Philip Thomas, Sr.
Abt 1624 - Abt 1675 (51 years)
- 1687-
Name Philip Thomas [1, 2, 3] Suffix Sr. Birth Abt 1624 Bristol, Buckinghamshire, England 
Gender Male Immigration 1651 Maryland [4] Religion Quaker Death Abt 1675 Anne Arundel Co., Maryland Patriarch & Matriarch 
Evan Thomas
b. 1580, Monmouthshire, Wales
d. 1650 (Age 70 years) (Father)
Notes - He and his wife and four children arrived in Maryland in 1651. He was apparently granted 500 acres in Anne Arundel Co. which he called "Becket."
Names from his ancestry are from Hall, who provides no documentation. Hall says that his information comes from Lawrence Buckey Thomas, Genealogical Notes on the Thomas Family (S201).
According to Robert Barnes, “Thomas, Philip, d.1675, Anne Arundel Co., MD, possibly descendant of Sir Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey, and Agnes Tilney, his wife, and if line can be proved, a descendant of Henry III and of Charlemagne.”
According to Nesbitt, "Philip Thomas (called ‘The emigrant' inThe Thomas Book), grandfather of the Sandy Spring settlers of that name and progenitor of a continuing line of Thomas and Thomas-related members of the Sandy Spring Meeting, arrived in Maryland from Bristol, England in 1651. ‘In consideration that he hath transported himself, Sarah [Harrison] his wife, Philip, Sarah, and Elizabeth his children into this our province . . . ,' a land patent in his name conveyed to him 500 acres of land called Beakley or Beckly on the west side of the Chesapeake Bay. He acquired numerous other patents through the years, but a tract of 120 acres at the mouth of the South River, called Fuller's Point (later renamed Thomas Point, off which is the Thomas Point Lighthouse), eventually became the site of the family home.
An Anabaptist at the time of his arrival in Maryland, Philip Thomas had early allied himself with the Puritans who, in 1652, rebelled against Lord Baltimore's government. He was one among them when in 1655 they defeated the proprietary forces in the bloody battle of the Severn. Three years later, March 24, 1658, having been appointed a High Commissioner of the Puritan Court under the Lord Protectorate, Oliver Cromwell, he was one of the six members of that body who made the surrender of the revolutionary governament, ‘At a council held at St. Leonards. . . .," following the Cromwellian order that the province be returned to the proprietary.
Meanwhile, through [Quaker missionary] Elizabeth Harris's influence, Philip Thomas has become a Quaker, ‘a founder of, and a prominent figure in, the Herring Creek and the West River meetings.' Little is known of his activities in that field but two clauses in his will, probated June 10, 1675, confirm his accord with Friends." [1, 5, 6]
Person ID I4572 Last Modified 27 Feb 2022
Father Evan Thomas
b. 1580, Monmouthshire, Wales
d. 1650 (Age 70 years)
Spouse / Partner Sarah Harrison
b. England
d. 1687
Children3 sons and 3 daughters Family ID F3187 Group Sheet | Family Chart Last Modified 27 Apr 2025
- He and his wife and four children arrived in Maryland in 1651. He was apparently granted 500 acres in Anne Arundel Co. which he called "Becket."
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Event Map 
Birth - Abt 1624 - Bristol, Buckinghamshire, England 
Immigration - 1651 - Maryland 
Death - Abt 1675 - Anne Arundel Co., Maryland = Link to Google Earth Pin Legend 
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Histories 
Quaker Ancestors from Southern Maryland The most important Friends community in Maryland to donate members to this site was the West River Meeting, which was consolidated if not founded by George Fox himself, the founder of the Society of Friends, when he visited the colonies on a trip in 1672. Friends had been in Maryland before this, however; Elizabeth Harris, a very early Quaker missionary, had arrived in Anne Arundel County in 1656 to preach.
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Reference Pitard, D. "Philip Thomas, Sr.". Genealogy at Pitard.net. https://ancestors.pitard.net/getperson.php?personID=I4572&tree=1sttree (accessed April 29, 2025).
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