The Thomas family in North Carolina and Beyond
- westmohney
- Nov 17, 2024
- 11 min read
Updated: Oct 12, 2025
Robert Thomas now liveth on a pond called the Ocean ~ From North Carolina land records
Stephen Thomas and Mary Jane Clothier
Our grandfather, Stephen Thomas (5GGF), was the grandson of our immigrant grandfather Tristram Thomas (7GGF). He was born in 1705 in Queen Anne's County, MD. When Stephen was 18, ca. 1723, his twice married father, Tristram Thomas, Jr. (6GGF) married twice married Jane Kemp (6GGM). We wrote extensively about the fact that all of Jane Kemp's husbands were grandfathers of ours in our "The Husbands of Jane Kemp" post. Eight years later, Stephen married his step-sister, Jane's daughter Mary Jane Clothier (5GGM). Mary was a Quaker so Stephen took up the religion for a time as well.
Note: Jane was disinherited by her father, Robert Kemp (7GGF), for marrying outside of the Quaker faith in her first marriage. She shortly atoned for her sin and didn't make the same mistake in her second and third marriages.
Below is Stephen and Jane's second intention to marriage recorded in the Third Haven Quaker Meeting Records:
Stephen Thomas and Mary Clothier appeared in this meeting and Declared their Intention of marriage this being the second time they having consent of parants and appearing Clear of all others are left to their liberty in ye truth to Effect their marriage they appointing time and place and making the same public John Jelleston? is appointed to see the sd marriage decently accomplished
In 1744, Mary's brother Lewis Clothier (5U) also showed up in the Quaker records when his house was destroyed by fire:
This meeting being inform'd that Lewis Clother is very much reduced by fire, therefore this meeting Requests of Collectors in Each weekly meeting for a Collection toward raising something for his reliefe
It might have been shortly after the fire that Lewis moved to West Nottingham, PA. A tax record for the year 1768 shows that he owned 60 acres with buildings, two horses, two cows and eight sheep.
Below are the Quaker death notices for Lewis and his wife in Nottingham:
on to North Carolina
Stephen and Mary Jane had thirteen children that they raised on 200 acres of land in Maryland. Our grandfather William (4GGF) was the sixth child, shown on the tree below.
In 1762, oldest son Robert (4U) received a grant for 150 acres near Rockingham, North Carolina. Robert's brother Philemon (4U) soon followed. Brother John came in 1766 when he received a land warrant for 200 acres. When our grandmother Mary Jane died in 1767 at age 57, Robert and Philemon went back to Maryland to help their father, 62 at the time, settle his affairs and sell all his property.
In October, Stephen conveyed to Robert the 80 acres of "Hawkins Pharsalia" that he had received in his father Tristram's (6GGF) will. Robert then sold the property in preparation for his father's move.
With his affairs settled, Stephen, along with seven more of his children, left Maryland behind to make a new life in North Carolina.
Stephen's land was located just above Blewett's Falls on the Pee Dee River. The map below shows the approximate location of Stephen's property, the location of the Cartledge Creek Baptist Church and Hitchcock Creek where two of Stephen's son, Robert and Philemon owned property.
Note: Various members of the Covington and Thomas families became affiliated with the Cartledge Creek Church which was founded by Robert Dockery, father-in-law of our grandfather John Covington (4GGF).
Seven years after arriving in North Carolina, Stephen Thomas died at age 69. It appears that he died intestate with only a "modest estate." On 13 April 1774, "[a]dministration on the Estate of Stephen Thomas Dec'd granted to John Thomas (4U) he having given Bond . . .in 150 Pounds." The inventory on the estate was taken by son Stephen Thomas, Jr.
The inventory showed that at the time of his death, Stephen owned seven head of cattle, a saddle, some furniture and a viariety of tools. Stephen's "modest" belongings were offered at auction first to his family After five of his sons purchased what they wanted, Sheriff William Pickett then sold the remaining items to Stephen's son in law William Primrose and various interested neighbors. Sheriff Pickett was the husband of our aunt Mourning Raiford (5A).
