THOMAS FAMILY

The Thomas family is one of great antiquity in Wales. The surname has been borne by many who have been distinguished in all the various walks of life, civil and military. A number of them have been knighted or otherwise honored for services rendered their King and country, notably Sir Rhys Ap Thomas, born in 1451, a celebrated chieftain of South Wales, of ancient lineage and vast possessions, who fought gallantly at Bosworth Field, principally with his own retainers, and according to some authorities "did more than any one man to place Henry vii, the first of the Tudors, upon the throne of England," and who conferred many honors and dignities upon him.

He was Constable and Lieutenant of Brecknock, Chamberlain of Caermarthen and Cardigan, Seneschal and Chancellor of Haverfordwest, Rhoos and Builth, Justiciary of South Wales, and Governor of all Wales, Knight Banneret and Knight of the Garter, a Privy Councillor of Henry vii, and a favorite of Henry viii, who also bestowed many honors upon him. He fought in five battles, held the most famous tourney in Wales, at Carew Castle, his residence, and died in 1527, full of years and honors.

Among the early emigrants to America, during the reign of Charles i, was Christopher Thomas, born in 1609, in County Kent, England, who arrived in Virginia in June 1635, at the age of twenty-six years. (Hotten's List of Emigrants to America, 1600-1700). His ancestors were of Welsh origin, but the branch of the family from which he was descended, not long after the Norman Conquest, removed to England, where Tristram Thomas, his father, was living at Sundrish, (in Domesday Book Sondresse), now Sundridge, County Kent, in 1639. He is thought to have been either the son or the grandson of the Rev. Tristram Thomas, Rector of Alfold Parish, County Surrey, instituted 9 February 1558-59. (Manning and Bray's History

and Antiquities of Surrey, 1814.) There was also a Rev. Nicholas Thomas, Rector of Stoke Parish, Surrey, 1447-1452, who was probably a member of the same family.

TRISTRAM THOMAS', of Sundrish, County Kent, in his will dated 21 March 1639, and duly recorded in the Prerogative Court, Canterbury, Kent, England, 2 February 1640 (Mrs. Hester Dorsey Richardson's Gleanings in England, 1908), mentions his wife Elizabeth, his eldest son Edmund, to whom he left all his landed estate in the Parishes of Cheveninge, Sundrish, and Sevenoaks, including the "capitall messuage commonly called Pollard's,* wherein the said Edmund now dwelleth, with all the barnes, stables, edifices, closes, yards, gardens, orchards, lands, meadows, pastures, feedings, and woodgrounds thereunto belonging." He bequeaths personal and other property to his son Tristram who married about 1628, Margaret Amherst, the only daughter of the Rev. Jeffrey Amherst, Rector of Horsemonden Parish, Kent. (Brydges Collins', Peerage, vol. viii, 1812), the ancestor of the Earls Amherst and of General Lord Jeffrey Amherst,† to whom the French surrendered Montreal and with it all Canada, in 1760; his sons Christopher, the emigrant; Richard; Leonard and Edward, both minors; his grandsons Tristram and Edmund, sons of his eldest son Edmund, and his daughters Elizabeth, wife of John Austyn of Horsemonden Parish, Ann, Mary and Sarah Thomas, the last two minors.

In 1654, "Chepsted Place," Cheveninge, belonged to Jeffrey Thomas, gent., and in "the neighbourhood, thickly strewn with the seats of the nobility and gentry, at a little distance south eastward from Chepsted Place, is "Montreal," so-called by the late Jeffrey, Lord Amherst, K.B., in memory of his success in the reduction of Montreal in Canada." (Hasted's Kent, vol. iii).

* This house is mentioned in Hasted's Kent, Vol. iii, p. 123, "as formerly possessed by the family of Thomas."

† His eldest sister Elizabeth Amherst, baptized at Sevenoaks, Kent, June 1714, married the Rev. John Thomas, and died in 1779. She was celebrated for her poetical talents.

