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It is not known with certainty that this Thomas is the same Thomas who died in Bladen Co NC in 1758, but he’s not been located in any other early records, so these records shouldn’t be discounted.
A clerk who copied the leases into Deed Book D referred to below writes his lower-case e identically as his lower-case o – such that year is spelled yoar, sovereign looks like sovoroign, etc. Since the property in the deeds immediately above is the same as the property sold by Wood to Thems, Thomas Thoms as it appears in the deed books is Thomas Thems
Notes on geographic location in historical context: Kiteckton Mountain referred to in the deeds is Catoctin Mountain, which presently traverses Frederick County, MD southwestward into Loudoun County, VA. At the time the 1732 leases and sales were made, Prince William County encompassed all of the northern portion of Virginia, but was divided to form Fairfax County in 1742, and Loudoun County was formed from Fairfax County in 1757.
17 Sep 1732 – Prince William Co VA Deed Book Liber A, p 360-361 – Recorded 21 Sep 1732, lease: Richard Wood of Prince William County, planter, 100 acres to William Pirsey, for consideration of 5 shillings, plus 1 peppercorn to be paid each year on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. Witnesses: Cavan Dulaney, Thomas Barton, Thomas Thems
21 Sep 1732 – Prince William Co VA Deed Book Liber A, p 361-364 – Recorded 21 Sep 1732, Release, Bargain and Sale: Richard Wood of Prince William, planter, the same 100 acres as the lease above to William Pirsey, for consideration of 10 lbs. Witnesses: Cavan Dulaney, Thomas Barton, Thomas Thems. Richard’s wife Martha relinquishes dower. Note: In the margin at the beginning of this deed, the deed is noted as Richd Woods Release To Wm Perseys Oct. 7. 1738, which is six years after the date of the deed. Was this simply a clerk’s error?
21 Sep 1732 – Prince William County, VA Deed Book Liber A, p 364-365 – Recorded 21 Sep 1732, Lease: Richard Wood of Prince William County, planter, 100 acres to Thomas Thems of same, for consideration of 5 shillings, plus 1 peppercorn to be paid on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. Witnesses: Cavan Dulany, Thomas Barton, William Piercy. Beginning at a marked white oak standing on the [illeg] of the Kiteckton mountain Corner tree to the said Land of Woods extending thence East 40 poles to a red Oak standing on the side of the said mountain thence North 27 d[degrees] East 30 poles to a Red oak thence North 47 West 322 Poles to a marked red Oak the Line of the main Tract of Land thence South seventeen degrees 110 poles to a red oak on a hill thence South 45 East 202 Poles to the beginning.
21 Sep 1732 – Prince William County, VA Deed Book Liber A, p 366-368 – Recorded 21 Sep 1732, Release, Bargain and Sale: Richard Wood of Prince William, planter, the same 100 acres as the lease above to ”’Thomas Thems”’, for consideration of 10 lbs. Witnesses: Cavan Dulaney, Thomas Barton, William Piercy. Richard’s wife Martha releases dower. The description of land is identical to the deed immediately above.
15 Nov 1732 – Virginia State Land Office, Northern Neck Grants – Loose grants and warrants collection – Survey for William Godfrey of Prince William County for 5,122 acres of land, partially adjoining Thos Tims, also spelled Thims.
28 Jan 1734 – Prince William County, VA Deed Book Liber D p 117-119 – Recorded 21 Sep 1732[not a typo], Lease: ”’Thomas Thems of Prince William, planter, to John Mead, Carpenter, of said County and Henry Ballinger of Monoqasie [Monocacy] in Prince Georges County in the province of Maryland, planter, consideration of 5 shillings silver, plus one grain of Indian corn each year for 3 years on the 10th of December, the same 100 acres as the lease above from Wood to Thems. Witnesses: Amos Janney, John Gordon, Richard Abrill.
Important information about the recording of this lease, immediately beneath the witnesses and Thomas’s signature, is written:
At a Court continued & held for Prince William County the eighteenth day of July 1734.