Note: The Raifords had come to North Carolina from Virginia. We wrote about them in our "On to North Carolina" post.
At the time of Stephen's death, three sons, Philemon, 18, James, 16 and Benjamin, 14, had not yet reached legal age. Stephen's son John (4U) took over guardianship of his brothers.
Sarah Thomas Lambdin Pratt
We have very little information on Stephen and Mary's first child, Sarah (4A). She was born in Maryland ca. 1732. She married her first husband, Daniel Lambdin, ca. 1753. He may have died shortly after the marriage. I can find no record of any children for the couple. Sarah married next William Pratt and had five children with him.
It was probably with her second husband that Sarah moved to North Carolina where all of their children were born. They settled on the west side of the Pee Dee River near Sarah's brother Stephen Thomas, Jr. (4U)
We can find no record of Susannah's death.
the Reverend Robert Thomas
Our uncle Robert Thomas (4U) was the second child and first son born to our grandparents Stephen and Mary Jane Clothier Thomas. Born in 1733 in Maryland, Robert was the first of the Thomas family to arrive in North Carolina in 1762, settling along the banks of Hitchcock Creek near the town of Rockingham. The Thomas family had long been tied to the Quaker faith but, in the early 1770s, Robert became enamored of the Baptist religion. He was most probably influenced by the Reverend Henry Easterling who began preaching at the Hitchcock Creek Baptist Church in 1772. Henry Easterling was the father-in-law of two of our Covington cousins, Elizabeth (1C5X) and Nancy (1C5X). The Covington sisters were daughters of our uncle Henry Covington (4U). Henry, along with his brother, our grandfather John Covington (4GGF), had settled in nearby Rockingham, NC.
We're indebted to author George G. Thomas, who descended from the Virginia Thomases. He did extensive and accurate research on our family hailing from Maryland before he discovered he wasn't related to them. He wrote:
There was a time when everyone, I mean EVERYONE, believed that today’s Thomas families of Upper Union and Anson Counties NC descended from Stephen Thomas whose family settled in the Great Pee Dee river region. This was a prominent family, one filled with shakers and movers, and one whose members were wildly diverse in their individual moral compasses. This was an exciting family to follow and to this day, there’s parts of me that wish I were among its folds. It’s not to be.
George Thomas wrote about the beginning of our uncle Robert's preaching career which began not too long after Henry Easterling's:
Though a farmer by trade, Robert Thomas was instrumental in laying down a spiritual foundation for the generations to come. He was a respected Baptist preacher and founder of several churches. Traveling the region during the American Revolution, he preached to the troops and gave moral support to the cause.
After the war, Robert received a grant of over a thousand acres near Gum Swamp, NC where he evidently found the soil easier to work. He remained in Gum Swamp only a few years. In the early 1780s, Robert's connection to Reverend Easterling family was further cemented when both families moved south across the border to the "mostly uninhabited, but fertile plains of upper South Carolina." This move would begin a migration of three more Thomas brothers to South Carolina which would comprise the Marlboro County faction of the Thomas family.
In South Carolina, a number of land transactions between the Thomas and Easterling families indicated that their properties were in close proximity. In 1794, Robert bought "several tracts totaling 1017 acres from Henry Easterling and his wife. The newly purchased land, in what is now the town of Bennettsville, (see map above) made up "the greater part of the plantation whereon the Sd. Robert Thomas now liveth on a pond called the Ocean." The "Ocean" must have been Lake Wallace, the largest lake in the area.
According the the History of the Old Cheraws by Alexander Gregg:
The Rev. Robert Thomas was for fifty years a faithful minister of the gospel, laboring with his own hands for the support of his househod. The old Churches at Beaver-dam and Salem, in Marlborough, were established through his instrumentality. He abandoned the faith of his fathers (Quaker) at an early period, and united himself with the Baptists. He was preaching when the Revolution began and gave his eldest surviving son to the service of his country.
