Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)
Thomas Bordley (ca. 1683-1726)
Anne Arundel County Court Clerk, 1703-1708/9
MSA SC 3520-115
New DNB Sources sheet
Subject's name Bordley Thomas 68468
MATERIAL USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE ARTICLE
1* E. C. Papenfuse, A. F. Day, D. W. Jordan, and G. A. Stiverson, eds., A biographical dictionary of the Maryland legislature, 1635-1789, vol. 1, A-H (1985)
2* E. B. Gibson, Biographical sketches of the Bordley family, of Maryland, and their descendants (1865)
3* O. M. Gambrill, "Thomas Bordley: a study in the political life of provincial Maryland," Alice Moore Bowerman Collection, SC952, Maryland State Archives
4 A. Day, A social study of lawyers in Maryland (1989)
5 A. C. Land, Colonial Maryland - a history (1981)
6 R. J. Brugger, Maryland: a middle temperament (1988)
ARCHIVAL DEPOSITS
SUBJECT'S ARCHIVE
None
OTHER IMPORTANT DEPOSITS
Bordley Papers, ca.1720-1955, MS.64, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
Stephen Bordley Letter Books, 1727-1759, MS.81, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
SOUND ARCHIVES
None
MOVING-PICTURE ARCHIVES
None
LIKENESSES
Gustavus Hesselius, portrait (oils), c. 1715, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland
WEALTH AT DEATH
Value of estate or
possessions at death £3,179.14.8 sterling, £1,964.17.3 current money of Maryland (including nineteen slaves, six servants, and one hundred law books), and over 7,500 acres of land.
Source of data Biographical Dictionary, 1.148
INFORMATION ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR Date completed:
10/1/01
YOUR NAME FOR PUBLICATION Edward C. Papenfuse
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Surname Papenfuse
Full forenames Edward Charles
Title(s) Ph.D.
INSTITUTIONAL AFFILIATION
Post State Archivist and Commissioner of Land Patents
Institution Maryland State Archives
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Address Maryland State Archives
350 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, Maryland
Post/zip code 21401 Country USA
Telephone (410) 260-6401
E-mail edp@mdarchives.state.md.us
New DNB Information sheet
SUBJECT'S NAMES
Main Name Bordley Thomas
Variants of main names none
Alternative names none
Name as known none
TITLES
none
BIRTH AND BAPTISM SEX Male x
Birth ca.1683 South Shields, Yorkshire, England
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:147
Baptism ca.1683 St. Hilda's Chapel, South Shields, Yorkshire
Source of data and comments: Gambrill, 1 for father's position & siblings.
Bordley's father was vicar of St. Hilda's, where his older siblings
were baptized, but the parish register has a break, beginning 30 Mar 1683,
that probably covers the period of Bordley's baptism. It is unlikely that
he would not have been baptized in his father's church soon after his birth.
FATHER
Main name Bordley Stephen
Alternative names none
Titles none
Birth date unknown Death date 11 Aug 1695
Occupation minister, Church of England
MOTHER
Maiden name unknown Mary
Alternative names unknown
Titles unknown
Birth date unknown Death date unknown
Occupation unknown
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:145; Gambrill, 1, 16-17.
Bordley's mother survived her husband, being appointed administrator
of his estate 30 Sep 1695.
EDUCATION
Dates: Institution:
?-? schooling in vicinity Newington Butts, Surrey
?1703-?1708 studied law in Annapolis, Maryland
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:148; Gambrill, 13-14; Day, 204-05.
Bordley was appointed clerk of the Anne Arundel County Court in 1703
(at about the age of twenty) and was admitted to the bar in 1709, so must
have received his legal training during that interval, if family history
is correct in asserting that he studied law in Annapolis.
RELIGION
ca.1683-1726 Christian: Church of England
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:148
Bordley's grandfather, father, and brother were Anglican clergymen.
FIRST WIFE
Main name Beard Rachel
Alternative names none
Titles none
Birth date unknown Death date 21 Nov 1722
Occupation none
Relationship married x
Date started Dec 1708 Ended 21 Nov 1722 by death
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:147
SECOND WIFE
Main name Frisby Ariana widow of James
Alternative names Vanderheyden Ariana neé
Titles none
Birth date 1690 Death date Apr 1741
Occupation none
Relationship married x
Date started 1 Sep 1723 Ended 11 Oct 1726 by death x
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:147-48;
Gibson, 24-25
RESIDENCE
Date Address
ca.1683-1689 South Shields, Durham, England
1689-1697 Newington Butts, Surrey, England (now Greater London)
1697-ca.1703 Kent County, Maryland
ca.1703-1726 Annapolis, Maryland
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:147; Gambrill, 1, 13-14, 18; Day, 25.
