first presentation of a spiritual religion they had known.
As a result of this, the Quaker Registers of the end of the seventeenth century are a veritable Libro d'oro in Maryland, containing as they do the names of so many of the leading families of the province. Whether Philip Thomas became a Quaker or not, his widow certainly was one, and probably a preacher of the sect. September 9, 1674, he made his will, which was proved August 10, 1675. A copy, apparently made by one of his sons-in-law, is still preserved at the family seat, "Lebanon," West River, Md. From this he appears to have disposed of much of the land granted him, only mentioning "Beckley," "Fuller's Poynt," and the "Playns," and his two houses in Bristol, England. The clause in the will making "the body of Quakers" a final Court of Appeal in the event of any dispute arising under its provisions, was a common one amongst the Society of Friends, and in this case recourse was had to it. After the death of his widow, Sarah Thomas, his son Samuel claimed all her estates by virtue of a verbal will which he alleged she had made in his favour. This claim was resisted by his brother-in-law, Edward Talbot, and the West River Meeting of Friends was appealed to, to decide the question. The Meeting decided that although she had expressed a wish that Samuel Thomas should be her sole heir, she had not given legal effect to it, and that the estate should be equally divided between her several heirs. The two houses in Bristol were sold before September 13, 1690, when John Talbot claimed an interest in the proceeds of the sale in right of his wife, the granddaughter of Philip Thomas, to the extent of £\o, and £,%o, as her share of the whole landed estate.
PHILIP THOMAS, the Emigrant, m. in England, SARAH HARRISON, {[Sarah Harrison was possibly daughter of Edmund Harrison, Embrotherer to King Charles the First, and Jane his wife, daughter of Thomas Godfrey, and granddaughter of Christopher Harrison, merchant tailor, of London, who married E'iza, daughter of Thomas Cooke, of Wakefield. Visitation of London, 1634, 353. From a Herring Creek Meeting, November 25, 1687, " Sarah Thomas is taken away by death." Will proved May 25th, Liber 2, /. 72. "Bequeathed to Samuel Thomas my silver tobacco- box and suite of cloathes made me lately by Richard Arnold."] who survived him, dying early in 1687.3 Issue:
Born in England before 1651:
i. PHILIP, probably d. s. p. before 168S, as his name does not appear among Sarah Thomas's heirs at that date, though it is to be noted that his father is spoken of as Philip Thomas, Senior.
ii. SARAH, /«., in 1672, JOHN, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Mears, who d. in 1675." His wife d. in the same year. Issue (surname Mears): An only dan., SARAH, *. August 4, 1673 ; m., before 1690, JOHN TALBOT (y.p.).
iii. ELIZABETH, »/., as his 3d wife, WILLIAM COALE (g. v.); he d.
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1620 - 1675 (55 years)
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