This Lease from Thomas Thems planter & Mercy his wife to John Mead, Carpenter, was proved by the Oaths of Richard Abrill & John Gordon two of the witnesses thereto which on the motion of the said John Mead is Ordered to be Certified. Test. Catesby Cooke Clk
At a Court held for Prince William County May 28, 1739. This Lease was further proved by the Solemn Affirmation of Amos Janney a Quaker one of the Witnesses hereto to be the Act & deed of ”’Thomas Thems”’ & was thereupon admitted to Record. Test. Catesby Cooke Clk
29 Jan 1734 – Prince William County, VA Deed Book Liber D p 119-122: 29 Jan “in the year of our Lord God one thousand seven hundred & thirty three four,” recorded 18 Jul 1734, Release, Bargain and Sale: ”’Thomas Thems planter & Mercy his wife”’ to John Mead of the said County Carpenter and Henry Ballinger of Monoqusie in Prince George’s County in the province of Maryland Planter, in consideration of the sum of forty pounds, the same land described above but with additional clarification as such, “all that tract or parcel of land lying & being on the branches of Kittockton run amongst the broken hills about ten miles from Goose Creek…” Witnesses: Amos Janney, John Gordon, Richd Abrill. Signed by both Thomas Thems and Mercy Thems. Note: In the margin at the beginning of this deed, the deed is noted as “Thems To Mead & Ballinger Release. Augt 9th 1740 [illeg.] dd Jno Mead [further confirming the written o’s are actually e’s]
At a Court continued & held for Prince William County the eighteenth day of July 1734 – This Release from Thomas Thems planter and Mercy his wife to John Mead Carpenter was proved by the Oaths of Richard Abrill & John Gordon two of the witnesses thereto which on the motion of the said Mead is Ordered to be Certified. – Test. Catesby Cooke Clk
At a Court held for Prince William County May 28, 1739 – This Release was further proved by the Solemn Affirmation of Amos Janney a Quaker one of the witnesses hereto to be the Act & deed of Thomas Thems and Mercy his wife and was thereupon admitted to Record. – Test. Catesby Cooke Clk
A note of interest: Amos Janney, the Quaker, did not affirm the signatures of Thomas and Mercy until five years after the date of the deed.
About Amos Janney, the Quaker, and the movements of Quakers into Virginia: According to “Quaker Migration from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Hopewell Monthly Meeting, 1732-1759,” by Thomas H. Fawcett, published in Bulletin of Friends’ Historical Association (August 1937, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 102-108) (available on JSTOR.com) in about 1732, Amos Janney led a group of Quakers from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (encompassing areas of Pennsylvania and New Jersey) the short distance south to Prince William County VA, where the Hopewell Monthly Meeting was founded, and from it within a few short years (due to so many Quakers following Janney), additional meetings sprang from Hopewell. Unfortunately, in 1759 all the Hopewell Monthly Meeting records were burned in a fire. Also according Fawcett’s article, prior to Janney’s migration, in 1725, Josiah and Henry Ballinger from Salem Monthly Meeting in West Jersey settled in Maryland at Monocacy, which was near the Potomac. The distance from the Monocacy settlement to the Hopewell settlement was “scarcely fifty miles, and several of the first settlers at Hopewell lived previously at Monocacy.” Fawcett continues that in 1730, the Nottingham Monthly Meeting petitioned the Governor and Council of Virginia for a grant of 100,000 acres on Opequon Creek in the Shenandoah Valley, which they would receive provided that they seat 1 family per 1,000 acres. Two years later, they provided proof of 70 families and received grants of 70,000 acres. Other petitions by Quakers were made for the same purpose, in the same region of the Shenandoah. The new settlement was called the Hopewell Monthly Meeting, finally formally established in 1735. Members from the Nottingham Monthly Meeting who were living in the bounds of the Hopewell Monthly Meeting in 1735 became members of Hopewell without record of transfer being made since it was merely a matter of boundary changes. Among them was a name familiar to Thames (et al) researchers: Stephen Hollingsworth. Also transferred was Henry Ballinger (presumably of the above deeds). After 1744, however, the next southward Quaker migration took place, to North Carolina, primarily to Cane Creek and New Garden Monthly meetings.
9 Apr 1740 – Virginia State Land Office, Northern Neck Grants – Loose grants and warrants collection – A land survey and warrant in Prince William Co VA for Catesby Cocke and John Mercer, 5,985 acres (or 5,122 acres – there was a bit of conflict about it). Thomas Thims is mentioned as an adjoining property, although his property also refers to Richard Wood. The survey also shows Timms Br. of the Kittocktin.
Is this Thomas still in Virginia in 1740, after having sold his land in 1734?
This ends the located records for Thomas found in Virginia as of this writing.