Gambrill gives residences in England and documents passage to Virginia
in 1697 as part of a fleet of seven ships escorted by two men of war, although
Gibson gives date of 1694, subsequently used by Day and Biographical
Dictionary. Latter gives 1704 as date by which Bordley moved to Annapolis,
but Bordley appointed Anne Arundel County Clerk in 1703, so must have been
in Annapolis no later than 1703 and possibly earlier.
GEOGRAPHICAL/ETHNIC ASSOCIATIONS
By descent England: Durham, Surrey
By association Maryland; Annapolis
DEATH AND BURIAL
Death 11 Oct 1726 England
Cause of death unsuccessful surgery in London for removal of a stone (probably a kidney stone, but not specified)
Burial unknown
Source of data and comments: Biographical Dictionary, 1:148;
Gibson, 19 for cause of death.
Missing data
None not noted above.
ARTICLE CHECK-LIST
Birth, death, burial x
Parents x
Spouse/partners x
IN YOUR ARTICLE TEXT
Double spacing x
Quotations x
Thomas Bordley (ca.1683-1727), lawyer and placeman, was born ca. 1683 in the parish of St. Hilda, South Shields, Durham, the youngest son of the Reverend Stephen Bordley, vicar of St. Hilda's, and his wife Mary. The family also included his older brother and two sisters. In 1689, the Bordleys moved to Newington Butts, then in Surrey, where Rev. Bordley became vicar of St. Mary's parish. After the death of their father in 1695, Bordley and his brother Stephen emigrated to Maryland in 1697. Thomas lived with his brother in Kent County, where Stephen served as rector of St. Paul's parish, until he moved across the Chesapeake Bay to Annapolis, capital of the colony.
Bordley arrived in Annapolis no later than the spring of 1703, for he became clerk of the Anne Arundel County court in June of that year. In Sept 1703 he took the oath of office as clerk of the Secretary's Office and of the Provincial Court. By 1709 he had been admitted to practice in both the Anne Arundel and Provincial courts. At that time, Bordley held the clerkship of the Prerogative Office, having been dismissed in 1708 from his Anne Arundel post and having resigned the Secretary's Office clerkship. During this period, in Dec 1708, Bordley married his first wife, Rachel Beard (?-1722), daughter of Richard Beard (ca.1648-1703) of Annapolis. The couple had five children, four sons and a daughter, who survived infancy.
Bordley represented Annapolis voters in the lower house from 1708 until 1711 and served as delegate from Anne Arundel or Annapolis from 1715 until his appointment to the upper house in 1720. He received considerable patronage from Gov. John Hart, who assumed his post in 1715 and who appointed Bordley surveyor general of the western shore (1717-1718), commissary general (1718-1721), surveyor general (1718-1721), and member of the governor's council (1720-1721). During these years Bordley was also one of the colony's leading lawyers, frequently finding himself arguing one side of a case against his closest rival, Daniel Dulany the Elder, on the other side.
Bordley enjoyed less cordial relations with Hart's successor, Capt. Charles Calvert, a cousin of the 5th Lord Baltimore, who dismissed Bordley from his positions in Sept 1721 for having given "Counsel of pernicious Consequence" (Archives of Maryland, 34:277). After his dismissal from the proprietary offices, Bordley returned to the lower house, where in the early 1720s he and Dulany led the popular opposition against the proprietary establishment.
Hostility to the proprietor's powers crystallized around efforts by the lower house to improve the finances of tobacco planters through repeal of legislation regulating the quality of exported tobacco. The refusal of consent by the upper house (the governor's council) initiated a period of attack and counterattack in which the lower house sought to define the interests of the upper house and proprietary officials as self-serving greed and themselves as defenders of the country's interest. Bordley edited the debates and proceedings of three sessions of the legislature for publication in Philadelphia in 1725 and was instrumental in bringing printer William Parks to Annapolis in 1726 to further public awareness of the issues.
During this period Bordley found time to remarry following the death of Rachel Bordley in 1722. On 1 Sep 1723 he married Ariana Vanderheyden Frisby, daughter of Matthias Vanderheyden (?-1729) and widow of James Frisby (1684-1719). The marriage added three young stepdaughters to Bordley's household. He and Ariana themselves had two sons, the second born after Bordley's death. Bordley traveled to London in 1726 for surgery but did not survive the operation (probably intended to remove a kidney stone). Bordley was survived by his wife, seven children, and two sisters living in Newcastle-on-Tyne. He left a personal estate of £3,179.14.8 sterling and £1,964.17.3 current money of Maryland (including nineteen slaves, six servants, and one hundred law books), over 7,500 acres of land, and at least nine lots in Annapolis.
Edward C. Papenfuse 650 words
Return
to Thomas Bordley's Introductory Page
|
Tell Us What You Think About the Maryland State Archives Website!
|