Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Peter U. Thomson (b. circa 1787 - d. 1825)
MSA SC 5496-050810
War of 1812 Claimant, St. Mary's County, Maryland

Biography:

Born around 1787,1 Peter U. Thomson lived in St. Inigoe's in southern St. Mary's County, Maryland. He occasionally appeared in records as Peter W. Thompson. In 1810, the census recorded Peter Thomson as between twenty-five and forty-four years old, and owning two slaves. That year, the census also listed a second white male, perhaps a younger brother, who was between ten and fifteen years old. The 1810 census only listed the name of the head of the house, so the name of the younger man is not stated.2 Thomson served as the postmaster for St. Inigoe's in 1813,3 and as a justice of the peace for St. Mary's County from at least 1818 to 1822.4

During the War of 1812, a large number of St. Mary's County slaves escaped to the British, with many heading for the British frigate Havannah. On February 27, 1814, Peter Thomson accompanied George Loker, Mathias Clarke, Robert Clarke, and Captain William Smith in pursuing the Havannah to the Virginia Capes. They boarded the ship, but were unable to retrieve the slaves.5

Peter Thomson married the widowed Lareine Dent (nee Milburn) in 1815.6 Peter and Lareine Dent had at least four children together: John Hanson, Collin, Ann Elizabeth, and Clarissa Requart.7 Lareine's first husband, Dr. Hezekiah Dent (1770-1809),8 had owned slaves who escaped to the British during the War of 1812. Consequently, Thomson represented his wife's claim for compensation from the British, under the Treaty of Ghent, in the 1820s.

The five slaves included James Milburn, Job Cole, David Milburn, William Peterson, and Henry Dent. Most, if not all, were teenagers ranging from thirteen to eighteen years old. According to the manager of the Dent farm, Edmund Hammett, all of the slaves except for David Milburn escaped around the night of June 1, 1814.9 In 1828, the Dent estate received reimbursement for two of Dent's five escaped slaves—probably for James and David Milburn, who were considered the two adults.10

Thomson himself owned eighteen slaves in 1820,11stwenty-four slaves in 1821, and sixteen slaves in 1831. Lareine Thomson had inherited many of these slaves from her first husband, Hezekiah Dent. Dent had bequeathed Lareine with a third of his real estate and person property, which included a third of his slaves.13 The slaves' names appeared in Thomson's slave assessment records for 1821 and 1831.12

Peter U. Thomson died intestate on August 29, 1825, and was buried at the All Saints Episcopal Church in Frederick County.14 His tombstone's inscription included the words "In Memory of Peter U. Thomson of St. Mary's County,"15 and the age on the tombstone, thirty-eight, corresponds with Thomson falling into the twenty-five to forty-four age bracket in both the 1810 and the 1820 censuses.16 Lareine Dent died in 1829, four years after her husband's death.

In 1835, Romulus Whalin ran away fled his enslavement, but was captured in Anne Arundel County on September 23, 1835. When the sheriff questioned him, Romulus gave his owner's name as Peter Gough, the guardian for the late Peter Thomson's children.17 He had appeared in the 1831 slave assessment for Thomson's estate.18
 


Footnotes

1.     Jacob Mehrling Holdcraft, Names in Stone: 75,000 Cemetery Inscriptions from Frederick County, Maryland, Vol. 2 (Ann Arbor, MI: Published by the author, 1966) 1148.
        Gaius Marcus Brumbaugh, Maryland Records: Colonial, Revolutionary, County, and Church, Vol. 1 (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993) 269.

2.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Peter U. Thomson, 1810, St. Mary's County, Page 1, Line 1 [MSA SM61-56, M 2061-3].

3.     United States Post Office Department, Table of the Post Offices in the United States (Washington, D.C.: Postmaster General, 1813) 69.

4.     Timothy J. O'Rourke, Catholic Families of Southern Maryland: Records of Catholic Residents of St. Mary's County in the Eighteenth Century (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.) 1985.
        Claim of George Loker, Case 121, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828, *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190,* National Archives, College Park.
       Claim of William Dixon, St. Mary's County, Case No. 639, Case Files, Ca. 1814-28, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.

5.     Thomas M. Bayly, No. III, Bayly's List (RG 76. Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration. Records of the Mixed Claims Commission: Miscellaneous Records) 107, 112.
        Claim of George Loker.
        Claim of Mathias Clarke, Case 120, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828, *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190,* National Archives, College Park.
        Claim of William Smith, Case 119, Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828, *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190,* National Archives, College Park.

6.     ST. MARY'S COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), 1794-1851, Film Reel: CR 7450-1, [MSA CM905-1], Hezekiah Dent and Laring Milburn, January 16, 1803.
        ST. MARY'S COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), 1794-1851, Film Reel: CR 7450-1, [MSA CM905-1], Peter U. Thompson and Loreina Dent, January 24, 1815.

7.     ST. MARY'S COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1803-1820, Liber EJM 1, Liber 97, (MSA C1720-8), Lareine Dent, May 20, 1829. Probated October 13, 1829.

8.     Harry Wright Newman, Charles County Gentry (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1971) 95.

9.     Claim of Peter Thompson, St. Mary's County, Case No. 650, Case Files, Ca. 1814-28, entry 190, Record Group 76, National Archives, College Park.
        St. Mary's County District 2, Simon J. Martenet, Map of St. Mary's County, 1865, Huntingfield Collection, [MSA SC 1399-1-75].

10.   Claim of Peter Thompson.

11.   U.S. Census Record (Census Record, MD) for Peter U. Thomson, 1820, St. Mary's County, Page 2, Line 8 [MSA SM61-76, M 2067-2].

12.   ST. MARY'S COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE TAX, (Assessment Record, Slaves), MSA C1544-63. Peter W. Thompson, March 23, 1821.
         ST. MARY'S COUNTY LEVY COURT, (Assessment Record, Slaves), MSA C1545-17, Peter U. Thompson, 1831.
         ST. MARY'S COUNTY LEVY COURT, (Assessment Record, Slaves), MSA C1545-4, Hezekiah Dent, April 12, 1813.

13.   ST. MARY'S COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1803-1820, Liber JJ 3, Folio 227, (MSA C1720-6). Hezekiah Dent, December 5, 1809. Probated March 6, 1810.

14.   Holdcraft 1148.

15.   Brumbaugh 269.

16.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Peter U. Thomson, 1810, St. Mary's County, Page 1, Line 1 [MSA SM61-56, M 2061-3].
         U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Peter U. Thomson, 1820, St. Mary's County, Page 2, Line 8 [MSA SM61-76, M 2067-2].

17.   "Notice," Maryland Gazette 5 October 1835: 1.

18.   ST. MARY'S COUNTY LEVY COURT, (Assessment Record, Slaves), MSA C1545-17, Peter U. Thompson, 1831.
 

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