Richard Thomas Sr. (ca. 1728-1806)
MSA SC 3520-1248
Biography
Born:. ca.
1728; eldest son.
Native:
Fourth generation.
Resided:
Lower Newfoundland Hundred, Frederick (later became Montgomery)
County.
Family Background
Father: John Thomas (1697-1749/50), son of
Samuel Thomas (ca. 1655-by 1743) and wife Mary Frances
Hutchins.
Mother:
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Snowden, the Younger (?-1763) of Anne
Arundel County, ironmaster and owner of the Patuxent Iron Works.
Aunt: Margaret Snowden, who married John
Contee (1722-ca. 1796).
Brothers: John; Samuel.
Sister: Elizabeth, who married (first name
unknown) Richardson.
Married:
by 1753, Sarah, daughter of Skipwith
Coale and wife Margaret Holland.
Sarah, a Quaker, was said to have been disowned by the West River
meeting upon her marriage, but in 1766 the meeting acknowledged the
error.
Children
Sons:
Samuel (1753-by 1806), who married Mary Cowman; Richard
(1758-1821),
who married Deborah, daughter of Roger Brooke and wife Mary; John
(1760?); and William (1771-?), who married Martha Patrick.
Daughters:
Elizabeth (1755-?), who married Roger Johnson; Mary (1762-?), who
married William Robertson; Sarah (1764-by 1806), who married Bernard
Gilpin; Henrietta (1767-?); and Margaret (1769-by 1806), who married
Gerard
Brooke.
Private
Career
Education:
Literate.
Religious Affiliation:
Quaker, Sandy Spring Meeting
Occupational Profile:
Planter, principally tobacco.
Public Career
Maryland Legislature: 1st Convention,
Frederick County, 1774.
Other State Office: Constitution
Ratification Convention, Montgomery County, 1788.
Local Offices:
Committee of Correspondence, Frederick County, elected 1774; judge,
Court of Appeals for Tax Assessment, Montgomery County, appointed April
22, 1786, refused his appointment May 22, 1786.
Stands on Public/Private Issues: Left
instructions that on the day of his death all male slaves above 21
years and all female slaves above 18 years were to be manumitted; all
other slaves were to be freed as they came of age.
Wealth during Lifetime:
Personal Property:
Assessed value £2,007.0.0, including 61 slaves and 16 oz.
plate, 1783;
54 slaves, 1790; assessed value £1,420.0.0, including 48
slaves and 40
oz. plate, 1793; assessed value £1,461.13.10, including 51
slaves and
55 oz. plate, 1798.
Land at First Election: 5,011
acres in Frederick County.
Significant Changes in Land between First Election and
Death: Patented
133 acres between 1798 and 1802, lost 127 acres on a resurvey of a
large tract in 1795, and obtained an additional 1,012 acres by 1798 as
reflected on the 1798 tax assessment, all in Montgomery County; sold 47
acres by 1798, and gave away ca. 2,800 acres to his children and other
family members shortly before his death.
Wealth at Death
Died: between November 28 and December 15,
1806; will probated in Montgomery County.
Personal Property: Total
Estate Value, $32,188.85 current money (including 45 slaves and 32
shares of bank stock); Final Balance: $28,303.17.
Land: ca. 3,200 acres in
Montgomery County.
Source: Edward C. Papenfuse, et al., eds. A Biographical Dictionary of the Maryland Legislature, 1635-1789. Vol II. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985, p. 812.
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