Note: Robert's "eldest surviving son" was Nathan (1C5X). I can find no evidence that Nathan served in the Revolution. His younger sons were born too young to serve.
In 1793, Robert helped to found the Three Creeks Church, later changed, in 1822, to the Salem Baptist Church. A traveling preacher, Robert was the first, along with William Bennett, to preach at the Catfish Baptist Church in neighboring Marion County. It was on one of his forays to minister to the faithful in Marian County that Robert died in 1816 at age 83.
the Quaker brothers
Only three of our grandfather Stephen's sons remained faithful to the Quaker faith. Those three were John (4U), Lewis (4U) and James (4U). John was Stephen's 7th child, his 4th son. Lewis was the 9th child, 5th son and James was the 13th and last child, 9th son.
John arrived in North Carolina in 1766. At age 23, he was the second Thomas to make the move after his brother Robert who was ten years older. There, he soon met and married Molly Clark, another Quaker. In 1768, John purchased land on Solomon's Creek from his father-in-law, Francis Clark. His property was about a mile from the Pee Dee River and six miles from the town of Rockingham.
Lewis was only 17 when he made the move with his father to North Carolina in 1767. He may have lived with his father for a few years and, in 1773, he received a land grant for 200 acres on the west Side of the Pee Dee River. Lewis married in 1775 and began a family that would grow to include 13 children.
John and Molly already had four children when John's father Stephen died in 1774. In addition to his own children, with more to come, John took in his brothers, Philemon, 18, James, 16, and Benjamin, 14.
In 1779, John, Lewis and James, purchased adjoining properties at Gum Swamp where their brothers Robert and Benjamin already owned land. For the three Quaker brothers, the main draw must have been their proximity to the Quaker Piney Grove Meeting House located just across the South Carolina Border.
When the main theater of the Revolutionary War moved into the southern states in 1778, trouble began. George G. Thomas wrote about the brothers' travails toward the end of the war:
This was a time of war and as sentiment stiffened against Lord Cornwallis’ control of South Carolina, brothers James, John and Lewis sought safety in Guilford County (NC) around 1780. Quakers held to a strong peace ethic and many either camped nearby or bought land close to the larger monthly meetings. It really was a difficult time. General Nathaniel Greene, himself born a Quaker, witnessed the many who, living in and amongst New Garden, would not fight for the cause. Correspondence between Greene and the Quaker ministers was to no avail.
Guilford County was about 85 miles north of Rockingham. The Quakers constituted a large presence in Guilford County which was about 85 miles north of Rockingham. The Thomas brothers attended the New Garden Meeting House which had been built in 1757. Below is a painting of the meeting house by John B. Collins:
Note: Thirty years later, the Thomas brothers would be attending another meeting house also called New Garden, that one in the Indiana territory.
Also seeking safety in Guilford were the Clarks, the family of John's wife, Molly. The Clarks were also Quaker and James soon began courting Milly Clark, Molly's sister. They would marry five years later while still living in Guilford County. James' brother Lewis was bondsman at the wedding.
Shortly after the marriage, Milly's parents deeded land on the Haw River to James. With a growing plantation and two children born over the next three years, life seemed promising for the new couple. Sadly, James was hit with an incurable malady and made his will out on 16 Sep 1788. He was 30 years old when he died, leaving Milly with two young boys to raise. James chose his brother John and John's son Isaac (1C5X), along with Milly, as executor's of his will.
James left his plantation to his wife for her "lifetime or widowhood." After her death or remarriage, the home plantation would go to his son Benjamin (1C5X). His land at Gum Swamp in Richmond County, James left to his son John (1C5X). If both his sons should die James' willed that both properties go to his brother John's sons, Elijah (1C5X), Stephen (1C5X) and Francis (1C5X). Below is a copy of James' will:
Around the time of their brother's death, John and Lewis made their way back to Gum Swamp.
