John Thomas
(1743-1805)
MSA SC 3520-1581
Biography:
Born in 1743 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, probably at "Lebanon," his family's West River estate. Son of Philip Thomas
(1693/94-1762) and Ann Chew Thomas (1707-1777). Six siblings: William
(half brother); Samuel; Philip; Mary; Elizabeth; Richard. Married Sarah
Murray, daughter of Anne and Dr. William Murray. Three children:
Philip; John; Sarah. Died on February 3, 1805 at West River, Anne
Arundel County, Maryland.
John Thomas was an active member of the Federalist Party, and served one term in the Maryland Senate, 1796-1800. During that period he was also was the President of the Senate, 1797-1800. Thomas lost his seat in 1801, an election that swept the rival Democratic-Republican Party into control of the state. The dominant issue in the Senate campaign was suffrage reform. For several years, legislation to remove property qualifications for voting had been passed by the House of Delegates, only to be blocked by the more conservative and aristocratic Senate. The 1801 election, the Baltimore American & Commercial Daily Advertiser wrote, was a referendum on “the present Senate [who] have…uniformly opposed, and defeated the privilege, of universal and equal suffrage in the citizens, not thinking as we do, that every freeman who is bound to obey laws ought to have a vote in choosing those who are to make them." [1]
Thomas was a Quaker, and a member of West River Meeting. In January of 1776, at the onset of the American Revolution, he was offered a commission as major of the South River Battalion of Anne Arundel County militia, which he declined, no doubt because of his religion's pacifist beliefs. Thomas was part of a network of well-connected, upper-class Quakers. His father had served in the Upper House of the Maryland legislature for many years, and his cousin Richard Thomas, Jr. was the founder of the town of Brookeville.
Notes:
1. American & Daily Advertiser (Baltimore), 22 August 1801.
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