Thomas Lancaster (b. circa 1798 - d. circa 1870)
MSA SC 5496-036869
Property Owner, Berrys District, Montgomery County, Maryland
Biography:
Born around 1798, Thomas Lancaster lived near Colesville in Montgomery County. Although he was likely born a slave, he was free and living on his father's farm by 1820, along with three of his siblings. Thomas was the oldest of ten children: Edward, William, Lily, Ann, Charity, Ally, Fanny, Charles, and Rebecca.
Thomas's father, Edward Lancaster, had purchased 159 acres of land from Benjamin Berry in 1802.1 The property included a house once belonging to Isaac Lansdale, whom Edward called his friend in the deed.2 Surprisingly, Edward was still legally a slave at the time of the purchase, although Jeremiah Orme manumitted him 1811.3 Interestingly, Benjamin Berry—the slaveholder from whom Edward Lancaster bought his land—was married to the daughter of a Charles County slaveholder named Thomas Lancaster.4
When Edward Lancaster died in 1824, he bequeathed his entire plantation and the Lansdale house to Thomas. The plantation included parts of the tracts "Yorkshire," "Resurvey on the Grove," and "Resurvey on Part of James and Mary."5 Thomas's inheritance directly bordered Lansdale Mill, a flour mill that Isaac Lansdale had originally owned, and which stood on the Columbia Turnpike. An 1830 lease referred to the mill as Lancaster Mill, suggesting that Lancaster himself had assumed ownership.6
Edward Lancaster married, Margaret Adams, with whom he had eleven children. Benjamin Lancaster was born in 1825, followed by Louisa in 1827, Isaiah in 1827, Theophilus in 1828, Edward in 1830, Francis in 1832, Thomas, Jr. in 1834, Delilah in 1836, William in 1837, Enoch G. in 1843, and John W. in 1847.7 John W. Lancaster was possibly Thomas's nephew, and the son of Thomas's brother, William.8 Thomas's son Francis apparently died before 1850, while Edward disappeared from census records by 1860.
Lancaster may have faced financial difficulties in the 1830s. In October 1830, he leased two acres of land near the mill at five dollars per year. Then, in 1834, he sold one hundred and seventeen acres to John E. Selby, including the Lansdale house, for four hundred dollars.9 Lancaster then relocated his wife and their nine children to Anne Arundel County. They took up residence near Duvall's Mill on the northern bank of the Patuxent River.10 The county's 1840 census classified Lancaster's occupation under the "manufacturing and trade" category, while his surrounding neighbors worked as farmers. Lancaster's neighbors included John Redmiles, Phillip Snowden, and William M. Jones, all non-slaveholding farmers.11 During the family's residence in Anne Arundel County, Thomas's daughter Louisa married Wilson Matthews, a farm laborer from that county.12
By 1850, Lancaster's wife Margaret had passed away, and he returned to Montgomery County with his five youngest children. He made a living as a cradle-maker, while his son, Thomas, Jr., worked as a farmer. The cradles were most likely grain cradles, also called cradle scythes. An improvement on the basic scythe prior to the advent of the thresher, a grain cradle incorporated a long, claw-like frame of curved, wooden fingers attached to a sickle, for catching the cut grain.13 Lancaster may have held this occupation during his residence near Duvall's Mill in Anne Arundel County, when his occupation was listed as "manufacturing." Although Lancaster had regained $300 in real estate by 1850. However, he did not live at his original residence, since John Selby sold ten acres of Lancaster's original land—including the house—to Dr. Washington Duvall in 1851.14
By 1860, Thomas Lancaster had retired with two hundred dollars in real estate. His youngest sons, Enoch and John, still lived with him, as well as a twenty-five-year-old woman named Catherine Bellows. She had earlier appeared in the 1850 census as Kitty Bellows, living in the same boarding house as Lancaster's son Edward.15 Lancaster's entire household was literate in 1860. In 1865, Lancaster appeared on Simon J. Martenet's map of Montgomery County as "Th. Lancaster (col'd),"16 near Burnt Mills.
Thomas Lancaster died intestate sometime between about 1865 and 1875.
In September 1875, the Montgomery County Sentinel reported the removal
of Thomas Lancaster's name from the Fifth District's voter registration
list.17
1. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT
(Land Records), Liber G, Folio 494, 1795-1797, [MSA CE 148-8]. Isaac Lansdale
to Benjamin Berry, December 21, 1796.
MONTGOMERY
COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber K, Folio 151, 1801-1803, [MSA CE 148-1].
Benjamin Berry to Edward Lancaster, January 16, 1802.
2. MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills, Original), 1823-1827, [MSA C1142-11]. Box 8, Folder 49. Edward Lancaster, September 24, 1824.
3. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber P, Folio 266, 1810-1812, [MSA CE 148-16]. Jeremiah Orme to Edward Lancaster, July 9, 1811. Deed of Manumission.
4. Parran, Alice Norris. Register of Maryland's Heraldic Families, Vol. 1 (Baltimore, MD: H.G. Roebuck & Son, 1935) 322.
5. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber P, Folio 266, 1810-1812, [MSA CE 148-16]. Jeremiah Orme to Edward Lancaster, July 9, 1811. Deed of Manumission.
6. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber BS 4, Folio 81, 1830-1832, [MSA CE 148-30]. Thomas Lancaster to James W. Fling, October 20, 1830.
7. U.S. Census Bureau (Census
Record, MD) for Thomas Lancaster, 1850, Montgomery County, Berrys District,
Page 15, Line 26 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
U.S. Census
Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Lancaster, 1860, Montgomery County,
District 5, Page 18, Line 36 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
8. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS, (Death Record, Counties), 08/1933, [MSA S1179-4748]. John Westley Lancaster, August 19, 1933, Montgomery County.
9. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT
(Land Records), Liber BS 4, Folio 81, 1830-1832, [MSA CE 148-30]. Thomas
Lancaster to James W. Fling, October 20, 1830.
MONTGOMERY
COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber BS 6, Folio 436, 1833-1834, [MSA CE
148-32]. Thomas Lancaster and Margaret Lancaster to John E. Selby, June
3, 1834.
10. Anne Arundel County District 4, Simon J. Martenet, Map of Anne Arundel County, 1860, Library of Congress, [MSA SC 1213-1-117]. Huntington Map Collection.
11. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Lancaster, 1840, Anne Arundel County, District 4, Page 7, Line 2 [MSA SM61-97, M 4711]. Continued on Page 8, Line 2.
12. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Wilson Matthews, 1860, Anne Arundel County, District 5, Page 56, Line 6 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].
13. John W. Ogden.
The History of
Champaign County, Ohio (Chicago, IL: W.H. Beers & Co., 1881) 222.
Newton
Bateman, Paul Selby, and Charles Æ. Martin, eds. Historical Encyclopedia
of Illinois and History of Cass County. Vol. 2. (Chicago, IL: Munsell
Publishing Co., 1915) 732.
14. MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber STS 5, Folio 521, 1850-1851, [MSA CE 148-43]. John E. Selby to Washington Duvall, September 10, 1851.
15. Montgomery County District 5, Simon J. Martenet, Martenet and Bond's Map of Montgomery County, 1865, Library of Congress, [MSA SC 1213-1-464]. The Huntingfield Map Collection.
16. U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Edward Lancaster, 1850, Montgomery County, Page 10, Line 4 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
17. John D. Bowman.
Guide to Selections
from the Montgomery County Sentinel, Maryland, January 1, 1856 - December
31, 1875 (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 2005) 177.
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