John and Lewis remained in the Gum Swamp area until the second decade of the 19th century. Then, their growing discomfort with the practice of slavery led them to make an exodus to the newly founded Indiana Territory. We'll have more on Lewis and John's families in Indiana and their involvement in the Underground Railroad there in a future post.
Stephen Thomas, Jr.
Our uncle Stephen Thomas, Jr. (4U) was born in Maryland ca. 1736. He married Rachel Pratt in 1755. Two of Stephen's siblings married into the same Pratt family while still in Maryland. Our aunt Sarah (4A) married Rachel's brother William and our grandfather William "Billy Ram" (4GGF) married Rachel's sister Hannah.
Stephen and Rachel had seven children, the first four born in Maryland. In 1767, there was a record of a transaction between Stephen and his mother-in-law
Queen Anne's Co., Md., - Deeds. . .dated 1767 - Mary Prat to son-in-law Stephen Thomas the younger - considerations: 2 Shillings - Negroes George, Esau & Poll - mentions her deceased husband William Pratt & his daughter Rachel Pratt who married Stephen Thomas.
From this record, it appears that Mary Pratt, shortly before her death, sold Stephen three negroes for a trifling 2 shillings. That same year, Stephen sold all of them, probably in preparation for his move to North Carolina. He sold one of these slaves to his brother-in-law Solomon Pratt for a bit of a profit.
Folio 360 - dated 1767 - Bill of Sale - Stephen Thomas to Solomon Prat - consideration: 5 Shillings - Negro boy George (made over to me by Mary Pratt).
The other two Stephen sold to another brother-in-law in March of 1767 at a considerable profit.
Stephen Thomas of Queen Anne's Co., Md., planter, to Henry Wright Pratt of same, planter - consideration: 27 Pounds and 10 Shillings - one Negro boy Esau & one Negro girl Poll (sd slaves made over to Stephen Thomas by Mary Prat).
It's probable that Stephen and his family moved to North Carolina in 1767 when his father, Stephen, Sr. made the move, but it wasn't until 1768 that Stephen made his first land purchase of 150 acres.
While most of his family settled on the east side of the Pee Dee River, Stephen's property was near Jones Creek, a tributary on the west side of the Pee Dee. Two of Stephen's sisters, Susannah Thomas Ratliff (4A) and Sarah Thomas Pratt also settled on Jones Creek with their husbands.
A pay voucher from 1792 indicates that Stephen had served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.
Stephen died in 1708 at age 72. His wife Rachel must have died before him because she is not mentioned in his will. Five of his seven children were still alive at the time and all of them are mentioned in the will. Stephen bequeathed "to my beloved Sons Robert Thomas (1C5X) and Stephen Thomas (1C5X) all my lands, laying and being on the North side of Jones Creek, whereon I now reside. . ." Robert received all the lands on the north half "with all the buildings, fences and appurtenances. . ." Son Stephen received the south side, also with "buildings, fences and appurtenances."
It appears that Stephen owned the land where his sister Sarah (4U) and her husband William Pratt lived because he left to his daughter Mary Moore (1C5X) "all that part of my lands laying a being on the Southor side of Jone's Creek where William Pratt now resides."
Stephen left the bulk of his household items to son Robert and daughter Mary. For his remaining two daughters, Nancy (1C5X) and Sallie (1C5X) he instructed that a "horse colt" be sold at auction and the proceeds given the the two girls. He also left Nancy a feather bed.
Stephen chose his nephew Thomas Ratliff (1C5X), son of his sister Susannah (4A) and her husband William Ratliff, as executor.
Mary Thomas Primrose Everett
Poor Mary, born ca. 1730 in Maryland, has faded into total obscurity. We only know that she married William Violet Primrose and had one son born ca. 1760.
Next up: More of the Thomas family in North Carolina and beyond.
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