CHRISTOPHER THOMAS2, after remaining in Virginia a short time, was employed by Thomas Butler and came with him to the Province of Maryland. Showing the estimation in which he was held by his friends and neighbours, he was elected in 1637, with Mr. Nicholas Brown, one of the Burgesses in the Lower House of Assembly for the "Isle of Kent," which then included all of the Eastern Shore of the Province. This was the first Assembly convened by Governor Leonard Calvert, and Christopher Thomas sat as a member in the First and Second Sessions in 1637 and 1638. (Md. Archives, i, 15, 19, 31, 35). There is no record of his being in the Province of Maryland after March 1638-39, and nothing more is known of him for twenty-six years. In 1664, he appeared in Maryland again with his second wife Elizabeth Higgins, a widow, with her two daughters and three servants. On 27 October 1664, he demanded land for transporting himself, his family and three servants into the Province, and had surveyed 18 April 1665, "Barbadoes Hall,* three hundred and fifty acres on the south side of Chester River, on the south side of Corsica Creek," Queen Anne's County. He died 25 March 1670, leaving by his first wife an only son.

TRISTRAM THOMAS3, born in England about 1633, married Anne Coursey, whose brothers Henry and William and sister Juliana Coursey, had emigrated to Maryland in 1653 and 1661. At the instance of his brother-in-law William Coursey, Sr., Tristram Thomas, with his wife Anne, and their three sons Thomas, Christopher and Tristram Thomas, came to Maryland in 1666, and settled on Wye River, Talbot County. (Annapolis Land Records, Liber ix, fol. 327.)

It is not known whom William Coursey, Sr., married, and as Tristram Thomas was an only child, the only evidences we have of the relationship is the fact that he named one of his sons after his brother-in-law, William Coursey, Sr., and one of his daughters after his sister-in-law Juliana Coursey, and in a deed of gift, dated 10 November 1670, William Coursey of Tal* Rent Roll of Lord Baltimore for Queen Anne's County,

bot County, recites that "in consideration of the brotherly love and natural affection which I have and bear to my beloved brother-in-law Tristram Thomas, of the same county, Gentleman, etc." I have given and granted to the said Tristram Thomas, "all that land which he now lives on called 'Trustram,' on Wye River, in Talbot County, near the head of the northeast branch of Back Wye, containing four hundred acres.' (Talbot Co. Deeds, Liber A, No. 1, fol. 126).

At a session of the Lower House of Assembly, on 6 November 1683, "An Act for the Advancement of Trade," was passed, and the following gentlemen of Talbot County, were duly appointed Commissioners; Coll. Henry Coursey, Coll. Vincent Lowe, Coll. Philemon Lloyd, Mr. John Rousby, Major William Coursey, Mr. Edward Mann, Major Peter Sayer, Capt. William Hemsley, Mr. William Combes, Mr. George Robotham, Mr. Tristram Thomas, Mr. John Hawkins and twelve others. (Md. Archives, vii, 609). Under this Act the preliminary steps were taken to lay out a town at the mouth of the Tred Avon River, and it was enacted that the town should be called Oxford, the land being subsequently purchased from Col. Nicholas Lowe and his wife Elizabeth Combes.

Tristram Thomas3, died in May 1686, leaving a large landed estate. His widow was living in 1701.

Tristram Thomas3 and Anne (Coursey) his wife, had issue:

I. THOMAS THOMAS1, b. in England, about 1662, d. in Talbot County in 1706, mar. Elizabeth Issue; Edmund', Tristram3,

and Thomas Thomas".

II. CHRISTOPHER THOMAS', b. in England, about 1664, d. s. p.

III. TRISTRAM THOMAS', of whom presently.

IV. ELIZABETH THOMAS', b. in Talbot County, about 1667-68, mar. before May 1686, John Madbury.

V. WILLIAM THOMAS', of whom presently.

VI. JULIANA THOMAS', b. in Talbot County, 15 Oct. 1671, mar. John King.

VII. STEPHEN THOMAS', b. in Talbot County, 15 Jan. 1673, d. s. p. VIII. ANN THOMAS', b. in Talbot County, about 1677, d. 1737, mar.

11 Feb. 1701, Thomas Martin, Jr., b. 1 Sept. 1672, d. 23 Nov. 1715, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Day) Martin, leaving issue. IX. MARTHA THOMAS', b. in Talbot County, about 1680, d. 1739,