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Terry Mason's Family History Site55,914 names. Major lines: Allen, Beck, Borden, Buck, Burden, Carpenter, Carper, Cobb, Cook, Cornell, Cowan, Daffron, Davis, Downing, Faubion, Fauntleroy, Fenter, Fishback, Foulks, Gray, Harris, Heimbach, Henn, Holland, Holtzclaw, Jackson, Jameson, Johnson, Jones, King, Lewis, Mason, Massengill, McAnnally, Moore, Morgan, Overstreet, Price, Peck, Rice, Richardson, Rogers, Samuel, Smith, Taylor, Thomas, Wade, Warren, Weeks, Webb, Wodell, Yeiser. |
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REFERENCE: Information sent from Thomas Edwards [thomas@thesync.com] to T.Mason on 4Mar2002 referring to [HYPERLINK http://www.colesville.org/book/ch4.html ] Colesville by Ned Baley. EXTRACTS: "Samuel Thomas's grandfather was a founder of the Herring Creek and West River Meetings of Friends in Anne Arundel County. His grandmother and father were Quaker ministers. Born in 1702, Samuel also became a Quaker minister. In 1730, he married Mary Snowden, daughter of the wealthy Quaker, Richard Snowden." "Samuel's first land holding was a 1737 patent on Saint Winexbergh, a tract of 493 acres west of Northwest Branch. In 1748, he bought Part of Snowdens Fourth Addition to His Manor from his father-in-law, Richard Snowden. It contained 1029 acres. In 1757, he bought 216 acres of Beals Manor, bringing his holdings to 1738 acres.
Although Samuel and Mary Thomas's plantation was large compared to other holdings in the Colesville area, it was not nearly as large as the plantation of their brother-in-law, James Brooke. Starting in 1728 with 889 acres in the Sandy Spring area, he increased the acreage of his holdings to 22,834.
When Samuel and Mary Thomas settled in the Colesville area is not known. Except for the recorded existence of houses on the Saint Winexbergh tract some fifty years after the 1737 patent, there is no evidence that they ever lived there. On the other hand, they did live on the Part of Snowdens Fourth Addition to His Manor purchased from Richard Snowden and could have lived there as tenants before the purchase.
The exact location of their house has been a subject for considerable speculation. However, the first parcel of the 1029 acres was sold two years after Samuel Thomas's death. The 1785 deed specified the existence of houses. The location of the parcel strongly suggests that the houses were on present-day Randolph Road. One of them could have been the residence of Samuel and Mary Thomas.
The outbuildings on the plantation could have included livestock barns, tobacco drying sheds, a blacksmith shop, crop storage and other buildings. They would have been similar to those on the Lazenby farm but probably more substantial and numerous. Log cabins for slave quarters probably were part of the farmstead and scattered in outlying fields. The largest acreage in crops would have been divided between tobacco and corn.
Both Samuel and Mary Thomas were active Quakers. Samuel is considered a founder of the Sandy Spring Meeting of Friends. At the eeekly and monthly meetings, they were joined with other Quakers, many of whom were in-laws and cousins. As Quakers their life style was austere and simple with emphasis on the work ethic. However their financial status no doubt gave them comforts not known to small farmers such as the Lazenbys.
Their affluence did not protect them from diseases and other causes of death so prevalent in the frontier environment. Of their four children, one died as an infant and a second son died at the age of 19. They were more fortunate with the other two children. Elizabeth, born in 1735, married Johns Hopkins in 1758, and became the grandmother of Johns Hopkins II, the Baltimore financier and philanthropist. Evan, born in 1738, became a prominent and controversial Quaker, not only in the Sandy Spring Meeting but throughout Maryland.
BIOGRAPHY: Family History Records; ; compiled by Ann Johnston, Pine Bluff, AR 71601; ; copy dated 20 May 1992 sent to T Mason; NOTES: source says Mrs. Hunter (deceased) in Santonia, TX is a descendant.