Archives of Maryland
(Biographical Series)

Thomas Beauchamp (b. ? - d. circa 1815)
MSA SC 5496-050657
War of 1812 Claimant, Somerset County, Maryland

Biography:

The son of Isaac and Sarah Beauchamp, Thomas Beauchamp lived on the farm that he had inherited from his father in the Great Annamessex Hundred. The home stood on the southern branch of the Annamessex River, just east of the road from Kingston to Princess Anne.1 In 1798, tax assessment records showed Beauchamp owning 194 acres of land.2 Beauchamp's first wife, Jane, passed away around 1780 or 1790. He married his second wife, Anne Lockwood, on February 13, 1798.3

Census records showed Beauchamp owning fourteen slaves in 1800 and two in 1810.4 During the War of 1812, three of his slaves fled to British forces. The three men—Stephen Beauchamp, Elijah Beauchamp, and Jack Teagle—escaped to the British ship Regulus in the Tangier Sound on October 15, 1814. Mentor Beauchamp, the slave of Thomas's son Isaac, also ran away around the same time.5

Thomas Beauchamp wrote his will on February 11, 1815, in which he identified his seven children as Thomas George, Isaac, Jane, Hannah Bond, Harriet Lockwood, Martha Lister, and Alessana Lockwood.6 He referred to his daughters, who were still unmarried, by their first and middle names. Beauchamp died sometime before April 1, 1815, when his will was probated.7

Following Thomas Beauchamp's death, Samuel Beauchamp represented the deceased slaveholder's claim for compensation for his three escaped slaves.8 Samuel came from Delaware, where a branch of the Beauchamp family had moved around 1760.9 He lived temporarily in Maryland while representing Thomas's estate, and was still living in Somerset County in 1820.10 In 1828, Thomas Beauchamp's estate received $840 ($280 for each slave) in reparations under the Treaty of Ghent.11 Samuel Beauchamp returned to Delaware by 1830.12
 

Footnotes

1.     SOMERSET COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1800-1819,Liber EB 23, Folio 226, [MSA T2538-2]. Thomas Beauchamp, February 11, 1815. Probated April 1, 1815.
        “Beauchamp House (Long Farm, Washburn House),” Prepared by Paul Touart, S-62, Maryland Historical Trust, Inventory of Historic Properties. www.mdihp.net.

2.     SOMERSET COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF THE TAX, (Assessment Record), 1793, [MSA C1734-1]. Thomas Beauchamp, Great Annamessex Hundred.

3.     SOMERSET COUNTY COURT, (Marriage Licenses), 1796-1831, Film Reel: CR 7401-1, [MSA CM964-1]. Thomas Beauchamp and Anne Lockwood, February 13, 1798.

4.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Beauchamp, 1800, Great Annamessex Hundred, Somerset County, Page 3a, 4th line from bottom [MSA SM61-37, M 2057-2].
3.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Thomas Beachamp, 1810, Pocomoke Hundred, Somerset County, Page 1b, Line 7 [MSA SM61-57, M 2061-4].

5.     Claim of Samuel Beauchamp, Case 784, 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.
3.     John McNish Weiss, The Merikens: Free Black American Settlers in Trinidad: 1815-1816 (London, UK: McNish & Weiss, 2002) 43.

6.     SOMERSET COUNTY REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1800-1819,Liber EB 23, Folio 226, [MSA T2538-2]. Thomas Beauchamp, February 11, 1815. Probated April 1, 1815.

7.     Ibid.

8.     Claim of Samuel Beauchamp, Case 784, 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.
3.     Claim of Isaac Beauchamp, Case 706, Claim of Samuel Beauchamp. 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.

9.     1810 U.S. Census Record (DE) for Samuel Beacham, Murderkill Hundred, Kent County, Page 2a, 4th line from bottom. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.
3.     Stith Thompson, "The Beauchamp Family," The Filson Club History Quarterly 28.2 (1954): 152.

10.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for Samuel Beachump, 1820, District 3, Somerset County, Page 4a, Line 19 [MSA SM61-77, M 2067-3]. Part of slave schedule missing.

11.   Claim of Samuel Beauchamp, Case 784, 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.
3.     Thomas Beacham, dec'd (reps), No. 784, RG 76. Records of Boundary and Claims Commissions and Arbitration. Records of the Mixed Claims Commission: Miscellaneous Records. Ca. 1814-28, 7 vols., entry 185. Vol. 10 of 11 (International Claims). National Archives, College Park.

12.   1830 U.S. Census Record (DE) for Samuel Beauchamp, Camden, Kent County, Page 39, 6th line from bottom. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Continued on Page 40, 6th line from bottom.
 

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